Duluth Central High School Posts

Duluth Central High School 1975 Concert LP with Clark Terry

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.

Duluth Central High School aerial demolition video

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

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

Demolition of hilltop Central High School underway

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.

Duluth Central High School Jazz Ensemble

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.

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

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

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.

PDD Quiz: Duluth’s Historic Old Central High School

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

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

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

A Video Tour Inside Old Central’s Clock Tower

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.”

Frisco or Dust Shields?

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

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

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.

Old Central chimes will return in a few weeks

Central-Clocktower-BellThe chimes of the 125-year-old Central High School clock tower fell silent last week when one of the clock’s gears failed. A new gear is being made and should be in place within about six weeks, according to Dave Spooner, manager of facilities for Duluth Public Schools.

“We’ve got the clock apart and we’re in the process of having another gear made,” Spooner said. “It’s not something you can buy, you have to have them made. … It’s just a failure of an old part.”

Central High School opened in 1892, built with a clock tower that rises 230 feet. A new Central High School opened in 1971, and the original building was converted into the school district’s administrative offices. The building has since been known as the Central Administration Building or “Historic Old Central.”

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