Lowell Junior High School served as both a junior high school and middle school in the city of Flint, Michigan. Lowell Junior High School had operated from 1929 to 2003. Lowell Junior High School went under the names Lowell Middle School and Lowell School during its time of operation.
Lowell Junior High School is where the former farmland owned by the Perry family was once formally. This land used to be farmland and also was a dairy farm owned by the Perry family. The Flint Community Schools had purchased the land where Lowell Junior High School is today from the Perry family back in 1900.
In 1927, Alice Moss Perry had a petition she had signed by local citizens of the community in order to have Lowell Junior High School built. Several local citizens were in favor of building a new junior high school in the Eastside Village.
1929 is the year Lowell Junior High School was built and opened less than 2 blocks from Lewis School with an enrollment of 200 students in 7th grade through 9th grade. In the 1929-1930 school year, the student population soared to 300 students.
In 1930, enrollment was 300 students in 7th grade through 9th grade. A new shop class building with a 40 foot long chimney was built. The shop class building had an underground tunnel that connected to Lewis School which served as a maintenance tunnel and as a fallout shelter during wartime. Both Lewis School and Lowell Junior High School shared this building with each other.
Prior to 1950, Lowell Junior High School was an all-white school even though black students lived just blocks away. Lowell Junior High School was originally intended for whites only as Eastside Flint was historically planned out to be by city planners and urban development. The year of 1950 is when Lowell Junior High School integrated allowing black students to attend. By then Lowell Junior High School had became an integrated school.
Lowell Junior High School was a feeder school for many elementary schools on the Eastside Village and also the Rollingwood area. Williams Elementary would later on feed into Lowell Junior High School as many elementary schools in the Eastside community would. That's how the Flint Community Schools had designed Lowell Junior High School.
In 1978 is when Flint Community Schools closed down Lewis School due to statewide budget cuts and lack of enrollment which led the remaining students to attend Williams Elementary School and the surrounding elementary schools. Lewis School was closed for good.
During that same year, Flint Community Schools later repurposed and renamed Lewis School to Lowell Junior High School Annex. Lewis School severed as an annex building for Lowell Junior High School. This lasted from 1978 to 1991.
In 1988, Lowell Junior High School closed down due to budget cuts by the Michigan Board of Education. Lowell Junior High School closed down as part of the largest school closing plan in Flint Community Schools district history at the time along with Northern High School.
In 1991, Lowell Junior High School would later be rezoned to be an alternative middle school for troubled students. Fights were common. Metal detectors were later on put in Lowell Junior High School. From 1991 to 2003, Lowell Junior High School served as an alternative middle school/junior high school for the Flint Community Schools district during that time. Lowell served as a high school for a shortened brief amount of time as well.
Due to the declining enrollment of students in the Flint Community Schools and financial budget cuts, the administration decided to close Lowell Junior High School in 2003. These actions made were also due to administrative decisions and budget cuts.
The school went through many land owners. First as a community center, alternative school, church, and a non-profit organization.
In 2005, Church of ROC - Flint rented Lowell Junior High School from Flint Community Schools on their lease. In 2008, Flint Community Schools found out that Church of ROC - Flint had failed to provide documentation on whether or not they were paying their rent lease.
In 2009, Lowell Junior High School was set on fire by a home barbeque pit that had spread from someones home from the area to the school. 2009 was also when an arsonist set fire to Lowell Junior High School. These drastic events alone made Flint Community School board up Lowell Junior High School all together thus leaving it abandoned for criminal activity to occur. By 2010, all of Lowell Junior High School was boarded up and still is.
As of right now currently, the entire property of the Lowell Junior High School building is boarded up by plywood to prevent theft and trespassing. The former educational institution known as Lowell Junior High School is constantly being vandalized and tagged with graffiti all over the property. Windows are missing. Doors inside are missing too.
The building now sits vacant as a former shill of itself with broken wood panels that line directly within the windows. The outside building structure is still intact. This building is a case of urban decay where the outside looks fine but the inside is deplorable.
Lowell Junior High School is located at 3301 North Vernon Avenue, Flint, Michigan, US 48506.
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