Published March 13, 2016, in Duluth News Tribune:
Historic Old Central High School needs $18 million in repairs — but some question if it would be money well spent
By Jana Hollingsworth
Beneath the carved gargoyles at the entrance to downtown Duluth’s Historic Old Central High School is a set of massive steps.
Concrete covers the original limestone, and a piece of plywood covers a hole in one of the steps, which have long been closed to the public. The plywood has been there for a dozen years, ever since a poodle fell through the hole to the cavity below only to be found yipping away days later.
The steps are among many potential safety hazards looming outside of the iconic 124-year-old city landmark. The Duluth school district has planned for about $18 million in repair and restoration work for the school, which sits on the National Register of Historic Places. The Duluth School Board will vote Tuesday to pay for the start of that work as part of the district’s 10-year capital improvement plan. But a couple of board members voiced concerns at a recent meeting, questioning whether selling it might be a wiser move than approving increases to property taxes.
“We do need to have a larger conversation about the usefulness of the building,” said member Alanna Oswald at the meeting. “Is it worth it?”
Later, Oswald said she understood the historical importance of the building, but wanted to ensure the community supports spending money on it. She wants public feedback, and wants to know whether such spending will make taxpayers balk at any future requests to support education expenses, which are funded separately.
If residents want to maintain Historic Central, “I would fully expect the community to embrace the operational levies we ask them to vote on in the future, because our students should not lose out to buildings when we have other financially feasible options,” she said.
Rejecting spending on the school doesn’t mean a savings of millions of dollars; it means a shifting of priorities. If the board ultimately chooses not to do all of the work on the school, deferred projects at other buildings will move onto the capital maintenance list, said Kerry Leider, property and risk manager for the district.
Costly preservation
Opened in 1892, the Richardsonian Romanesque-style school was designed by Emmet S. Palmer and Lucien P. Hall, and modeled after the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh. It was considered one of the greatest examples of that style of architecture in the country.
“It was billed as one of the most prominent schools in the whole United States,” and there are very few buildings like it, said Glen Filipovich, president of the Duluth Preservation Alliance. “We are very fortunate to have Old Central.”
Even with the money afforded by the recent school construction and consolidation plan, “we could have never justified a building like this,” Leider said. “It was built at a time when there was timber and mining wealth in our community. They wanted the absolute best school out of the highest-quality materials and the most grand architecture of anywhere in the nation.”
The new Central High School on the hill — now closed — opened in 1971. Historic Central, at Second Street and Lake Avenue, is used today for district administration and board meetings. The Area Learning Center, an alternative high school and an online program are also there, and a portion of the space is leased. The district’s textbook distribution center and print shop are housed in the basement.
Most of the building is in use. But some parts of it, Leider says, urgently need repair or updates. And some of what’s failing isn’t functional anymore, such as the giant chimney. The exterior, too, including those stairs, towers, turrets and brownstone, must be restored to historic preservation standards, which is costly.
Work has been phased over 10 years, with the School Board expected to vote each year on a new 10-year plan in a pay-as-you-go fashion. The portion of next year’s tax levy that would go toward building maintenance and health and safety, which pays for the Central repairs, among others, is $1.6 million. That would mean about a $4 increase in that category for the owner of a $150,000 home. In following years, that amount would increase slightly each year.
Some of the school’s needs include:
* A new roof, chimney restoration and extensive exterior masonry work, which all must conform to preservation standards. That work combined is more than $6 million. The roof has many missing tiles, and replacements are running out, meaning a new roof that replicates the original will be necessary in a few years. The chimney has so much missing mortar that bricks sit loosely at the top. A temporary fix for that is set for next year to avoid falling bricks. Mortar is gone from much of the building, and several pieces of the soft brownstone are worn down from weather and time. Small trees are growing out of the mortar in three places.
- A new fire alarm system
- Stair replacement at the main building entrance
- Restoration of the clock tower
- New building-wide ventilation, heating conversion and replacement of original pipes
- New underground sewer lines
The preservation plan for the school says its exterior facades need to be preserved, along with entrance stairways, walks and approaches, and the grounds in all directions but north. Demolition of the building may be allowed if more than 50 percent is destroyed by fire or an act of God.
Doing nothing to the building also would be allowed under preservation guidelines — a danger in selling it, Leider said, as it could be allowed to deteriorate until a wrecking ball is the only answer.
Major changes, such as the removal of the defunct chimney, must be approved by the city’s preservation arm.
The city is supportive of the district’s efforts to keep the building in good repair, said Keith Hamre, the city’s director of planning and construction services, noting it would help where it could in securing resources to maintain the building.
Dangers of deferring
Leider estimates that $5.6 million, or 2 percent of replacement costs of the district’s infrastructure, should be spent yearly on maintenance when figuring 50 years of life. Estimated spending within the 10-year plan tops out at about $3.5 million.
“Even the new buildings need maintenance,” he said. “Right now we’re on the low end but that will gradually increase.”
Doing nothing leads to eventual crisis, he said, as was experienced by the district before the long-range facilities plan was in place, with several failing buildings.
Some repairs to Historic Central were made under the district’s $315 million long-range facilities plan, but several million dollars slated for that work was diverted to other schools.
‘It’s irreplaceable’
Ardy Stabs is a 1961 graduate of the first Central High School, eager to tick off memories from his time there.
“There is so much history,” he said. “It’s such an iconic building. The new Central will be dust long before the old Central falls apart.”
Graduates are proud of the building, and classes like his still visit it at reunion time, which is every five years, he said.
“It’s irreplaceable. I don’t know what kind of price you can even possibly put on something like that,” Stabs said.
Not everyone has been on board with maintaining the school, Leider said.
Some past superintendents felt the building was an “albatross,” and too extravagant for administration, he said, with one in the early 1990s planning a move to another location.
“But moving isn’t without cost,” he said.
School Board Chairwoman Annie Harala said selling the building would mean displacing staff and students, and any decision about selling would have to include “a large public discussion.”
“We need to be pragmatic, and take care of a building that has provided a home for education and educational discussion for a very long time in our community,” she said.
Duluth historian and author Maryanne Norton said she considers Historic Central to be one of the two most-loved structures in the city, next to the Aerial Lift Bridge.
“Selling Historic Central would leave decisions about its future in the hands of an unpredictable owner,” she said. “It would be difficult to imagine Duluth without that clock tower rising above the downtown.”