high school I went to
does not exist any more …
but it is still there
Came across this old photo and as I remember it, Grand Rapids Creston High School was built in 1927 as the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, spread north and started to wrap around the far away from downtown, Kent Country Club.
Enough families now lived north of Leonard Street a new high school was needed.
A community effort was made to choose a suitable mascot for the new high school and as it was on the North End of the city, the community picked out Polar Bears and the Creston Polar Bears joined the Grand Rapids City League Athletic Conference.
When opened, there were classes from 7th to 12th grade in the new high school.
My Dad grew up on the North End and graduated from Creston in 1936.
He had been bumped up two grades along the way at Plainfield Elementary and was only 16 years old and had been moved up into the same class has his sister, Marion.
For the rest of his life, my Dad was against any kid being bumped up a grade or two.
For sure, it guaranteed he was the smallest kid in class, which was something most of us Hoffmans did not need any help understanding.
But it also meant that he graduated from Dental School in Ann Arbor in the Spring of 1942 (he was on a fast track of two years at Grand Rapids Junior College and then three years in Dental School without needing an undergraduate degree).
Which made him available for service in the Army of the United States.
He always thought that had he not been bumped ahead in elementary school, he might have been allowed a deferent to finish Dental school and entered the army later or maybe have missed all of WW2 which would have suited him just fine.
My Dad had a pretty good WW2, being the Dental Officer in a headquarters unit in Europe for 3 years but for the rest of his life, camping or spending time in a tent held no attraction for him.
After the war, my Dad returned to the North End, moved his practice from Leonard Street, to Plainfield Ave. and set up housekeeping with my Mom just east of Riverside Park.
They had 11 kids and all of us went to Creston.
By the time I started at Creston, it was a HIGH school of 10th to 12th grade and there were four city high schools, Central, Creston, Ottawa and Union, in Grand Rapids.
My Dad’s office was just down the street so we had a ride to school but a long walk home.
I remember once being in the car with my sister, Lisa, with my Dad driving and he says all of sudden to my sister, “Is it your birthday?”
Lisa said yes it was.
Dad then said, “The sun was in my eyes just like this that day when I drove Mom to the hospital when you were born.“
As little kids we would go to events at Creston starring our big brothers and sisters in plays and choir concerts, so we were familiar with the building.
Most of my brothers and sisters where in the Creston Choir or Madrigals and back then, the thing to do was make a record that they could sell to raise money for who knows what.
I remember this as we at least two of each album in our stacks of records because we usually had at least two kids in the choir at any time so my Mom had to buy two albums.
Every Christmas, a forest appeared in front of the high school for the Athletic Club Christmas Tree Sale fund raiser.
We got our Christmas trees there for years and as a little kid, I thought they grew there.
Creston was a building built like they built buildings in 1927.
Designed to be bright inside, there were lots of windows in the classrooms and hallways.
Tall, tall ceilings in the hall ways.
Tall, tall wood framed windows that magically slid in and up and over so that the top and bottom of the windows were open for air flow.
The floors were hardwood and each room had a built in closet for the teacher.
Some rooms had little platforms for the teachers desks.
By the time I got there I knew my way around pretty good but I learned more.
In my junior year I was on the school paper but due to scheduling conflict, Mr. Eikenhout, the teacher in charge, let me work by myself during 1st hour, in the newspaper office while the rest of the class met during 4th hour.
I would often have to seek him out before class and find him in the teachers lounge and he would throw me his keys and I would let myself in.
So there I was with keys and all by myself.
I took it upon myself to really search out Creston High School.
I found my way into the 4th floor attic.
I found my way into the storage rooms behind the auditorium stage that could only be reached by a ladder bolted to the wall that went past interior windows on the air shaft so I could look down in the metal shop.
I found my way into the old coal bins under the gym and back parking lot from the days when Creston had a coal fired furnace.
I ran around so much that a security guard grabbed me one day and asked, “Just who are you anyway?”
I even got an A in Newspaper.
I was smart enough to not do anything stupid.
Well, too stupid anyway.
I admit dumping the bucket of water out the third floor window when the band was marching up the driveway was stupid.
Especially 5 minutes later when the Band teacher kicked the door of the Newspaper room open and demanded to know who did that … and I was the only one in there.
The gym was small and cramped and had to be shared between boys and girls.
The gym was so small that league basketball games were played at North East Jr. High.
The locker rooms were small and cramped (about 7 feet of brick vaulted clearance as I remember.
And there was no swimming pool for athletics.
Back then, the folks of the North End had some clout and the decision was to modernize and enlarge Creston.
A new gym and pool complex was planned and the old neighborhood next door was bought out and demolished.
One of my odder assignments came when I was called into the Principals office along with Mr. Eikenhout and I was told to go through the old neighbor and take photographs to show what it looked like.
With the Principals assignment in my pocket, I walked through the now abandoned neighborhood and went in and out of all those homes and took several rolls of film of streets and rooms and views out windows.
I gave the film to the Principal and never saw them again.
Years later, married with children, I moved back to the North End.
My oldest two boys went to Creston.
There were a little bit surprised how well I knew my way around.
But it wasn’t the same.
Sure there was the huge gym and pool but there were other changes.
Due to risk of fire, the big stairwells were all enclosed with fire doors.
The ceilings in the hallways had been lowered and most of the light from the interior air shafts was cut off making the hallways gloomy.
The floors were all carpeted and you couldn’t run and slide in your socks any more.
Instead of smelling of floor wax, the rooms and halls smelled of carpet disinfectant.
The rooms had modern tables and teachers had been supplied with new cabinets that, sadly, were made of particle board and most were chipped with doors hanging at odd angles.
The windows were sealed as a modern HVAC system had been installed.
They had modernized all the charm, for what it was, out of the place.
Just a few years later, as online education came into play and more and more people moved out the North End and the City overall, Grand Rapids no longer needed 4 high schools and the decision was made to close Creston High School.
The building and grounds had somewhat of a re-birth as Grand Rapids City High and Middle School but Polar Bears no longer.
But the name lives on.
A few years ago I was locked out of my online banking and I called customer service to restore access.
“No problem”, she said, “just let me ask you a few security questions.”
“What was your high school mascot?”
“POLAR BEARS,” I answered proudly.
There was a long pause.
“I don’t think I ever heard that one before,” she said.
And most likely, never will again.
