Welcome to the CH Alumni Website this is a free site to add reunion information not only for Central-Hower alum, also Central High and Hower Vocational alum as well. If you would like to have your name added to the website just send me an email and a short biography and I will add you to the Alumni page. I can be reached at
zeeteye@hotmail.com (Robert Zellers class of 78) See history below.
History
School a History Lesson in Itself:
As the Final Year Winds Down, Bell Tolls for Central-Hower,
Which Knew Akron As a Kid
Posted on:
Wednesday, 24 May 2006, 18:00 CDT By Paula Schleis, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
May 24--Akron isn't losing just any high school when Central-Hower closes next month. The city will bid farewell to its first high school -- an institution with a history and tradition reaching back to 1886. Akron was a sleepy town then, past the heyday of the canal, still awaiting its destiny as Rubber Capital of the World. There was a single grammar school at Mill, Prospect and Summit streets, in a house that had been renovated and expanded to its limits, when the town decided it was time to build a separate high school. The brick and stone Romanesque-style structure (erected on Forge Street where the current Central-Hower stands) was the largest building in the city when it opened on Sept. 6, 1888 It cost $100,000 and featured a 160-foot clock tower with illuminated dials and a one-ton bell that signaled the hour. The opening of Akron High School was trumpeted by the Akron Daily Beacon with an article that began, "Long live Akron's new High School! Teenagers from throughout the city arrived for class by train, bicycle and horse A picture of Akron High School's first graduating class the following spring shows 23 carefully coiffed students -- young women in dark, ankle-length dresses with tight bodices buttoned up to their necks, young men in dark vests and double-breasted suits In 1891, Thomas Edison (whose father-in-law, Lewis Miller, was the school board president) gave students a demonstration of his phonograph. The school's long sports tradition began in 1892, when a handful of boys organized the first football team. Before long,they were winning state championships. Later they added baseball, and in 1915 they sent graduate George Sisler off to a career that landed him in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1911, Akron's industrial era was in full swing, and South High School was opened to handle the new population growth.Akron High School was renamed Central High School.The school was a microcosm of America as the next three decades sailed by. Skirts got shorter, hairstyles slicker, jazz louder.In the 1920s extracurricular activities flourished. The band placed in state competition.The school newspaper The Forge was founded.
Hower Vocational
Then in 1927, on the other side of downtown, a different kind of school was being launched. Blanche Hower, widow of industrialist M. Otis Hower, helped establish a place where young men could learn a trade. The first two classes were auto mechanics and woodworking.When the Great Depression ended many students' plans for college, the trade school boomed, offering hope for a job after graduation. Sheet metal, printing, plumbing and drafting were added, followed by auto collision repair, commercial art, and aviation carpentry and welding.The program,which was sharing an elementary school building at West Exchange and South Bowery streets, eventually pushed the younger set out. Perkins Elementary School was renamed Hower Vocational High School (in honor of Mrs. Hower's late husband). In 1941, the vo-ed became coed, adding classes in costume design, sewing, retail selling and cosmetology.
By this time, the aging Central building had undergone many structural changes. The angled roofs and peaked gables were flattened. A three-story wing and auditorium were added. The clock tower was taken down after fleas from resident pigeons invaded classrooms.Outspoken students Central was also making headlines for its outspoken student body. In the '30s, they revolted when students were expelled after a class-cutting basketball victory celebration. In '46, they went on a one-week strike to protest cafeteria price increases. In '67, they marched because no black students were on the homecoming court.Then, in the spring of 1970, Central and Hower high schools hosted their last independent graduations. That fall, the student bodies merged, and the name Central-Hower High School was adopted. The district decided a new building should go with the new school. While students took classes at the old Hower building, demolition crews brought the old Central building down, saving only the auditorium that was added in 1924. When the bell rang in the fall of 1975, students returned to 123 Forge St. in a modern, utilitarian structure. Remember the $100,000 price tag of the original school? It cost $7 million to replace it.Two years later, Central-Hower's basketball program produced Nate Thurmond, later named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players. As students settled into their new home, the old Hower school became an albatross. An auction for the building was unsuccessful, so on July 10, 1978, the wrecking ball moved in.Late-life changes Over the past three decades, the city's most urban school also became the district's most culturally diverse, a melting pot of foreign-born students, Akron natives and out-of-town transfers.In 1993, the school was named a math and applied science magnet school. But hopes that Central-Hower's location next to the University of Akron campus would lead to unique partnerships were never fulfilled. Central-Hower's location did, however, tempt school officials into considering selling the property to the ever-expanding university in the mid-'90s. Arguably, opposition by students and alumni contributed to those talks' going nowhere. But the last fight Central-Hower loyalists faced, they lost.
Despite rallies, protests and loud community meetings last year, the school board has stuck by its plans to close the school in response to declining districtwide enrollment. The building will continue to serve Akron students for a few more years, becoming swing space for seven other high schools that are being renovated as part of an $800 million capital improvement program. But as of June 8, Central-Hower's mascot eagle will cease to fly.
"Eagles Never Cease to Fly!!"
zeeteye@hotmail.com (Robert Zellers class of 78) See history below.
History
School a History Lesson in Itself:
As the Final Year Winds Down, Bell Tolls for Central-Hower,
Which Knew Akron As a Kid
Posted on:
Wednesday, 24 May 2006, 18:00 CDT By Paula Schleis, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
May 24--Akron isn't losing just any high school when Central-Hower closes next month. The city will bid farewell to its first high school -- an institution with a history and tradition reaching back to 1886. Akron was a sleepy town then, past the heyday of the canal, still awaiting its destiny as Rubber Capital of the World. There was a single grammar school at Mill, Prospect and Summit streets, in a house that had been renovated and expanded to its limits, when the town decided it was time to build a separate high school. The brick and stone Romanesque-style structure (erected on Forge Street where the current Central-Hower stands) was the largest building in the city when it opened on Sept. 6, 1888 It cost $100,000 and featured a 160-foot clock tower with illuminated dials and a one-ton bell that signaled the hour. The opening of Akron High School was trumpeted by the Akron Daily Beacon with an article that began, "Long live Akron's new High School! Teenagers from throughout the city arrived for class by train, bicycle and horse A picture of Akron High School's first graduating class the following spring shows 23 carefully coiffed students -- young women in dark, ankle-length dresses with tight bodices buttoned up to their necks, young men in dark vests and double-breasted suits In 1891, Thomas Edison (whose father-in-law, Lewis Miller, was the school board president) gave students a demonstration of his phonograph. The school's long sports tradition began in 1892, when a handful of boys organized the first football team. Before long,they were winning state championships. Later they added baseball, and in 1915 they sent graduate George Sisler off to a career that landed him in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1911, Akron's industrial era was in full swing, and South High School was opened to handle the new population growth.Akron High School was renamed Central High School.The school was a microcosm of America as the next three decades sailed by. Skirts got shorter, hairstyles slicker, jazz louder.In the 1920s extracurricular activities flourished. The band placed in state competition.The school newspaper The Forge was founded.
Hower Vocational
Then in 1927, on the other side of downtown, a different kind of school was being launched. Blanche Hower, widow of industrialist M. Otis Hower, helped establish a place where young men could learn a trade. The first two classes were auto mechanics and woodworking.When the Great Depression ended many students' plans for college, the trade school boomed, offering hope for a job after graduation. Sheet metal, printing, plumbing and drafting were added, followed by auto collision repair, commercial art, and aviation carpentry and welding.The program,which was sharing an elementary school building at West Exchange and South Bowery streets, eventually pushed the younger set out. Perkins Elementary School was renamed Hower Vocational High School (in honor of Mrs. Hower's late husband). In 1941, the vo-ed became coed, adding classes in costume design, sewing, retail selling and cosmetology.
By this time, the aging Central building had undergone many structural changes. The angled roofs and peaked gables were flattened. A three-story wing and auditorium were added. The clock tower was taken down after fleas from resident pigeons invaded classrooms.Outspoken students Central was also making headlines for its outspoken student body. In the '30s, they revolted when students were expelled after a class-cutting basketball victory celebration. In '46, they went on a one-week strike to protest cafeteria price increases. In '67, they marched because no black students were on the homecoming court.Then, in the spring of 1970, Central and Hower high schools hosted their last independent graduations. That fall, the student bodies merged, and the name Central-Hower High School was adopted. The district decided a new building should go with the new school. While students took classes at the old Hower building, demolition crews brought the old Central building down, saving only the auditorium that was added in 1924. When the bell rang in the fall of 1975, students returned to 123 Forge St. in a modern, utilitarian structure. Remember the $100,000 price tag of the original school? It cost $7 million to replace it.Two years later, Central-Hower's basketball program produced Nate Thurmond, later named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players. As students settled into their new home, the old Hower school became an albatross. An auction for the building was unsuccessful, so on July 10, 1978, the wrecking ball moved in.Late-life changes Over the past three decades, the city's most urban school also became the district's most culturally diverse, a melting pot of foreign-born students, Akron natives and out-of-town transfers.In 1993, the school was named a math and applied science magnet school. But hopes that Central-Hower's location next to the University of Akron campus would lead to unique partnerships were never fulfilled. Central-Hower's location did, however, tempt school officials into considering selling the property to the ever-expanding university in the mid-'90s. Arguably, opposition by students and alumni contributed to those talks' going nowhere. But the last fight Central-Hower loyalists faced, they lost.
Despite rallies, protests and loud community meetings last year, the school board has stuck by its plans to close the school in response to declining districtwide enrollment. The building will continue to serve Akron students for a few more years, becoming swing space for seven other high schools that are being renovated as part of an $800 million capital improvement program. But as of June 8, Central-Hower's mascot eagle will cease to fly.
"Eagles Never Cease to Fly!!"