Central High School, City of Grand Rapids, Kent Co, Michigan
The Fourth Bldg 1911- Original site of Fountain Elementary
SW 1/4 NE 1/4 Section 30 Daniel W Coit, Land Patent Holder, Coit & Curtis Partition Plat 1854
WD 20 Sept 1867 Daniel W Coit and Harriet F Coit his wife of Norwich, Conn and Joshua Coit of New Haven, Conn to Fractional School District Number One (1) of the City of Grand Rapids for $800 --- The S1/2 Lot 20 of Coit & Curtis Partition Plat. By Isaac T. Miller & James B Williams, his attorneys. No liber or page given but includes a reference to a plat by E C Martin 12 Mar 1856 L5, pages 132,133,134.
2005:- 421 Fountain St NE PP# 41-14-30-251-041 current site of Central High.
From Citz 1926
The new building from the 1910 Helios.
The floor plan from the 1908 Annual Report
I attended this school 1962-1968 and the rooms were used as below:
Basement: Starting in the upper left hand corner - that's where I had my eighth grade math class taught by the shop teacher.
The next lower left-hand room was the shoe repair shop.
The next lower left-hand room was my eighth grade cooking class with Miss Orlyk. We were not allowed to throw any food away so Sue Kikstra carried a BIG purse and hid the inedible food we had cooked and dumped it in the girl's room across the hall.
The Home Ec department was still located as indicated. The mechanical drawing room was the band/orchestra department and the small rooms to the left were for storage of instruments.
The lunch room was not the lunch room although I have no idea what was there. (John Rusilowski emailed me and said it was the machine shop).
The physics lab was not there but I had my eighth grade general science class there. The other physics room on the right hand corridor - I had my eighth grade shop class (the only shop class girls were allowed to take) in the uppermost room.
First Floor: The top most left-hand room was a study hall. The little room across the hall was remedial reading.
The bottom little recitation room on the left was my geometry class with Miss Veje. . The big room below that was my sewing class with Miss Sokolowski.
The rooms marked office etc were the office. The chemistry lab was the chemistry lab. The two small rooms above were connected into one physics lab. The session room was a study hall.
2nd floor: Pretty much as indicated except there were no cloak rooms, just lockers in the hall. The art rooms and drama rooms were under the cafeteria addition.
3rd floor: Pretty much as indicated. In the far upper right hand corner an addition was installed for the lunch room.
4th floor: Mechanical Drawing. Boys only. No girls allowed.
The auditorium
The proposed gym
The real gym
The gym interior:
Winged Victory, a reference to WWI. Mr. Upton said that everyone hated this statue. I think it was because they kept bumping into it.
This aerial view shows the smaller, non-regulation girls' gym, the new cafeteria addition on the upper right, and the small houses along Clifford Place and Goldsboro.
From article City Schools
From Heading History and the City of GrandRapids
From web site: MyCityofGrandRapids.info