In this month’s episode of Archive Dive, we explore Central High School. The school, which opened in 1910, educated a roster of famous students, including football legends Ernie Nevers and Bud Grant, author Gordon MacQuarrie, photographer Esther Bubley and America’s Ace of Aces Major Richard I. Bong.

The building itself made history in 1928 when it became the Summer White House for President Calvin Coolidge. Despite a grassroots effort to save the historic building, it was torn down in 2004.

Telegram reporter Maria Lockwood is joined by retired librarian and local historian Teddie Meronek as they look back at the history and impact that the school, it’s staff and students had on the community. Meronek co-wrote a book titled “Central A to Z - The History of a Superior School.” While not a student at Central, she was one of many supporters who tried to save the building.

“I thought it was important to support it because the Wisconsin Historical Society doesn’t put up a marker in front of a building unless it’s important, and there was (one) in front of Central designating it as the Summer White House,” says Meronek. “There was something so iconic about it when you knew the history of it and you knew the people who had gone to school there and you’re thinking, what did they have in the water there at Central where there are just all these amazing people that came out of that school?”

Meronek also felt the architecture made the building stand out.

“When you think about it, there is some of the best architecture in Superior on Belknap (Street). There was Central, there is the old courthouse, there’s the Hammond Avenue Presbyterian Church, there is the Masonic Lodge which is now the Elks, there’s that great Belknap Electric building which was built as a duplex back in the 1890s and then, you go down to Belknap and Tower (Avenue) and there is Globe News. I just thought that this is a stupendous piece of real estate here that has all these great buildings and so, to see Central go was really, really sad.”

Also during this episode, Maria and Teddie discuss how Earl Barber won the competition to design the building and why well-known architect Carl Worth didn’t; what name did the school start out as, the additions in the 1920s and 1930s; the contributions from Webster Chair Factory owner Andrew Webster, the significance of the James J. Hill statue out front; the story of Lulu Dickinson and a strike; Principal Clifford Wade and the tributes after his death; the Summer White House and what other future presidents visited Central High School; how was Central used after Superior High School was built; the Central and East rivalry; and much more.

New episodes of Archive Dive are published monthly. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune digital producers Wyatt Buckner and Dan Williamson. If you have an idea for a topic you’d like to see covered, email Maria Lockwood at [email protected].