In the late 1980s, Central High School was one of the most valuable properties in Columbus. After a 58-year run, the high school was closed in June 1982 because of declining enrollment, rising maintenance costs and – because of its prime location on the riverfront downtown – it brought an enormous appraisal value.
Students marched in protest and parents, teachers and alumni voiced their disapproval, but the decision was made. The question then was what to do with it. That decision, unfortunately, would not be made anytime soon.
Columbus’ second Central High School opened on eighteen acres along the west bank of the Scioto River in the fall of 1924 to great fanfare. It was considered the pride and joy of Columbus Public Schools, an extension of a new civic spirit front and center downtown. For six decades it was Columbus’ definitive high school.
The opening was preceded by the new law in 1922 that mandated school attendance and funded new popular vocational classes like sewing, cooking and woodwork. The new truancy laws necessitated employing truancy officers that also helped get more kids to school.
The first Central High School (and the first high school in Columbus) was built at 303 E Broad St and opened in 1862. Famed poet Robert Frost’s mother was one of the only female teachers. Strict rules were put in place for teachers outside the classroom like not being permitted in pool halls or barbershops and only allowed one evening per week for courting.
U.S. Brigadier General Perry L Miles graduated from old Central High School in 1891. He graduated from West Point in 1895 and served in three wars including the Spanish-American War and WWI. His decorations include a Silver Star and Purple Heart among others.
Renowned American painter George Wesley Bellows graduated from old Central High School in 1901. His most famous paintings depicted working class people in urban New York and amateur boxing matches. Microsoft founder Bill Gates purchased Bellow’s ‘Polo Crowd’ painting in December 1999 for $27.5 million.
Tuskegee airman Harold Sawyer graduated from Central High School in 1938. He became second lieutenant during WWII in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was the first of the group to down two German fighters, including the famed Messerschmitt, on July 12, 1944. Columbus Mayor Jim Rhodes proclaimed Monday, May 22, 1945, as ‘Captain Harold Sawyer Day’.
Former International League president Harold Cooper graduated from Central High School in 1941. Cooper, while serving as Franklin County Commissioner, organized a group of local businessmen to purchase old Jets Stadium on Mound Street, renovated it, and re-opened it with a new team in 1977 – the Clippers. The stadium was renamed Cooper Stadium in his honor in 1984. When the team moved to Huntington Park in 2009, a statue of Harold Cooper was erected to greet fans at the ballpark’s entrance.
Heisman Trophy winner Howard ‘Hopalong’ Cassady graduated from Central High School in 1952. He scored thirty seven touchdowns in thirty six games for the Woody Hayes’ Buckeyes and played nine seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Detroit Lions.
On June 6, 1982, the closing of Central High School triggered a seventeen year legal battle over what to do with this awesome piece of Columbus history sitting front and center on the river in the middle of everything.
The MGM movie ‘Teachers’ starring Nick Nolte was filmed at Central High School and released in the fall of 1984. The storyline involves a teacher (Nolte) trying to maintain order while his school district is being sued for awarding a diploma to an illiterate student. The film got mixed reviews.
In 1989, Columbus and Central High School landed the ‘Son of Heaven: Imperial Arts of China’ exhibit that ran from March through November that year. The exhibit had a similar stay in Seattle before coming to Columbus. Among the items on display were Terracotta Army soldiers from the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China in the late third century BC along with an elaborate gold shimmering throne. The exhibit drew 650,000 visitors.
In 1991, outgoing Columbus mayor Buck Rinehart called for the demolition of both Central High School and the also vacant Ohio Penitentiary which sat front and center downtown but on the other side and up the river.
Incoming mayor Greg Lashutka – a former Ohio State football player under Woody Hayes and an attorney – supported saving Central High School. After a ballot initiative did not garner enough signatures, in 1999 a $130 million project was approved by city council to move COSI to the site, incorporating the high school and building an addition.
Fred Cornell was also a graduate of old Central High School in 1901. He famously wrote the incredibly poetic and deeply felt words to ‘Carmen Ohio’ in 1903. Fred played on the Ohio State football team and was a member of the Glee Club, so he was uniquely qualified.
“Summer’s heat or Winter’s cold,
The seasons pass, the years will roll.
Time and change will surely show
How firm thy friendship O – HI – O.”
The lyrics to the song appeared in the program for the Michigan game in October 1906, where it was sung for the first time. It has been sung at Buckeye home football games ever since.
Sources: Forgotten Landmarks by Tom Betti and Doreen Uhas Sauer; Forgotten Columbus by Andrew Henderson; 101 Things you didn’t know about Columbus Ohio by Horace Martin Woodhouse, 2010; On this day in Columbus Ohio by Tom Betti and Doreen Uhas Sauer, 2013; Tuskegee Airmen display, Motts Military Museum, Columbus, Ohio; Columbus 1910 – 1970 by Richard E Barrett, 2006; Guidebook to old Columbus by Bob Hunter, 2012; Columbus’ father of modern baseball, Harold Cooper, dies, October 4, 2010, www.10tv.com; Brigadier General Perry L. Miles, www.johnstownohiohistoricalsociety.com; The history of Carmen Ohio by Jeanna Kelley, Feb 16 2014, www.landgrantholyland.com; Featured picture is the view of Columbus’ riverfront from the front of the new COSi, 2025.