Did you know?
“Ferry School opened in 1954 with approximately 500 pupils of whom 350 were in grade 6. Unusual? Yes indeed! At that particular time the whole north end of Grosse Pointe was in the throes of growing pains causing the school population to exceed its bounds. All of the then-existing K-6 buildings in the north end of the district (Mason, Monteith and Poupard) were bulging at the seams so, with Ferry building scheduled for completion in September of 1954, and the Ferry district not yet fully built up, the solution approved by the Board of Education was to have Mason, Montieth and Poupard send all of their 6th graders to Ferry, complete with busses, hot lunches, etc. We opened Ferry School in September of 1954 with one section of each kindergarten through grade 5 and 10 rooms of grade 6, each of the latter with 35 pupils. Barnes School was under construction and when it was ready to open in 1956, district boundaries were re-drawn and Ferry became a ‘normal’ elementary school, K-6.
The vast open prairie-land (imagine that, here?) to the north of Ferry School was opened for development and the ensuing years saw Ferry add first one addition to the building, then another, and finally a group of four portables (since removed). Enrollment soared from 500 to 600, to 700, to 800, to 900, and finally reached a peak of somewhere in the 940 range. Needless to say, such rapid and continued growth made things a bit hectic at times, but with the winning combination of a dedicated staff and a most supportive parent group, we did survive and I think the kids got a good education, too!”
-Written by Edwin Wendt, Ferry School Principal from 1954 through 1968 for our 40th anniversary in 1994.
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