The Central we knew is now a historic site, but the history of our school begins long before our 1911 Collegiate Gothic-style building.

A historic marker at the school gives some details. More are collected below.

Grand Rapids High Schools
First Graduating Classes
Central High School -1862
Union High School - 1911
South High School - 1915
Creston High School - 1917 (Jr. High); 1926 (High School)
Ottawa Hills - 1924

The Central High of 1867--1891

The grounds have a front of 264 feet on Lyon street, by 367 on Barclay and Ransom streets, and were purchased of G. C. Nelson, Edward L. Stevens, John Ball and Junius H. H. Hatch, a portion in 1848 and the rest in 1849, for the sum of $635. On the southern line of the lot is the janitor's house. 

The present building, erected in 1867, is of brick, three stories high, and 65 by 106 feet on the ground floor. A tower rises from the southwest corner, from the belfry of which a better view of the city can be obtained than from any other point of observation in the city. The building contains 20 rooms used for school purposes, including the new laboratory annex which has just been completed, and has sittings for 600 pupils. It is well lighted and fairly ventilated, is heated by steam and lighted by gas. The value of the property is estimated at $91,500.

The lower floor is occupied by the eighth grade pupils, the two upper floors by the High School grades. The museum of the Kent Scientific Institute, one of the most valuable scientific collections in the State, occupies several recitation rooms in the building.

The High School has had a remarkably rapid growth during the last three years. The number belonging at the close of the month of October, 1885, was 292; in 1886, 366, an increase of 73; in 1887, 436, an increase of 71.

All the departments of instruction are in excellent condition, under the following corps of teachers:  W. A. Greeson, A. M., Principal; Miss Annah M. Clark, Preceptress; Miss Marion Horsford, English Literature; Miss Carolyn Parrish, A. B., the Classics; Miss Catherine McArthur, Rhetoric; Mrs. M. C. Orth, German; Miss Agnes R. Ginn, French; C. W. Carman, the Natural Sciences; A. J. Volland, A. B., Principal of the Grammar School; Miss Emma J. Cole, Miss Carrie L. Dickinson, Miss Alice M. James, A. B., Miss E. Chesebro, Miss Kate D. Price, Miss Susan Gordon, Miss N. Rogers, Mrs. H. M. Herrick, Miss Sarah A. Reed, teachers in the lower and grammar grades.

Among former teachers, Prof. E. A. Strong's work has already been mentioned. Miss Ellen Dean, for eleven years teacher of English Literature and History, resigned at the close of 1888 to accept the chair of English Literature in the University of Tennessee, yet the influence of her rare scholarship and love of learning did not depart with her, but will long be felt in the schools. Miss Annah M. Clark is the veteran teacher of the High School, having been instructor therein ever since 1871, and her stateliness of character and Spartan firmness as a disciplinarian, make her presence invaluable to the school.

From an 1891 report on public school academics:

In the High School as in the primary and grammar departments, the course of study is arranged with special reference to pupils who complete their school life there; although the classical course, including four years of Latin and two of Greek, and a full course of mathematics, the Latin and modern language courses and the preparatory English course, entitles graduates to enter Michigan University and the State Agricultural College upon their High School diplomas. 

The modern language courses, including fours years of French or German with the sciences and mathematics, and the English commercial course which substitutes bookkeeping in place of higher mathematics, have been found well adapted to the needs of young men and women whose education ends in the High School.

Among studies in the Grand Rapids High School curriculum not always included in High School course, are zoology, chemistry, geology, botany, astronomy and political economy. The natural sciences are studied by the experimental method under the professorship of C. W. Carman. A well equipped frame laboratory annex of three rooms for the accommodation of these sciences was erected in the summer of 1888 to the southward of the main High school building.

The School District of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, dates back to 1871 when the Legislature passed a local act creating the Board of Education of the City of Grand Rapids, the boundaries of which were made coterminous with the same as the boundaries of the city of Grand Rapids. Prior to that time, the City of Grand Rapids did not constitute one single school district; but rather, the west side was known as the Union School District, and there were one or more school districts on the east side of the Grand River, the boundaries of which were not necessarily the same as or coterminous with that of the City of Grand Rapids east of the River.

Source: Baxter, Albert, History of the City of Grand Rapids, New York and Grand Rapids: Munsell & Company, Publishers, 1891.

See more photos at:

http://www.grps.k12.mi.us/history/gallery.spml