CENTERBURG — The view from the roof of the old three-story Centerburg High School, on the corner of Preston and Union streets, is impressive. On a winter day, the new high school/middle school complex and the Centerburg Church of Christ can be seen to the west; visitors look down on neighborhood houses across the street, and through the trees to the north at the steeple of the Centerburg United Methodist Church.
When there’s no snow on the ground, said Jacque Cordle, who taught in the building for many years, the outline of the previous building’s foundation can still be seen in the yard below. That building, which had a bell tower, was replaced by the current one in 1923.
The old high school is still in use by the community, and is the home of Head Start classes and the village’s senior services program and provides meeting space for Oldtime Farming Festival and Heart of Ohio Trail volunteers.
Brass handrails, burnished by hundreds of hands, still line the wide stairway; the terrazzo floors are elaborately patterned, but no longer shine like glass as they did when the school was in regular use, said Head Custodian Neil Thompson, who used to polish them.
The old oak classroom doors with windows are still in place, as are radiators, old-fashioned rotary pencil sharpeners, double rows of lockers, banners and posters on the walls and handpainted Trojan mascots here and there. A bronze plaque on the wall by the office reads: “1923, Centerburg Village School District, CG Keadey President of Board of Education, FM Heston Superintendent.”
New and old trophies still line the display cases. Not as elaborate or as colorful as today’s versions, the old trophies are urns: Simple, silver-colored and sometimes corroded. One is engraved “Knox County Literary Contest 1931.” Another is engraved in script: “CHS Knox County Basket Ball Champions 1924-25” and still another was awarded to Virginia Smith, “Knox County Writing Contest Champion 1928,” and engraved with her name.
Thompson and Mike Kuhn, also of the maintenance department, took visitors on a tour of the building and into “the pit,” the small old gymnasium where basketball games took place long ago; it now serves as the Head Start lunch room. The stage on one end of the gym has been enclosed, and the high ceiling lowered.
“This used to be the cafeteria when I went to school here,” said Thompson, who graduated in 1963. He added that, in those days, students could stand at an open railing in the upstairs hallway and look down into the gym.
The newer, larger gym in the building still has wooden pull-out bleachers and red Trojans on the wall, and the U.S. flag still hangs up high. The small auditorium has painted wreaths adorning the walls. Many school plays took place over the decades on its stage.
Dorothy Holden, who was once the principal in the old building and who is now the school district’s superintendent, said the original building was constructed in the late 1800s. The current building, back in 1923, she said, housed all the grades, not just high school.
“Centerburg was the first consolidated school district in the state of Ohio,” Holden said. “The little schools joined together and students came to this school instead. Centerburg school was chartered in 1883, but the first graduating class wasn’t until 1887.”
Cathy Hess of Holden’s office has a list of every CHS graduate, including the very first class in 1887, a class of two: John Dally and T.A. Jackson.
The Alumni Photo Gallery is housed in the new high school/middle school on Ohio 3/36. Framed pictures of every class since 1907 line a long hallway, showing that classes grew in size nearly every year, and that hairstyles, clothing, styles of glasses and even the poses for portraiture have changed dramatically in 85 years.
Thompson led the way up two flights of stairs to an iron ladder attached to the wall in a small, empty classroom. That ladder leads to another one, which ends at the hatch in the roof. Visitors climb down to the roof itself, which is dotted with one very tall brick chimney and many large ventilators covered in sheet metal. One, its metal torn open, housed a pigeon that startled visitors when it flew out.
Holden said the old building will soon house the Board of Education.
“It was never closed, so we’re in the process of moving back into the building. The board office will move to the second floor. The building is wired for computers and Internet. Next year, the preschool comes out of the elementary building and will occupy the old building too.”
Knox County On High continues on Monday, March 24, with a visit to the roof of Knox Community Hospital.
