Famous people's places / Detroit – East Village
Foch Intermediate School
Closed – archive entry · 2004
A 1924 East Village school building where actress and singer Betty Hutton once studied before dropping out; closed in 2004 and demolished in 2024.
01 / The story of this place
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Architects Verner, Wilhelm and Molby designed this three-story school for the Detroit school district, and it opened in 1924 in the East Village neighborhood, named for World War I Allied commander Ferdinand Foch. With an auditorium, two gyms and a four-lane swimming pool, it served generations of Detroit kids, among them future Hollywood star Betty Hutton, who attended in the early 1930s before dropping out in ninth grade to help support her family by singing in speakeasies. Foch Intermediate closed in 2004 as Detroit Public Schools shrank along with the city's population, and the empty building sat and decayed for nearly twenty years. In 2023 the district approved tearing it down to make room for an expansion of nearby Southeastern High School, and workers finished the demolition by March 2024.
- Opened in 1924, named for French general Ferdinand Foch
- Had an auditorium, two gyms and a four-lane pool
- Betty Hutton studied here in the early 1930s
- Closed in 2004, demolished by March 2024
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 1
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Betty Hutton 1921–2007 · actress, singer, comedian, dancer
Studied here
Hutton's last school in Detroit; she dropped out in ninth grade.
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
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Source and former website ↗