National Register of Historic Places
McKinley Elementary School
Wyandotte, Wayne County, Michigan
The record
- Listed
- November 30, 2017
- Type
- Building
- Address
- 640 Plum St., Wyandotte
- County
- Wayne
- State
- Michigan
- Contributing resources
- 1 building
- Coordinates
- 42.19599, -83.15841
- Reference number
- 100001840
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUSGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionUSGS Historical Topographic Map Collection
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
McKinley Elementary School is an Art Deco school building at 640 Plum St. in Wyandotte, Wayne County, built from 1938 to 1940 by the O.W. Burke Company to replace an earlier McKinley School of 1901. It was dedicated in 1940.
Why it's listed
It was listed in the National Register in 2017 under criteria A and C, with local-level significance in architecture, art and education. Its period of significance runs from 1939 to 1949, reflecting construction in 1939 and 1940.
Physical character
The building has brick and limestone walls on a limestone foundation, with terrazzo floors and glazed tile wainscoting inside. Terrazzo floor medallions depict the Great Lakes, the north star Polaris, and the sun and planets, while allegorical figures include a woman embracing a factory and a sailor at a ship's wheel. It also had a greenhouse, a separate auditorium and gymnasium, and a kindergarten room with a decorative tile fireplace featuring nursery rhyme characters.
Historical context
Fred W. Frostic was superintendent of Wyandotte Public Schools from 1918 to 1950, and the school board began exploring a replacement for the McKinley building in 1937 before approving construction in 1938. It served as an elementary school from 1939 until it closed in 2009 due to declining population.