Cranbrook Schools

File:Cranbrook11.jpeg

In 1915, George and Ellen Booth opened a portion of their property to the general public with the construction of a small Greek Theatre. In 1918, the Booths built the Meeting House, which became the Bloomfield Hills School, opening for local children in 1922 (grades 1–12).

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Subsequently, the Booths decided to build a middle school and a college preparatory school. Cranbrook School for Boys, which began operations in 1927, was designed by world-renowned Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen. Completed in 1928, it was Saarinen's first executed architectural work in the United States.[http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=1 "How one man's bad luck paved way for creation of Cranbrook"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130121150330/http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=1 |date=2013-01-21 }}, Detroit News, January 14, 2002. The name "Cranbrook" was chosen since Cranbrook, England was the birthplace of George Booth's father. Kingswood School Cranbrook (for girls), also designed by Saarinen, opened in 1931. Cranbrook and Kingswood enrolled students from grades 7–12. The Bloomfield Hills School became an elementary school and was renamed Brookside School Cranbrook in 1930.

Unlike the Cranbrook School for Boys, which has several buildings, the Kingswood School has only one building, which includes supporting facilities. It houses dormitories, a dining hall, an auditorium, classrooms, lounge/common areas, a bowling alley, and a ballroom. The education at Kingswood School Cranbrook was initially primarily viewed as a "finishing school". Today, Students take classes in English, History, Religion, and Art at Kingswood. The art classes available are Foundations in Design, Sculpture, Drawing, Weaving, Ceramics, Fashion Design, Painting, and Photography.

For the Booths and Saarinen, the conception and design of the Cranbrook and Kingswood schools were greatly influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement, which began in 19th-century England.{{cite web|url= http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/travel/detroit/d1.htm|title= National Park Service, Itinerary, Register of Historical Places}}

In 1923, Booth founded an Episcopal church to serve the nascent Cranbrook community, as well as surrounding communities. He chose the firm of Goodhue Associates to design the church. Groundbreaking took place in 1925, and Christ Church Cranbrook was consecrated on September 29, 1928.{{cite web|url=http://www.christchurchcranbrook.org/history.html |title=History of Christ Church Cranbrook |publisher=Christ Church Cranbrook |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012090133/http://www.christchurchcranbrook.org/history.html |archive-date=October 12, 2007 }} Originally Cranbrook and Kingswood schools were affiliated with the Episcopal Church, but they have since secularized. However, special occasions are still celebrated at Christ Church Cranbrook.

Cranbrook School, Kingswood School, and Brookside School operated separately until 1970, when it was decided to govern them together. This was followed by the creation of the Cranbrook Educational Community. In 1985, Cranbrook and Kingswood schools were merged to create a co-educational upper school institution.

The middle school did not become co-educational; it was divided into gender-specific campuses in 1984. The Community acquired Vaughan School to house the boys' middle school. The basement of Kingswood was at one point the girls' middle school. A new Middle School building opened in 2010. For boys and girls of grades 6–8, all classes are separate. The exceptions are those for the performing arts (Symphonic Band, Orchestra).

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Architecture critic Paul Goldberger of The New York Times called the Cranbrook campus "one of the greatest campuses ever created anywhere".{{cite web |url = http://schools.cranbrook.edu/flash/cranbrook_place.pdf |title = Cranbrook |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100531121527/http://schools.cranbrook.edu/flash/cranbrook_place.pdf |archive-date = 2010-05-31 }}; Includes comments about the Cranbrook campus by architecture critic Paul Goldberger and Florence Knoll (class of 1934){{cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/08/magazine/the-cranbrook-vision.html|author = Paul Goldberger|title = The Cranbrook Vision |work=The New York Times|date= 8 April 1984}}

In 1985, Cranbrook School and Kingswood School were merged to create a coeducational upper school, the Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School. Classes are taught on both the original Cranbrook and Kingswood campuses.

Frequently, the school is referred to as "CK" by its students, faculty, and alumni. Cranbrook Kingswood now lays claim to 70 athletic teams; both men and women's teams earned state championship titles in hockey, tennis, lacrosse, golf and swimming. As of 2011, there were 795 students, approximately one-third of which were boarding students who live in single-sex residence halls. Cranbrook Kingswood accepts slightly fewer than half of all applicants, placing it in the most selective 25% of preparatory schools in the United States.{{cite web|url = http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/lowest_acceptance_rates/sort/1|title = Boarding Schools ranked by their acceptance rates}}

Several programs offered at Cranbrook have won awards and recognition. The student newspaper The Crane-Clarion has been recognized by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the National Scholastic Press Association.{{cite web |url=http://schools.cranbrook.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=204&id=476184 |title=Cranbrook web site|date=15 April 2009}} In 2009, the Upper School's student literary arts magazine, Gallimaufry, received a Gold Crown award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.{{cite web |url=http://cspa.columbia.edu/docs/contests-and-critiques/crown-awards/recipients/2009-scholastic-crown.html |title=Columbia Scholastic Press Association 2009 award recipients |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609185041/http://cspa.columbia.edu/docs/contests-and-critiques/crown-awards/recipients/2009-scholastic-crown.html |archive-date=2010-06-09 |url-status=dead }} The robotics and forensics team have also won several state and national awards. Their Model United Nations team has also been placed in the top 75 in North America as of Spring 2012.{{cite web |url=http://bestdelegate.com/north-americas-best-high-school-model-un-teams-2011-2012-spring-rankings-top-100/ |title=North America's Best High School Model UN teams: 2011-2012 Spring Rankings Top 100 |date=11 April 2012 |access-date=January 15, 2013}}

Total enrollment at Cranbrook during 2007–08 was 1626, with 780 enrolled in the upper school, 333 in the middle schools, and 513 at the lower school Brookside. (Brookside's numbers include children enrolled in pre-kindergarten, junior kindergarten, and kindergarten at the Vlasic Early Childhood Center, which opened in 1996.){{cite web |url=http://schools.cranbrook.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=108124&rc=0 |publisher=Cranbrook Schools |title=About Cranbrook}} Approximately 11% of Cranbrook Kingswood's students are international students. Traditionally, Cranbrook School also has an exchange program with Cranbrook School, Kent, a boarding school in Cranbrook, Kent, England in honor of George Booth's heritage.

During the summer months Cranbrook Schools conducts a variety of day and boarding programs on their campus. These include day camps, a soccer clinic, a filmmaking seminar, a compensatory educational program for students from low-income families, a jazz ensemble, ice hockey, lacrosse, and tennis camps as well as the Cranbrook Theater School. The actor Robert Englund taught one summer at the theater school.{{Cite web|title=Robert Englund|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000387/bio|access-date=2023-02-06|website=IMDb}}

The Archer, the symbol of Cranbrook school, is based on an episode in Book V (Latin) of the Aeneid, by Virgil, line 519:

:...tamen aerias telum contendit in auras...

:...he aimed an arrow high into the breezes of the air...

In an archery contest, a bird is tethered to a cord, and there are four archers. The first three in turn miss, then hit the bird, while the fourth, Acestes, instead shoots his arrow into the air, where it bursts into flames. For this miracle, Acestes is declared the victor.

The design was chosen by William Oliver Stevens, the first headmaster of Cranbrook School, who sketched it. The actual logo was designed by Eero Saarinen.{{cite web |url=http://schools.cranbrook.edu/ftpimages/209/misc/misc_21139.pdf |author=W. Boyce Ricketts |title=History of Cranbrook School |format=typewritten manuscript |pages=7–8}}

• Although Cranbrook School for Boys and Kingswood School Cranbrook merged in 1985 to become a single co-ed institution, the school reflects in many ways its history as separate, single-sex entities. (Alumni and alumnae who were enrolled prior to the merger consider themselves graduates of either Cranbrook or Kingswood.) Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School has two different hymns: The Cranbrook Song and the Kingswood Song, which are sung at many school events. Only the boys are invited to attend the Cranbrook Senior Pageant. Boys and girls have separate graduation ceremonies (although they do share in the same Baccalaureate service).
• Since 1971 sophomores have taken part in the Wilderness Expedition, a 10-day backpacking and wilderness camping trip in March that takes place in the Smoky Mountains along the North Carolina-Tennessee border
• Junior leadership ceremonies to celebrate the transition of the juniors to the senior class: A Junior Ring ceremony for girls and the Passage of Leadership ceremony for boys is held at Christ Church Cranbrook
• Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School maintains a dress code: Sweatpants are not allowed on any day except Friday, and on every Wednesday (the so-called Dress Day) boys have to wear a dress shirt with a tie and girls have to wear dresses or dressy tops with skirts or slacks.
• A convocation ceremony is held at the opening of the school year.

• Paper Lion, George Plimpton's non-fiction account of his faux tryout as quarterback for the Detroit Lions in 1963 was set in large measure at Cranbrook (where the Lions trained from 1957 through 1974).{{cite news|url= http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1076329/index.htm|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090908124322/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1076329/index.htm|url-status= dead|archive-date= September 8, 2009|title= Zero of the Lions|publisher= Sports Illustrated|date= September 7, 1964}}
• Eminem's character, Rabbit, in the 2002 film 8 Mile mentions Cranbrook in a rap battle with Papa Doc (portrayed by Anthony Mackie) when he questions Papa Doc's "gangsta" act because he attended Cranbrook, which is a private school.{{cite news|url= https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9505EEDE1631F93BA35752C1A9649C8B63|title= NYT Movie Review, 8 Mile|work = The New York Times | first=Elvis|last=Mitchell|date=8 November 2002}}
• The Cranbrook School is also the model for the preparatory school portrayed in Edmund White´s autobiographical novel A Boy's Own Story.{{Cite web|title="Edmund White's Own Story," by Don Shewey|url=https://www.donshewey.com/arts_articles/edmund_white.html|access-date=2023-02-06|website=www.donshewey.com}}
• Lisa Birnbach makes note of Cranbrook in The Official Preppy Handbook and True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World.

• Dave Barney (1960s), English teacher, head coach for ice hockey and baseball, assistant coach for football{{cite news|title=Dave Barney: A New Mexico high school swimming legend|last=Krider|first=Dave|date=December 28, 2014|work=MaxPreps|location=El Dorado Hills, California|url=https://www.maxpreps.com/news/_5kqgWc1w0Ov6mrm048tzA/dave-barney-a-new-mexico-high-school-swimming-legend.htm|access-date=September 17, 2023}}
• George Laskowski (1970s-1990s), whose science fiction fanzine Lan's Lantern won a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine.{{Cite web |date=2004-09-26 |title=George Laskowski |url=https://schools.cranbrook.edu/news-detail?pk=181211 |access-date=2023-11-07 |website=Cranbrook Schools |language=en}}
• Amanda Moore (2000s), English teacher{{Cite web |last=Spencer |first=Molly |date=2021-09-29 |title=A Small Universe Set in Motion: Talking with Amanda Moore |url=https://therumpus.net/2021/09/29/the-rumpus-interview-with-amanda-moore/ |access-date=2023-11-07 |website=The Rumpus |language=en-US}}

{{Main|List of Cranbrook Kingswood School alumni}}

Cranbrook has many notable alumni, including designer Florence Knoll, former U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson, Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Utah Senator and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney (née Davies), Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, columnist Michael Kinsley, Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy, co-founder of Pandora Radio Tim Westergren, former professional soccer player Alexi Lalas, Lisa Frank, actress and Tony award winner Renée Elise Goldsberry and actress Selma Blair.

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Cranbrook Kingswood participates in MHSAA Division 3

{{Cite web|url=https://www.mhsaa.com}}

File:Cranbrook0064.JPG|Covered walkway

File:Cranbrook Educational Community.jpg|Natatorium

File:Kingswood.JPG|Kingswood School Building

File:S7300157.JPG|The school seen from a football field in winter

File:S7300105.JPG|Dining Hall

File:Cranbrook School Dining Hall.jpg|Dining Hall

File:Cranbrook983.JPG|Hallway to Keppel Gymnasium

{{Portal|Michigan|Schools}}

• Cranbrook Educational Community
• Architecture of metropolitan Detroit

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{{Reflist|30em}}

• Elizabeth C. Clark, Beside a Lake
• Bruce N. Coulter, Forty Years On
• Kathryn Bishop Eckert, The Campus Guide: Cranbrook
• Ben M. Snyder III, Once More With Joy

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.Education

Category:Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Category:Schools in Oakland County, Michigan

Category:Private K–12 schools in Michigan

Category:Boarding schools in Michigan

Category:Preparatory schools in Michigan

Category:Educational institutions established in 1922

Category:1922 establishments in Michigan