Duluth Central High School Archives

Introducing Perfect Duluth Day Geoguessr Challenges

Nov 16, 2023 No Comments

GeoGuessr is an online game that challenges people to locate specific places in the world based on the environmental cues of Streetview. The mechanics are rather simple — you move around a Streetview environment stripped of all its informational overlays looking for clues that indicate where you are. Once you think you know, you mark the spot of your original starting location on the inset map. The closer you are, the more points you get. A game consists of five locations.

Duluth Central High School 1975 Concert LP with Clark Terry

Feb 23, 2023 5 Comments

I picked up a box of LPs at a local estate sale a couple years ago. I was just going through them more closely and thought I would share this one. It’s a concert recording of the Central High School Jazz Ensemble with jazz great Clark Terry, recorded at Central High Auditorium on March 13, 1975.

Music Duluth Central High School

Duluth Central High School aerial demolition video

Dec 23, 2022 1 Comment

The former Duluth Central High School on the top of the hill was demolished at the end of November. The video above is by Doug Johnson.

Duluth Central High School 1920 Zenith Yearbook

Dec 02, 2022 No Comments

Archive.org has the 1920 Duluth Central High School yearbook, Zenith, available for perusal online.

History Duluth Central High School

Demolition of hilltop Central High School underway

Nov 22, 2022 No Comments

Northern News Now reports demolition of the former Duluth Central High School on the top of the hill began this week. The 55-acre property was sold in August to Chester Creek View, a New York developer, for $8 million.

R.I.P., Videos Duluth Central High School, Duluth Public Schools

Duluth Central High School Jazz Ensemble

Nov 01, 2022 No Comments

The 1977 album Project Two features music by various high school jazz groups, including a track from the Duluth Central High School Jazz Ensemble, directed by James Stellmaker. The tune “All God’s Children” was composed by Dominic Spera.

History, Music Duluth Central High School

Photos from Old Central’s 1890s Classroom and Clock Tower

Jul 16, 2021 1 Comment

This oil painting of Old Central was donated to the school in 1970 by the class of 1949. It was painted by Central alum Jo Kossett.

The original Central High School, which later became Duluth Public Schools’ Central Administration Building, aka Historic Old Central, will soon enter its next phase. Saturday Properties, a development and management firm based in St. Louis Park, plans to turn the Richardsonian Romanesque-style building into 121 mixed-income apartments. The project is called Zenith DCHS.

Collected in this post are images from inside the 1890s Classroom Museum at Old Central and the interior of the building’s clock tower, shot during a tour on July 2.

The Slice: A Historic Classroom in Old Central

May 31, 2021 No Comments

Take a trip 130 years into the past with a visit to the 1890s classroom museum at historic Old Central High School. Visitors can view what a classroom at the turn of the century looked like and can even tour the iconic bell tower.

In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.

History, Videos Duluth Central High School, The Slice, WDSE-TV - PBS North

PDD Quiz: Duluth’s Historic Old Central High School

May 16, 2021 4 Comments

This month’s quiz looks at Duluth’s Historic Old Central High School, a property that has been hitting the headlines recently. Historic photographs come courtesy of the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections, housed in the Archives and Special Collections of UMD’s Kathryn A. Martin Library. Find these (and additional photos of the school) in the Minnesota Digital Library. As always, the Zenith City website was also a critical source of historic information.

The next PDD quiz will review this month’s news; it will be published on May 30. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by May 25.

Postcard from Central High School in 1910

Aug 29, 2020 2 Comments

This postcard of Duluth Central High School is postmarked Aug. 29, 1910 — 110 years ago today.
The message on the back is to Miss Nevada Simpson of Crookston, Minn.

Old Central Idea

Apr 16, 2020 3 Comments

I’ve always thought the old Central School downtown would be an awesome indoor market. Similar to the World Market in Minneapolis, people could have small stands showcasing food/crafts/services. It’d be a great spot for diverse emerging entrepreneurs. Think of it like a year-round farmers market in a city that experiences eight months of winter. I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy. Let me know what you think. Viva la Duluth

Random Duluth Central High School, idea

A Video Tour Inside Old Central’s Clock Tower

Nov 08, 2019 2 Comments

This video offers another horological nerdout session inside the Historic Old Central High School clock tower, this time brought to you by videographer Paul Scinocca.

“Not many of us get to see what makes this clock tower tick,” Scinocca writes on the YouTube description. “Sorry, had to say it. I was actually on site for a work project, lucky for me the tower is in part of the project.”

History, Videos Duluth Central High School

Frisco or Dust Shields?

May 04, 2019 6 Comments

What that scribbled message on the front of this postcard is all about will have to be left to speculation in the comments. The card was mailed 110 years ago — May 4, 1909.

Denfeld vs. Central: 1922 Football Stalemate

Sep 30, 2017 No Comments

Duluth’s Jay Sonnenburg found these 1922 photos among his grandfather’s collection. They depict scenes at Athletic Park in West Duluth, where Duluth Central and Denfeld did battle on the gridiron.

Inside the old Duluth Central High School bell tower

Jul 20, 2017 1 Comment

In this video, Kenneth Newhams of Duluth Shipping News visits the bell tower of the old Duluth Central High School, now the Duluth School District’s Central Administration Building.

Videos Duluth Central High School

Duluth Central High School Posts