Duluth Central relics find a home for all to see

DULUTH — Duluth Central High School alumni, clad in letter jackets and sweaters, Trojan red and white and even a marching band uniform, unveiled the new home this week of more than a century of memorabilia from the now defunct school.

A free summer exhibit opened at the Duluth Depot on June 12, the answer to a problem that arose last summer when contents of a school museum were put up for auction.

Alumni of both downtown's Historic Old Central High School and the "new" Central school that replaced it on the hillside gathered to mark the opening, including two former Duluth mayors, Don Ness and Gary Doty.

"For 120 years, Duluth Central was the cornerstone of our community," Ness said, with roughly 40,000 graduates who have "done amazing things within our community, our nation and across the world. … Our goal is to protect, cultivate and celebrate the proud history and ongoing legacy of Duluth Central."

The exhibit is the culmination of efforts begun when news of the auction of items from the historic school's 1890s museum was announced. The original Central, more than 130 years old and on the National Register of Historic Places, is being converted into apartments. There was no longer space for the museum contents, and the Duluth school district said it didn't own the items and did not have space in its new administrative building under construction. It vacated the building, most recently used for administration, in recent years.

A new alumni association formed last summer to collect and preserve items from the schools.

The exhibit in the Depot's Fesler Gallery consists of mostly memorabilia from the original Central, but some important pieces from the now demolished new Central are included, such as a slice of the gym floor, letters spelling out the name that were once affixed to the building and the cornerstone engraved with 1971, the year the school opened. Its last class graduated in 2011, as part of the Duluth school district's massive building consolidation and construction plan, known as the Red Plan.

There was much controversy surrounding the decision to close Central, considered by many as the heart of the city, both for its longevity and its geographic location.

"There is probably nothing more historic in the city than Old Duluth Central," said Doty, a 1966 graduate of the school. "Everybody knows somebody who went to Central."

Notable graduates include Michael Baker, drummer and musical director for Whitney Houston, Minnesota politician Sam Solon, civil rights activist Ethel Ray Nance and Don LaFontaine, a voice actor who recorded film trailers.

The collection will go back into storage at the end of the season, but the Duluth Central Alumni Association hopes to have the exhibit shown annually during the summer, when reunions are largely held. Only about 20% of the collection, which continues to grow as alumni donate to it, is represented at the Depot, Ness said.

Alumnus Gary Lundstrom, who designed the exhibit, said it's full of ways for visitors to make personal connections to the past.

"Despite the recent blows that our school had in these last years, [the association] is committed to making sure the memories of our school aren't fading," he said.