Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Flint Photos: 1972 Civic Park School Fire



12 comments:

  1. Great shot. Who took it? What's the story of the fire?

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  2. My 5th Birthday 1972, started kindergarten that fall in the basement of Trinity Methodist.

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    1. I was in 1st grade at Trinity, we were in the same place at the same time!

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  3. A very sad day for many people. They thought it started in the boiler room in the Basement. They then gutted the interior and did a so called modernization. It was never the same after that. The ouside still looks the same.

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    1. There was a huge debate over tearing it down vs. rebuilding her. She was so beloved by the Community that she was rebuilt!!

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  4. I was in the crowd watching her burn.

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  5. My dad took some and I took some. There are 12 in all, starting from when we first saw the smoke 'til after the fire was out. Here is a link to Classmates, where the others are posted: http://www.classmates.com/places/school/Civic-Park-Elementary-School/17329041?startYear=1967&endYear=1969#nav-c2p2-0. If this link doesn't work -- I will post the others in a more accessible location.

    Yes, it was a very sad day. I was going to Emerson by this time, but our neighbor's young son was planning to start at CP the next year. He stood in their front yard crying. Very sad. For me the weird part was looking up and seeing Mr. Major's room (upper left corner in the one side shot) all burned out. That was bizarre.

    KenR

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    1. Hi Ken, I am finishing up work on my fourth book, the follow-up to "The Great, Great Lakes Trivia Test." It will be called, 'The Even Greater Great Lakes Trivia TestII." I would like to use this photo in the book, with attribution to you; with your permission. Would that be ok with you?

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  6. Wow! I'll always remember that day. I was 7 and out playing with friends merely a block away. A pretty Saturday afternoon a kid came peddling on his banana seat bicycle announcing 'the school's on fire!' -of course we all had to run to that powerful scene to watch.

    I, too, remember being transferred to a church for 1st & 2nd grade. Mrs Barton (?) was my 1st grade teacher and Mrs. View was my 2nd grade teacher before moving away in the Fall.

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    1. I wonder if we were in the same class, I was in 1st grade, also

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  7. I was in 2nd grade at Civic Park. I finished the year at St. Lukes. My older brothers knew some of the kids responsible. Sadly my mother died that summer and I moved in with my sister and attended 3rd grade at Cody

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  8. Kids responsible for what? This wasn't arson. It was a boiler issue.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.