Woodward Career Technical High School is a

public high school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

located in the Bond Hill neighborhood of

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, United States. It is part of the Cincinnati Public School District.

History

Old Woodward Building

Woodward was one of the first public schools in the country. The land for the original school was donated by William Woodward and his wife Abigail Cutter in 1826 to provide free education for poor children who could not afford private schooling. The Woodward Free Grammar School opened on the site in 1831 and was the first free public school in the city. The original two-story school building was replaced in 1855. On the day after his election, President Elect

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

, who graduated from Woodward High School in 1874, laid the cornerstone of a third building, which opened to students in 1910 (). The third building was designed in the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

style by Cincinnati architect Gustave W. Drach, who was a Woodward alum. The site is also linked to the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

. William Woodward built a home on the site in 1832, where

Levi Coffin Levi Coffin Jr. (October 28, 1798 – September 16, 1877) was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian. An active leader of the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio, some unofficially called Coffin ...

and his wife, Catharine, lived from 1856 to 1863. Coffin (known as "The President of the Underground Railroad"), sheltered over one hundred fugitive slaves each year on their way to freedom in Canada. The home was first occupied by Henry Rucher, an early principal and math teacher at the Woodward school, and it was commonly known as the Rucher House. It later served as the Good Samaritan Hospital (still in operation at its later Clifton Heights location). In 1865 it became St. Luke's Hospital, where disabled Civil War soldiers were treated. It was replaced by residential homes in 1874, which were demolished to clear ground for the new Woodward school building in 1907. The current five-story building has 150 rooms and of space, a third of which is unusable (including the swimming pools on the top floor). The building is listed in the Over-the-Rhine (South) Local

Historic District A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

and the Over-the-Rhine National Register Historic District.

Bond Hill

In 1953 Woodward High School moved to a new location in Bond Hill at the corner of Reading Road and E. Seymour Avenue, designed to serve the postwar surge in population in the suburbs of Bond Hill, Golf Manor, Roselawn, Hartwell, and Carthage. The old downtown building was designated Abigail Cutter Junior High School until the

School for Creative and Performing Arts A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of ...

took over the entire facility in 1977. In August 2006, the City of Cincinnati opened Woodward Career Technical High School, which features a mixture of

college-preparatory A college-preparatory school (often shortened to prep school, preparatory school, college prep school or college prep academy) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily design ...

and

vocational A vocation () is an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. Though now often used in non-religious contexts, the meanings of the term originated in Christianity. A calling, in the reli ...

education. With the new addition, the original campus was now called Woodward Traditional High School.

Notable people

References

External links

* Old Woodward : a memorial relating to Woodward High School, 1831–1836, and Woodward College, 1836–1851, in the city of Cincinnati
Woodward Career Technical High School
{{authority control 1831 establishments in Ohio High schools in Hamilton County, Ohio Cincinnati Public Schools Public high schools in Ohio Educational institutions established in 1831 Rookwood Pottery Company