MARQUETTE–For nearly a century the stately Graveraet School building has graced the greater Marquette skyline on the corner of Front and Hewitt Streets.

In September 1916, Louis G. Kaufman, a national banking figure and notable Marquette citizen, sent a letter and a check for $26,000 to the school board to cover the costs of land and clearing for the new school site along Front Street.

The gift was given in memory of his mother, Juliet Adelaide Graveraet, who was the sister of Robert Graveraet, an early pioneer in the region.

The school board announced in 1917 that the building would bear the name Graveraet High School.

But the construction of the school was delayed for more than ten years, due in large part to U.S.involvement in World War I.

It cost a half a million dollars to construct the building which runs along an entire city block. In what was then the heart of downtown.

The building has history, not just in education, but in American defense during World War II. According to Michigan Tech’s Military History of the Upper Great Lakes page, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. felt it necessary to protect it’s northern states, especially those that were centeral to shipping iron.

“The harbor in Marquette was vital in sending the raw iron ore from the Upper Peninsula to the Soo Locks, and on to the rest of the world,” the site states. Because this iron ore accounted for 97% of the iron ore used for wartime steel production.”

In the 1940’s Graveraet High School was one of the highest points in the city of Marquette fixed near the city’s downtown.

A group of approximately 300 spotters would take turns climbing to the top of the school building and look out over the sky overthe lower harbor for the Aircraft Warning Service.

Each volunteer would serve up to 4 hours, allowing for 24-hour monitoring of the skies above the harbor.

Graveraet has seen many changes throughout the years. It has served as a school for junior and senior high, grades 9-12, grades 7-8, grades 6-8, grades 4-5, grade 5 and Marquette Alternative High School students during various periods.

The building now serves students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

In addition to being an elementary school, the Graveraet is also home to Kaufman Auditorium, which still functions as a local venue for concets, lectures, and theatrical productions.

Graveraet has stood the test of time as an educational, cultural, and even militarily strategic building within the Marquette community.