Central VPA High School

Central High School
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	3616 Garrison, St. Louis, Missouri
Coordinates	38°39′35″N 90°12′55″W / 38.659648°N 90.215241°W / 38.659648; -90.215241Coordinates: 38°39′35″N 90°12′55″W / 38.659648°N 90.215241°W / 38.659648; -90.215241
Architect	William B. Ittner
MPS	St. Louis Public Schools of William B. Ittner MPS
NRHP Reference #	12000873
Added to NRHP	October 17, 2012

Central Visual and Performing Arts High School (also known as Central VPA High School or Central High School) is a magnet high school in St. Louis, Missouri, part of the St. Louis Public Schools. Founded in 1853, Central is the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi River, although it has moved several times and merged with a magnet school in 1984. Central VPA specializes in the arts, with students taking courses in three art majors, including visual art, musical art, and performing art, with focuses on ceramics, drawing and painting, photography, instrumental music, vocal music, dance, and theater.

In late 1852, the Board of Education of the St. Louis Public Schools ordered the organization and opening of a high school to serve the city population. The Board located the school within Benton School, a primary school then located on 6th Street between St. Charles and Locust streets, and on February 7, 1853, 70 students were admitted after an entrance examination. Its first principal was Jeremiah D. Low. Soon after its opening, the Board ordered construction on a dedicated building for the high school, then known simply as St. Louis High School.

Designed by William Rumbold, the new building was built in 1855 at a cost of $50,000 at the corner of Olive and 15th streets. The building had three full stories and a basement, nine classrooms, a 700-seat auditorium, and 16 smaller rooms used as libraries and wardrobes. It initially was built with a capacity of slightly less than 500 students. By 1859, course requirements for entrance had been developed, and two courses of study (general or classical) were available to students.

The high school remained the only public high school in the community until the establishment of Sumner High School for black students in 1874. By the early 1890s, the Central High School building at 15th and Olive had deteriorated and become too small for the number of students attempting to enroll.

The new Central High School building opened on September 1, 1893; designed by Furlong and Brown in the Victorian style, the facility cost $365,000, while land acquisition costs were $34,000. The building featured four stories, a curved facade, and a tower housing the school stairwells, and it had a capacity of 1,200 students. A notable event in Central's history occurred when, in 1922, William J. S. Bryan retired after having taught for 50 years in the school. During this period, several other high schools opened in St. Louis to alleviate overcrowding at Central, including McKinley High School and Yeatman High School in 1904, followed by Soldan High School in 1909, Cleveland High School in 1915, Roosevelt High School in 1925 and Beaumont High School in 1926.