Famous people's places / Bloomfield Hills

Cranbrook Kingswood

Eliel Saarinen's 1931 masterpiece school for girls, championed by Ellen Scripps Booth, where actress Selma Blair studied in the 1980s.

Events at this place 0 Plan your visit ↓

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

Ellen Scripps Booth championed and financed Kingswood School Cranbrook, a college-preparatory school for girls that Eliel Saarinen designed as his architectural masterpiece on the Cranbrook campus; it opened on September 21, 1931, with 81 students, and Booth named it for her husband's paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Kingswood. Its tan brick and copper roofs, quite different from the dark brick of the earlier boys' Cranbrook School nearby, are considered one of Saarinen's finest American works. Actress Selma Blair attended Kingswood in the 1980s and into 1990, appearing in a school theater production before going on to a career in film. Kingswood later merged administratively with Cranbrook School and became fully coeducational, and today the campus continues to operate as part of the middle and upper school of Cranbrook Schools.

Championed and funded by Ellen Scripps Booth
Designed by Eliel Saarinen as his American masterpiece
Opened September 21, 1931, with 81 students
Named for George Booth's grandmother Elizabeth Kingswood
Actress Selma Blair attended in the 1980s–1990

Famous Detroiters

Famous people tied to this place 6

Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.

Selma Blair born 1972 · actress, author
Studied here
Private upper school on the Cranbrook campus, where Blair acted in a school production in 1990.
Eliel Saarinen 1873–1950 · architect, urban planner
Worked here
The girls' school he designed as a total work of art, with interiors and textiles by his family.
Natalie Zemon Davis 1928–2023 · historian
Studied here
Eliel Saarinen's girls' school on the Cranbrook campus, where she was a student before going to Smith College.
Martha Henry 1938–2021 · stage and screen actress, director
Studied here
Girls' school on the Cranbrook campus, housed in Eliel Saarinen's 1931 Kingswood building; Henry attended it before Carnegie Tech.
Florence Knoll 1917–2019 · architect, interior and furniture designer
Studied here
The Eliel Saarinen–designed girls' school she attended as a teenager.
Loja Saarinen 1879–1968 · textile artist, sculptor
Worked here
Her studio's largest commission: tapestries, rugs, curtains and upholstery for the girls' school.