Cranbrook Educational Community

{{Short description|Educational complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Cranbrook | nrhp_type = nhld | nocat = yes | image = Cranbrook_Art_Museum_-_Bloomfield_Hills_(51362574052).jpg | caption = Cranbrook Art Museum | location = 39221 Woodward Avenue<br />Bloomfield Hills, Michigan | coordinates = {{coord|42|34|3.4|N|83|14|36.9|W|display=inline,title}} | mapframe = yes | mapframe-marker = school | mapframe-zoom = 13 | mapframe-caption = Interactive map | area = | built = 1926–99 | architect = Eliel Saarinen | architecture = 20th Century American | designated_nrhp_type = June 29, 1989<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web| url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1340&ResourceType=District| title=Cranbrook| access-date=2008-06-27| website=National Historic Landmark summary listing| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726035734/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1340&ResourceType=District| archive-date=2014-07-26}}</ref> | added = March 7, 1973<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2008a}}</ref> | refnum = 73000954 | designated_other1 = Michigan State Historic Site }}

The '''Cranbrook Educational Community''' is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth with his wife, Ellen Scripps Booth. It consists of Cranbrook Schools, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook Institute of Science, Cranbrook House and Gardens, and the [https://center.cranbrook.edu/ Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research]. The founders also built Christ Church Cranbrook as a focal point for the educational complex, though it is a separate entity operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan.<ref name="history">{{cite web| title=Cranbrook: A brief history| first=Mark| last=Coir| year=2005| access-date=2019-03-22| url=http://www.cranbrook.edu/sites/default/files/ftpimages/120/misc/misc_47669.pdf| website=Cranbrook Community}}</ref> The sprawling {{Convert|319|acre|m2|abbr=|adj=on}} campus began as a {{Convert|174|acre|m2|abbr=|adj=on}} farm, purchased in 1904. The organization takes its name from Cranbrook, England, the birthplace of the founder's father.

Cranbrook is renowned for its architecture in the Arts and Crafts and Art Deco styles. The chief architect was Eliel Saarinen while Albert Kahn was responsible for the design of Cranbrook House. Sculptors Carl Milles and Marshall Fredericks also spent many years in residence at Cranbrook.

In 2024 Cranbrook Educational Community was awarded 3 Michelin Stars in the Michelin Green Guide, on par with institutions such as the Detroit Institute of Art and the Louvre.<ref>{{cite news| title=Detroit’s first-ever Michelin Green Guide highlights 5 attractions as ‘top picks’| url=https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2024/12/12/detroits-first-ever-michelin-green-guide-highlights-5-attractions-as-top-picks/| first=Samantha| last=Sayles| date=December 12, 2024| work=WDIV News| access-date=April 17, 2025}}</ref>

==Schools at Cranbrook== {{main|Cranbrook Schools}} {{more citations needed|date=May 2019}} Cranbrook Schools comprise a co-educational day and boarding college preparatory "upper" school, a middle school, and Brookside Lower School.<ref name="Newton-Matza2016">{{cite book| first=Mitchell| last=Newton-Matza| title=Historic Sites and Landmarks that Shaped America: From Acoma Pueblo to Ground Zero [2 volumes]: From Acoma Pueblo to Ground Zero| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nW_YDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA128| date=6 September 2016| publisher=ABC-CLIO| isbn=978-1-61069-750-7| page=128}}</ref>

In 1922, the Bloomfield Hills School was the first school to open on the Cranbrook grounds. Founded by George Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth, the Bloomfield Hills School was intended as the community school for local area children. The Bloomfield Hills School ultimately evolved into Brookside School. Following completion of the Bloomfield Hills School, The Booths looked forward to building Cranbrook School for Boys, an all-boys College-Preparatory school at which students from the Detroit area and abroad would come to reside. Booth wanted the Cranbrook School to possess an architecture reminiscent of the finest British boarding schools; he hired Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen to design the campus. Cranbrook's initial phase of building was completed in 1928. [[File:ChristChurchCranbrook1.jpg|250px|left|thumb|Christ Church Cranbrook (1925–1928), by architect Bertram Goodhue, with windows by Harry Wright Goodhue]]

Over the years, the Cranbrook School for Boys campus grew to include Stevens Hall, Page Hall, and Coulter Hall. While primarily functioning as only residential spaces, Page Hall featured a smoking lounge as well as a shooting range. Lerchen Gymnasium, Keppel Gymnasium, and Thompson Oval were also constructed on the campus. In the 1960s, Cranbrook School for Boys also constructed a state-of-the-art Science Building named the Gordon Science Center.

Realizing that young women would also need a place of their own to learn, Ellen Scripps Booth, Booth's wife, pressured Booth into building a school for girls. Scripps Booth supervised the project, which she named the Kingswood School Cranbrook. Unlike her husband, Scripps Booth encouraged Eliel Saarinen to come up with a unique interior design for the campus completely on his own. Instead of the several buildings that housed the Cranbrook School for Boys, the Kingswood School Cranbrook was contained within one building that included all necessary features, including dormitories, a dining hall, an auditorium, classrooms, a bowling alley, a ballroom, and lounges and common areas. The education at Kingswood School Cranbrook was initially viewed as a "finishing school", though that changed over time.

In 1986, the Cranbrook School for Boys and Kingswood School Cranbrook entered a joint agreement, renaming the new institution the Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School.

==Cranbrook Academy of Art== {{Main|Cranbrook Academy of Art}} thumb|The Cranbrook School Quadrangle

The Cranbrook Academy of Art, a graduate school for architecture, art, and design, was founded by George Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth in 1932. In 1984, ''The New York Times'' wrote that "the effect of Cranbrook and its graduates and faculty on the physical environment of this country has been profound ... Cranbrook, surely more than any other institution, has a right to think of itself as synonymous with contemporary American design."<ref name="CranbrookVision">{{cite news| first=Paul| last=Goldberger| title=The Cranbrook Vision| date=8 April 1984| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/08/magazine/the-cranbrook-vision.html| work=The New York Times Magazine| access-date=2009-10-10}}</ref>

The buildings were designed and the school first headed by Eliel Saarinen, who integrated design practices and theories from the Arts and Crafts movement through the international style. The school retains its apprenticeship method of teaching, in which a small group of students—usually only 10 to 16 per class, or 150 students in total for the ten departments—study under a single artist-in-residence for the duration of their curriculum. There are no traditional courses; all learning is self-directed under the guidance and supervision of the respective artist-in-residence.<ref name="PalacioVit2011">{{cite book| first1=Bryony Gomez| last1=Palacio| first2=Armin| last2=Vit| title=Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EwPu8I6D5y4C&pg=PA130| date=December 1, 2011| publisher=Rockport Publishers| isbn=978-1-59253-742-6| page=130}}</ref>

==Cranbrook Art Museum== thumb|Cranbrook gardens The Cranbrook Art Museum is a museum of contemporary art with a permanent collection, including works by Charles and Ray Eames, Harry Bertoia, Maija Grotell, Carl Milles, Robert Motherwell, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein.<ref name="art">{{cite web| url=http://www.cranbrookart.edu/Pages/AcademyResources.html| title=Cranbrook Art Museum| access-date=2011-04-07| website=Cranbrook Community| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224151311/http://www.cranbrookart.edu/Pages/AcademyResources.html| archive-date=2011-02-24| url-status=dead}}</ref> Completed in 1942 under the direction of architect Eliel Saarinen, the museum is housed in the same building as the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

The museum also offers tours of Saarinen House, which has undergone painstaking restoration beginning in 1977.<ref name="slade">{{cite book| title=Saarinen House and Garden: A Total Work of Art| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcxPAAAAMAAJ&q=restore| first1=Gregory| last1=Wittkopp| first2=Diana| last2=Balmori| publisher=Harry Abrams| date=March 1995| isbn=978-0-8109-4462-6| pages=8–9| access-date=2019-03-22}}</ref> The remaining areas of the house were completed between 1988 and 1994.<ref name="chronology">{{cite web| title=Building Chronology 1976-2000| url=http://www.cranbrook.edu/archives/default.asp?L3=3&L4=1&L5=4| website=Cranbrook Community| access-date=2011-11-09| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414210922/http://www.cranbrook.edu/archives/default.asp?L3=3&L4=1&L5=4| archive-date=2012-04-14}}</ref> The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

Sculptor Carl Milles' numerous works in Metro Detroit include those at Cranbrook Educational Community, such as ''Mermaids & Tritons Fountain'' (1930), ''Sven Hedin on a Camel'' (1932), ''Jonah and the Whale Fountain'' (1932), ''Orpheus Fountain'' (1936), and ''Spirit of Transportation'' (1952), currently in Cobo Center.<ref name="CarleMilles">{{cite news| first=Vivian M.| last=Baluch| date=6 September 1999| url=http://blogs.detroitnews.com/history/1999/09/05/carl-milles-cranbrooks-favorite-sculptor/| title=Michigan History: Carl Milles, Cranbrook's favorite sculptor| newspaper=The Detroit News| access-date=2007-11-23| archive-date=March 6, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306103845/http://blogs.detroitnews.com/history/1999/09/05/carl-milles-cranbrooks-favorite-sculptor/| url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2009, the museum closed for renovation and expansion, reopening in November 2011. The project restored aspects of the original building designed by Saarinen, made necessary structural repairs, replaced windows, and upgraded mechanical systems. The renovated museum features year-round, changing exhibitions and a new Collections and Education Wing—an additional {{convert|20000|sqft|m2|abbr=on}} of storage and classroom space open to visitors by guided tour. Based on an open storage plan, the new wing allows the museum's entire collection to be seen.<ref name="wing">{{cite press release| title=At the Birthplace of Modernism, A Rebirth| date=27 July 2011| publisher=Cranbrook Community| url=http://cranbrook.edu/about/news/default.asp?newsid=585134| access-date=2011-11-10| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128140216/http://www.cranbrook.edu/about/news/default.asp?newsid=585134| archive-date=28 November 2011}}</ref>

==Cranbrook Institute of Science== thumb|Cranbrook Institute of Science (2021) The Cranbrook Institute of Science includes a permanent collection of exhibits from a variety of Disciplines including Earth, Space, and Life sciences. There are displays of temporary exhibits in museum's travelling hall that change every 3-9 months. It also features a planetarium and a powerful 20 inch telescope<ref>{{cite web| title=Cranbrook Observatory| url=https://science.cranbrook.edu/explore/observatory| website=Cranbrook Institute of Science| access-date=April 17, 2025}}</ref> through which visitors may peer on selected nights.

The museum grounds feature a life-sized statue of a ''Stegosaurus''.

From 1946 to 1970, the institute awarded the Mary Soper Pope Medal for notable achievement in plant sciences.<ref name=cranbrook>[http://www.cranbrook.edu/sites/default/files/ftpimages/120/misc/misc_35342.pdf "Cranbrook Institute of Science Director's Papers"]. ''Cranbrook Community''. Retrieved December 27, 2016.</ref>

==Cranbrook House and Gardens== thumb|Cranbrook House and Gardens Cranbrook House and Gardens are the centerpiece of the Cranbrook Educational Community campus. The 1908 English Arts and Crafts-style house was designed by Albert Kahn for Cranbrook founders George and Ellen Scripps Booth, and is roofed with Ludowici tile.<ref>{{cite news |title=Michigan contractor restores national landmark |url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=10874937&site=eds-live&scope=site |work=RSI: Roofing, Siding, Insulation |volume=80 |issue=9 |publisher=EBSCO Publishing |date=September 1, 2003}}</ref> Ten first-floor rooms can be seen on guided tours; the rooms contain tapestries, hand-carved woodworking, and English antiques in the Arts and Crafts style. The upper floors are used for the executive offices of the Cranbrook Educational Community.

Originally designed by George Booth, the {{convert|40|acre|m2|adj=on}} gardens include a sunken garden, formal gardens, a bog garden, a herb garden, a wildflower garden, a Japanese garden, sculpture, fountains, specimen trees, and a lake.

Leonard Bernstein recalled composing portions of his Symphony No. 2, ''The Age of Anxiety'', on the Cranbrook House Steinway concert grand piano while residing there in April 1946.<ref>[http://www.cranbrook.edu/center/tours-and-programs Your Gateway to Cranbrook], Cranbook Community. Accessed March 22, 2019.</ref><ref name="castles">{{cite episode| network=A&E| credits=Presenter: Richard Guy Wilson| series=America's Castles| title=Newspaper Moguls, Pittock Mansion, Cranbrook House & Gardens, The American Swedish Institute| airdate=1997}}</ref> Bernstein had come to Detroit at the request of Zoltan Sepeshy to conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall. While visiting, he requested studio space where he could compose, and Sepeshy had the piano moved from Cranbrook House into St. Dunstan's Playhouse.<ref name="piano">{{cite web| title=St. Dunstan's Guild Records (Summary)| url=http://www.cranbrook.edu/sites/default/files/ftpimages/120/misc/misc_75067.pdf| last=Luzenski| first=James| date=July 2006| page=4| website=Cranbrook Archives| access-date=2013-08-01}}</ref>

The house and gardens are open to the public from May through October.

==St. Dunstan's Playhouse== St. Dunstan's Playhouse, while not formally a part of the Cranbrook Educational Community, is located on the Cranbrook grounds near the Cranbrook House. The Playhouse, a 206-seat theater, houses the St. Dunstan's Theatre Guild of Cranbrook. The guild was founded in 1932 by Henry Scripps Booth, the son of Cranbrook's founders George and Ellen Booth.

In the summer months, the St. Dunstan's Theatre Guild performs in the outdoor Greek Theatre adjacent to the Cranbrook House. The theater was restored in 1990–1991.<ref name="chronology"/>

==Historic landmark== Fourteen buildings making up the Cranbrook complex were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973<ref name="nris"/> and were further designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989,<ref name="nhlsum"/> cited as being "one of the most important groups of educational and architectural structures in America".<ref name="nom">{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=73000954}} |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Cranbrook| first=Carolyn| last=Pitts| date=February 9, 1989| access-date=January 24, 2016| website=National Park Service}} {{NRHP url|id=73000954| title=Accompanying nine photos from 1959 and 1980|photos=y}}.</ref>

The contributing buildings are:<ref name="nom"/>

# Brookside School Cranbrook # Buildings & Grounds Offices # Christ Church, Cranbrook # Cranbrook Academy of Art # Cranbrook Foundation Office # Cranbrook House & Gardens # Cranbrook Institute of Science # Cranbrook School # Cranbrook School Auditorium # Edison House # Faculty Housing # Greek Theater at St. Dunstan's # Kingswood School Cranbrook # Visitors Entrance

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * A&E with Richard Guy Wilson, Ph.D.,(2000). America's Castles: Newspaper Moguls, Pittock Mansion, Cranbrook House & Gardens, The American Swedish Institute. ''A&E Television Network''. * {{cite book| author-link=Eric J. Hill| last1=Hill| first1=Eric J.| first2=John| last2=Gallagher| title=AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture| year=2002| publisher=Wayne State University Press| isbn=978-0-8143-3120-0| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/aiadetroitameric0000hill}} * {{cite book| last=Merkel| first=Jayne| title=Eero Saarinen| publisher=Phaidon Press| location=London| year=2005| isbn=978-0-7148-4277-6}} * {{cite book| last=Pelkonen| first=Eeva-Liisa| title=Eero Saarinen| publisher=Yale University Press| location=New Haven| year=2006| isbn=978-0-3001-1282-5| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/eerosaarinenshap0000saar}} * {{cite book| last=Roman| first=Antonio| title=Eero Saarinen | publisher=Princeton Architectural Press | location=New York | year=2003 | isbn=978-1-5689-8340-0}} * {{cite book| last=Saarinen| first=Aline B.| author-link=Aline B. Saarinen| title=Eero Saarinen on His Work| publisher=Yale University Press| location=New Haven| year=1968 }} * {{cite book| last=Serraino| first=Pierluigi| title=Saarinen, 1910–1961: a Structural Expressionist| url=https://archive.org/details/eerosaarinen19100000serr| publisher=Taschen| location=London| year=2006| isbn=978-3-8228-3645-3| url-access=registration}}

== External links == {{Commons category}} * [http://www.cranbrook.edu/ Official website] * [https://archive.today/20130209103922/http://cranbrookhistory.wiki-site.com/ Historical Context Timeline of the Cranbrook Educational Community] * [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15324coll10/id/1247/rec/184 ''Design in America : the Cranbrook vision, 1925-1950''] from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Category:Cranbrook Educational Community Category:1922 establishments in Michigan Category:Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Category:Botanical gardens in Michigan Category:Buildings and structures in Oakland County, Michigan Category:Eliel Saarinen buildings Category:Education in Oakland County, Michigan Category:Educational institutions established in 1922 Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Category:Houses in Oakland County, Michigan Category:Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Category:National Historic Landmarks in Metro Detroit Category:National Register of Historic Places in Oakland County, Michigan Category:Tourist attractions in Metro Detroit Category:Tourist attractions in Oakland County, Michigan Category:Anthropology museums in the United States Category:Art museums and galleries in Michigan Category:Dinosaur museums in the United States Category:Geology museums in the United States Category:Paleontology in Michigan Category:Planetaria in the United States