Grosse Pointe High School

Grosse Pointe High School (known today as Grosse Pointe South High School) was among the most fully developed and highly finished Neo-Georgian 1920's public school buildings in Michigan. It immediately became a landmark in the growing community and still is today. It was the first building constructed as a public high school in the Grosse Pointes and stands as testimony to a commitment to public education by a community whose transition from a resort to a full-fledged suburban community was in full swing by the time it was planned. George Haas, the architect of the high school, was a local architect who designed other public buildings in the Grosse Pointes and surrounds that were known for their pleasing stylistic appearances. Murals in Cleminson Hall by Edgar Louis Yaeger, commissioned by the W.P.A. in 1938, bear significant artistic merit.

Grosse Pointe High School is a two and one-half story red brick Neo-Georgian building trimmed in Indiana limestone. The school has a main central mass, with side-gable roofs in front and a flat roof in the rear, and is somewhat I-shaped in plan, with the bottom flange of the I forming the main part of the facade. It is flanked on either side by a hip-roof wing attached at a forty-five degree angle. The main portion of the building is crowned by a central clock tower rising almost 134 feet in height and is fronted by a four-column portico of the Corinthian order surmounted by a triangular pediment. In plan, the original 1928 high school consisted of a central section containing the community oriented rooms, such as the library, auditorium and natatorium, and an east and west wing attached at forty-five degree angles that primarily contained classrooms.