E.E. Smith High School is proving to be an important part of an effort by residents in Broadell to achieve historic status for their neighborhood off Murchison Road.
On Thursday, a state advisory committee for the National Register of Historic Places unanimously approved moving the effort forward, after hearing from an architectural historian who said Smith was among historically significant buildings in Broadell because of its community ties.
Lillian Candela, of the Detroit-based Kraemer Design Group, told the committee that her interviews of residents last year established the historically Black high school’s important role.
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“Many people in the oral histories considered it the centerpiece of the neighborhood, both literally due to its location, and figuratively,” she said.
During segregation, Smith served Black students and continues to retain a large Black majority student body. Candela said many of the teachers and administrators lived in Broadell, where the first homes date to the early 1950s.