History
East Kentwood High School was built in 1969. Since then it has undergone numerous renovations, including the addition of the West Wing in 1975 and the construction of the Freshman Campus in 1994. Further construction was done in 1983, 1986, and 1994. The 1994 project included a renovation of the fieldhouse and expansion of the West Wing, which involved adding several new science classrooms. In the mid-1980s a south corridor was completed to shelter students crossing each wing. East Kentwood is the only public school in the state of Michigan to have its own ice arena on campus, it is often referred to as the best ice arena in the state as well; East Kentwood also has its own competitive and community swimming pools, and a 1,600-seat Fine Arts Auditorium.
The original Kentwood high school, which is now Crestwood Middle School, opened in 1960. When the new site was built in 1969, the new school was named East Kentwood because there were plans to eventually build a second high school, which would have been known as West Kentwood a few years later. West Kentwood would have built on the same physical campus as East Kentwood. When the first vote for a second high school was turned down in the early 1970s it led to the construction of East Kentwood's first swimming pool as well as what was referred to as the Freshman wing. To this day, talks of building a second high school periodcially resurface but have so far been turned down in favor of the economic advantages of running one large high school. Thus, East Kentwood continues to grow while West Kentwood remains the answer to a trivia question.
Current discussions for future development projects include creating a college-campus like setting with multi-storied buildings specializing in math and science, literature and the arts, and business and apprentice training (health, medical, etc.) programs. Included in the arts building would be a small theatre for dancing/drama productions.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgement.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)