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Formerly: Duluth Central High School
Built:
1891- 1892
Cost: $460,000
Designed by: Emmett S. Palmer, and Lucian P. Hall
Type: Educational Facility
Maximum height: 230 feet / 70 meters
Maximum width: 284 feet / 87 meters
Location: 215 North First Avenue East
City: Duluth
State: Minnesota
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L
ooking more like a church than a school, the old Duluth Central High School leans on the hill that slopes down to the harbor below. It's most notable feature is the 230-foot-tall clock tower. Its focal point being the clock, which has chimes patterned after Big Ben in London. But how did that massive structure come to rest so high up the hill? You can thank horse-pulled elevators which lifted the sandstone up the hill from the harbor. The old Central High School is built on the site of the former Washington School, erected in 1886. Its usefulness as a school expired in 1971 and is now the seat of administration for the Duluth school district.
**The school once had a six-ton 17-foot-long cannon, a relic from the Spanish-American war. It was melted down during the second World War.
**The cornerstone contains a time capsule with newspaper clippings from 1891.
**The school had its own creamery and greenhouse. The creamery sold its goods to local grocery stores. The greenhouse was torn down to make room for bus parking.
**The gargoyles and other details are the work of George Tharna.
**The school is made of locally mined brownstone.
**On winter days, the school would burn up to eight tons of coal in its boilers.
**The clock faces have a diameter of 10'6".
**The clock has E. Howard & Co., Boston cast into its works.
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