University Liggett School history

Detroit University School, the second of Liggett’s predecessor schools, was founded in 1899 by Charles Bliss and Henry Gray Sherrard, who sought independence from public schools.

In 1914, the Albert Kahn-designed "Eastern Liggett" branch, on Burns Avenue at Charlevoix, was built and soon fully occupied.

Opened in 1915 in a white frame house (still standing at 301 Roosevelt Place in Grosse Pointe), Grosse Pointe Country Day School served boys and girls from kindergarten through ninth grade.

In 1916, after a fire destroyed Detroit University School's original building at Elmwood between Larned and Congress, it moved to what became known as the "Castle," a Gothic-style former residence on Parkview Drive midway between Jefferson Avenue and the Detroit River.

There it remained until 1928, when, with the help of Henry and Edsel Ford and many other Detroiters, the school relocated to Cook Road, then the eastern limits of Grosse Pointe.

In 1941, Detroit University School and Grosse Pointe Country Day School joined forces under one board.

The next year, Jacobson's, in The Village since 1943, expanded to cover an entire city block.

Obtaining full parish status in 1947, Christ Church, Grosse Pointe established its own mission, St Michael's, in Grosse Pointe Woods.

Anticipating the opening of Eastland Shopping Center, nearby Harper Woods incorporated in 1951.

In 1954, the Country Day building was sold to the Grosse Pointe public schools and the girls joined the boys on the Cook Road campus, merging the schools to make Grosse Pointe University School.

The 1955 opening of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe Woods obliged some members of St Paul's Catholic Church to transfer to the new parish.

Ending a five year construction moratorium in Grosse Pointe Woods, the huge Grosse-Gratiot Drain Project, approved by voters in 1958, provided the infrastructure required for previously planned residential developments.

In 1883, the school moved to a three-story brick building at the corner of Cass Avenue and Stimson Place. It would remain so until 1964, when classes would be held in a new building constructed on Briarcliff Drive in Grosse Pointe Woods.

In March 1968, three weeks before his assassination, the Human Rights Council sponsored a speech by Doctor Martin Luther King at Grosse Pointe High School.

In 1969, it merged with GPUS to form University Liggett School.

Two major spring storms in 1973 combined with the highest lake levels in over one hundred years to create extensive flooding.