One day last fall, Vice Principal Laura Schulz and several others at Frederick Douglass worked to clean out the now-shuttered high school, preparing for a massive renovation of the century-old building.
In the media room, the team decided to strip the soundproof foam material from the walls.
And there, the mystery began.
Behind the wall, they discovered a large, black metal safe door with a combination lock and handle.
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Why did a high school have a giant safe room? Anyone’s guess. Who knew the combination code to unlock its secrets? None of them. But all of them wanted to find out.
Would it all end in an embarrassing flub reminiscent of Geraldo Rivera’s 1986 two-hour special opening up Al Capone’s empty vaults.
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Given the school’s storied history, chances were good they’d find something worthwhile.
Schulz asked the Dustin Construction crew to let them know if they could get it open. The whole episode was a first for construction superintendent Vance Hood, who said he’s more used to finding old bottles, cans and newspapers.
The door was too solid for them to pry open, so they decided to cut the walls surrounding it.
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“We are always excited when we find something like that,” Hood recalled.
Douglass, one of the first high schools for Black students in Baltimore, has had several notable Black politicians, artists and lawyers among its alumni, including the now-deceased jazz musician Ethel Ennis, Congressman Parren J. Mitchell and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
At first, peering from the small opening into what seemed like a dark closet, they could see only old instruments. As with the search for any treasure, they were inspired to dig a little deeper.
Before long, Hood told Schulz: Time to get a truck.
Inside was a kind of Baltimore gold: cutouts of jazz bandleader and singer Cab Calloway, Frederick Douglass Class of 1925, originals and copies of photographs, newspaper clippings, some artwork and timelines of his life and career. In several photos, Calloway sported a big, gleaming smile while wearing one of his iconic zoot suits.
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After the discovery, the school’s staff learned that many of the items had been on display at Baltimore’s World Trade Center in 2008 to celebrate Calloway’s 100th birthday. But no one’s quite sure how the collection ended up at the school.
Within hours, Schulz and Shirley Duncan, a longtime substitute teacher, and Joe Edwards, an athletic director, unloaded, unwrapped and assembled the items this time at the Alumni Center inside the Northwestern High School building.
That’s because the school is the temporary home for their students and teachers until Douglass construction is expected to be completed by next year.
For now, the items will remain on display until arrangements are made for a permanent home or a member of Calloway’s family has other plans for them.
“This stuff shouldn’t be lost,” Schulz said. Again.
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