Here is a run-of-the-mill BBRPCI (BBR Progressive Concrete Inc.) stamp from the south side of East Grand River Avenue between Wood Street and Fairview Avenue. It is in front of Pattengill Biotechnical Academy, which should not be confused with Pattengill Middle School. Let me see if I can keep this shell game of east side schools straight: Pattengill Middle School was in the new(ish) building by the Armory, having moved there from its original location on Jerome Street (where it was known for much of its history as Pattengill Junior High). Pattengill Middle School closed in 2013 (and now that building houses Eastern High School). In 2018, the old Fairview School, which had been an elementary school, was transformed into Pattengill Biotechnical Academy. I don’t know why they reused the Pattengill name since the current Pattengill is evidently an elementary school, spanning pre-K to grade 6. I also would really like to know what the hell a specialized “biotechnical” pre-K education looks like.

It’s a good thing I don’t have kids because I find the array of schools in the district completely incomprehensible. There are high schools that start at grade 7, “academies” that go to grade 6, schools that somehow aren’t officially listed as “academies” but still have academy-like thematic names, and a very small number of I guess regular middle schools except they are grades 4-6 which is younger than what I think of as middle school. Also even the non-magnet schools have “STEAM” randomly peppered into their names.

Pattengill Biotechnical Academy, seen from the Grand River side. The city’s online records don’t have the date of construction listed for some reason, but it looks 1950s to me. The stamp is in the shadow.