Central High School (1860–1982) was a public high school in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

History

Old Central High School - DPLA - b0bea361069f491e34206ec8baacaddb

The school went through several phases. Central High was first established in 1860 when students of high-school age were added to Union Elementary. In 1864, the building was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt on the same site as Washington School, with grades K-12. A new building was erected in 1877, with the name changed to Central, on the corner of 4th Avenue South and 11th Street in downtown Minneapolis. Designed in

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style by Franklin Long and Charles Haglin, the building was described by Minneapolis architecture critic Larry Millett as "one of the most impressive buildings of its time in Minneapolis." It was expanded in 1886. Central High School - DPLA - 914bb414128ffddaed48fdad25a23769

Central High School - DPLA - 914bb414128ffddaed48fdad25a23769

In 1913, the school moved again, to 4th Avenue South and 34th Street, where it remained until closing in 1982. The new building was designed in the

Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...

architectural style.

Minneapolis Public Schools Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) or Special School District Number 1 is a public school district serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis Public Schools enrolls 36,370 students in pub ...

closed Central,

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

and Marshall-University high schools in 1982. Central and West were demolished shortly after, except for their recently built gyms.

Notable alumni

* Cedric Adams, broadcaster * Eddie Albert, actor * Johnny Blanchard,

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

catcher * Orville Freeman, Minnesota governor * Agnes Moore Fryberger, music educator * Paul Granlund, sculptor * Halsey Hall, sportswriter and broadcaster *

Pudge Heffelfinger William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger (December 20, 1867 – April 2, 1954), also spelled Hafelfinger, was an American football player and coach. He is considered the greatest lineman of his time, and the first athlete to play American football p ...

, first professional

American Football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player *

James Hong James Hong (born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. Known as one of the most prolific character actors of all time, he has worked in over 400 productions in U.S. media since the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1950s. ...

, actor *

John Kundla John Albert Kundla (July 3, 1916 – July 23, 2017) was an American college and professional basketball coach. He was the first head coach for the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its predecessors, the Basketba ...

, basketball coach * George Leach, Minneapolis mayor *

Rodney Lewis Rodney Ray Lewis, known as Rod Lewis (born 1954), is founder, president, and chief executive officer of Lewis Energy, an oil and natural gas drilling company based in Texas, US. Biography Lewis was born and raised on a ranch in Laredo, Texas, Lar ...

, professional football

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

* Bobby Lyle, jazz musician * Edwin L. MacLean, politician * Bobby Marshall, first African-American to play in the NFL * Chris Mars, musician (did not graduate) * Noel Neill, actress *

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

, musician *

Sharon Sayles Belton Sharon Sayles Belton (born May 13, 1951) is an American community leader, politician and activist. She is Vice President of Community Relations and Government Affairs for Thomson Reuters Legal business. She served as List of mayors of Minneapoli ...

, Minneapolis mayor *

Eric Sevareid Arnold Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was an American author and CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents who were hired by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and nicknamed " Murr ...

, journalist and broadcaster *

Ann Sothern Ann Sothern (born Harriette Arlene Lake; January 22, 1909 – March 15, 2001) was an American actress who worked on stage, radio, film, and television, in a career that spanned nearly six decades. Sothern began her career in the late 1920s ...

, actress *

Bob Sweiger Robert Michael Sweiger (September 20, 1919 – November 1, 1975) was an American football back who played four seasons in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) with the New York Yankees and Chicago Hornets. He was drafted by the New York G ...

, football player *

Paul Westerberg Paul Harold Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the Replacements. Following the breakup of the Replacements, Westerberg launched a solo career that saw him r ...

, musician (did not graduate)

References

{{authority control Defunct schools in Minnesota Educational institutions established in 1880 1880 establishments in Minnesota 1982 disestablishments in Minnesota High schools in Minneapolis Minneapolis Public Schools *