Photostory: Aquinas High School

Designer: Diehl & Diehl Architects (Detroit)
Builder: A.J. Etkin Construction Company
Oversight: Archdiocese of Detroit
Construction: 1964-1966
Location: 15601 Northline Road, Southgate (48195)
Years Active: 1967-2000
Current Status: Awaiting abatement & demolition starting Spring, 2027

Story credits

Written by Kevin Harrison

Revisiting a house of religious education

On May 14, 2016, former Aquinas High School students – many from the initial graduation years from 1970-1975 – gathered one more time at their old alma mater to commemorate the facility’s 50th anniversary of its opening.

Of interest to the group was the hopeful discovery of a time capsule, which had supposedly been encased inside the cornerstone of the building.

The initial search would turn up without luck in spite of the best efforts. It was later guessed that the capsule could be buried in two different areas, but no records were found.

History of Aquinas High School

Aquinas High School was a joint venture between two primary area churches: Christ the Good Shepherd Parish in Lincoln Park, and St. Pius X Church in Southgate.

The idea had been discussed as early as 1962, and the Northline Road frontage was purchased by 1964 at an estimated cost of $120,000. The initial construction dates were delayed and, by the time the first freshman class began their studies in 1966, the building was not ready for occupancy. These first classes were held in St. Pius’ Social Hall. By midterm of that school year, these students were able to utilize at least part of the building. The first full-fledged graduating class received their diplomas in June, 1970.

Aquinas would be the fourth parochial high school in the area, joining St. Frances Cabrini (Allen Park), Gabriel Richard (Riverview, built a year earlier in 1965) and Mt. Carmel (Wyandotte).

In March 2006, Hank Minckiewicz – then the sports editor for the News-Herald – reflected on his earliest recollections of the Aquinas campus, while it was still in its forming stages in the 1960s:

“At church, nearly every Sunday it seemed, our pastor at Christ the Good Shepherd (Fr. Joseph Torzewski) would rail about parishioners needing to pony up more money to help build Aquinas. The priest’s line was always that the parishioners at St. Pius X (the other feeder grade school for Aquinas) were not holding up their end of the financial bargain. The funny thing is, years later I would learn from my St. Pius friends that their priests (with pastor Fr. William Swift) were saying the same things about Christ the Good Shepherd parishioners.”

During its early days, Aquinas was probably just as well known for their extra-curricular activities involving area concerts. Many events in the early 1970s featured a young Bob Seger, plus Frijid Pink, Amboy Dukes, and the MC5 routinely highlighting entertainment.

Many of these bands were likely provided to Aquinas via agent Jerry Patlow, who also had key connections with WKNR radio, a.k.a. “Keener 13.” The concerts would fade from active rotation by 1980, but the memories alumni have of them are numerous.

Aquinas students also made great strides in their sports programs. They were three-time winners of state baseball championships. From the early 1980s to early 1990s, their wrestling program was state-of-the-art, producing stars such as the Garcia brothers and Dohanyos brothers, among others.

Most well-known, however, was their powerhouse boys varsity basketball team, perennial contenders for well over two decades in their divisions, led mostly by Coach Ernie Price. News-Herald Sports editor Minckiewicz also recalled in his 2006 column that Aquinas had a top ranked, respected hockey team. Their football team played their games at the old Schafer High School campus across Northline Road, and Minckiewicz claimed thousands of fans would attend Saturday night games, drawing opposing schools from as far as Ann Arbor & Warren in the 1970s.

When I attended Aquinas from 1985 to 1989, enrollment was holding at about 800 students. Tuition had begun to grow, however, and some programs (many of them in the music department) were phased out. My 1989 graduating class officially numbered 195 1/2 (yes, the half was for a January-June transfer student).

In the next few years, total student numbers began to take a free-fall as tuition rates soared, while more students were electing to attend the other three parochial schools: Cabrini, Gabriel Richard or Mt. Carmel.

As early as the early 1990s, there were rumors about Aquinas’ impending closure. At a mid-1990s Homecoming game at the former Schafer High School field (which I attended), the public address announcer effectively crushed those rumors, stating in part: “No matter what you hear, Aquinas High School is not closing.”

But by October of 1999, its immediate fate rested on a radical proposal offered by a group of local school principals, pastors and lay people known as the Catholic High Schools Planning Committee. Working alongside an unnamed Wisconsin-based consulting firm, the call was for Aquinas, Cabrini and Gabriel Richard high schools to merge into one entity: Cardinal Dearden Catholic High School (named after the former Detroit Archbishop who served 1958-1980). The actual Aquinas building would have been closed, although the campus itself would have lived on, split between the other two locations.

For background purposes, it is interesting to note this was not the first time the Downriver area’s Catholic institutions faced such a circumstance. The Archdiocese had previously been in financial peril in 1963 and had then recommended mergers of various schools in Wyandotte into one umbrella campus (to be named – ironically – Gabriel Richard). Mt. Carmel High School would stay independent throughout that particular ordeal. Also, please note Mt. Carmel was not in talks at any time regarding the Aquinas proposal.

The idea of consolidation did not resonate with Aquinas students and parents. They would question the logic of shutting down what was the newest-built Catholic campus Downriver, well-known for being close-knit. The Archdiocese would attempt to address the matter from a geographical sense: Aquinas was located within four miles of Gabriel Richard and deemed “too close,” which stood to reason the same base of future students would be tapped into; whereas the other schools – located further out – could tap into a more diverse base of students on the merit of location alone.

The lingering question of tuition costs, perhaps the main factor in Aquinas’ struggles, would not be addressed favorably under the proposal; tuition estimates under the Dearden name would have risen from the $3,700 Aquinas families were paying per student, up to over $4,400 annually. School boards for both Cabrini & Gabriel Richard would end up unanimously killing the proposal. Furthermore, feedback from the other communities were not positive toward Aquinas as a whole, stating their schools were functioning well enough and did not need the weight of Aquinas’ problems to potentially jeopardize their standings.

Despite further parental accusations of the Catholic High Schools Planning Committee meeting mostly in secret while devising the plan, the committee responded by trying to accentuate more specific merging possibilities, including combining school bands as well as athletic teams (although Aquinas had not had a marching band in place since the 1985-86 school year). Nothing proposed would sway the opinions of any party; therefore, the question of Aquinas’ future fell back to their own school board. Representative Fr. David Buersmeyer indicated the final decision belonged to then-Archbishop Cardinal Adam Maida, but their board now bore the responsibility of looking at tuition, enrollment and the overall cost structure once again before bringing feedback to the Cardinal’s office. Parents of many students would bind together to offer a proposal of open houses and fundraisers to help promote the school, which enrolled just 82 students in the 1999-2000 school year.

Inevitably (and most likely decided on at a January 2000 board meeting), the 2000 graduating class would be the last to see an Aquinas diploma while attending the Southgate institution on graduation night. The Junior class in particular was very emotional and downright angry that their class would need to be split up among the other schools, with no identity of their own.

St. Frances Cabrini would end up inheriting most of the remaining students and staff. To Cabrini’s enormous credit, they allowed this class to receive Aquinas diplomas while the other students received Cabrini diplomas. They also allowed an Aquinas tradition – the Academic Olympics (began in the late 1980s) – to continue for many years afterward.

The Aquinas facility would initially not stay vacant for long. By the mid-2000s, it was active as a Downriver satellite campus of Livonia-based Madonna University, new offices for The Guidance Center (which promoted mental health services for adults & children) and a daycare similar to Montessori schools. By 2013 however, all three institutions would move on, leaving it vacant.

The idea of repurposing the building without structural modifications seemed daunting, but was nonetheless placed on the market by the Archdiocese of Detroit by 2015. The initial asking price is not known, but the price would be reduced at least once. In 2015, demolition began on a separate building on-site (the Oblate House) which exhibited much damage, unlike the main school building. At the time of the 2016 visit – as can be seen below – areas such as the chapel & gymnasium were still in excellent shape.

The Archdiocese was finally able to sell the Aquinas land in August, 2024 to Shimsha LLC, in a deal brokered by Friedman’s Real Estate, but future plans were “tight lipped.” For the next twenty months, no activity would take place on the campus beyond maintaining the grass in front (save for emergency repairs to the interior and roof late in 2024 to address leakage).

Plans would finally be announced through a City of Southgate agenda packet on July 1, 2026. Announced as a Brownfield property for the first time, the school building was also officially declared functionally obsolete, pointing to out-of-date windows, doors, electrical, plumbing as well as poor mechanical systems.

The photos below are taken from the official City of Southgate agenda packet provided by Northline Property Group LLC (NPG), redevelopers of the property. Shown from left are the library, upper classroom area and auditorium in their current (2026) states. There would end up being no question that renovation of the building would not be an option, given the increased damage since the 2016 visit.

UPDATED INFORMATION: Under the direction of NPG, activity will begin in the spring of 2027 with asbestos remediation. The main building will be leveled afterward. Long-range plans call for five residential condominium buildings totaling 148 family units to be constructed in the area of the former baseball fields. The Northline Road frontage will be home to a self-storage facility; encompassing eleven structures with 81,921 square feet of space. All wetlands as well as the forested area leading beyond toward Lions Park and Southwinds (Municipal) Golf Course will remain in their current state.