Famous people's places / Detroit – Southwest Detroit
Southwestern High School
Closed – archive entry · 2012
Southwest Detroit public high school open from 1916 to 2012, alma mater of congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, demolished in 2023 after a failed redevelopment.
01 / The story of this place
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Southwestern High School opened in September 1916, with the main building completed in 1921 at a cost of $640,000, serving the Boynton-Oakwood Heights, Delray and Springwells neighborhoods of Southwest Detroit. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to the U.S. House, attended Southwestern and graduated in the class of 1994. Enrollment losses forced Detroit Public Schools to close the school in June 2012, and vandals and metal thieves gutted the building over the following years despite failed plans to convert it into a garment factory and then a training center for an Indian auto-parts supplier. The historic 1922 structure was finally demolished in 2023, leaving an empty field at Fort Street and Post Street in Southwest Detroit. No trace of the building remains today.
- Opened in 1916, main building completed in 1921
- Served Southwest Detroit's Boynton-Oakwood Heights, Delray and Springwells areas
- Rashida Tlaib graduated here in 1994
- Closed by Detroit Public Schools in 2012
- Demolished in 2023 after years of vandalism
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 5
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Ben Carson born 1951 · pediatric neurosurgeon, author, politician
Studied here
His high school, where he graduated third in his class. Detroit Public Schools closed it in June 2012, and the building was torn down around 2022–2023 after Bedrock bought the site.
- Rashida Tlaib born 1976 · politician, lawyer
Studied here
Her high school (class of 1994); it closed in 2012 and the 1922 building was demolished in 2022–2023.
- Jalen Rose born 1973 · basketball player, sports analyst, author
Studied here
The Detroit high school where he starred before Michigan; the school closed in 2012.
- Martha Glaser 1921–2014 · jazz manager, producer, civil rights activist
Studied here
Southwest Detroit high school serving Delray and Springwells, whose early students were largely Hungarian-American.
- John Nichols 1918–1998 · police commissioner, sheriff
Studied here
Southwest Detroit high school whose early student body was heavily Hungarian-American; Nichols graduated in 1935.
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
Events at this place
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Source and former website ↗