Historic Duluth Central High items offered in public auction

A band uniform, a yearbook or an old desk from Duluth Central High School was more than memorabilia to bidders Saturday. It was a chance to hold onto a physical piece of a landmark that has overlooked the harbor since 1892.

The auction of items from the former Duluth Central High School alumni historical museum was held at Nordic Auction in Duluth with a 10 a.m. start, and preview hours were set for Friday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The sale included band uniforms, yearbooks, desks, typewriters, trophies, photographs and other memorabilia that had been preserved for years by alumni and museum volunteers.

Don Ness, executive director of the Ordean Foundation, said a volunteer committee had taken stewardship of the collection and maintained a museum in Old Central. He said the group did “a fantastic job,” underscoring that the sale was not a random clear-out but part of a deliberate effort to decide what should happen next to the school’s legacy.

That stewardship mattered because the Historic Old Central High School Museum Committee had maintained an 1890s classroom museum in the Old Central High School administration building and gave tours of the museum and belltower to alumni and others. Many of the items in the collection had been donated by Duluth school alumni, giving the display a direct link to generations of students, teachers and families.

Central’s history helps explain why the artifacts drew such interest. Duluth’s original Central High School was built in 1892 of locally mined sandstone at a cost of $460,000. Its clock tower rises 230 feet, with clock faces each 10 1/2 feet in diameter and chimes patterned after Big Ben. For many in the city, the building has never been just a school. It has been a civic landmark tied to Duluth’s identity.

Evavold said people had been very supportive of the auction and excited for a chance to own a piece of history. That reaction reflects the tension now surrounding Central’s legacy: how to preserve memory when a familiar building is gone, and how much of that memory should remain in public hands.

The old Central High School property sold for $8 million in 2022, demolition of the main building began in November 2022, and the school district closed on the sale on March 10, 2023. At the same time, the historic Old Central building was being converted into 122 apartments in a renovation expected to cost close to $30 million. As Duluth’s campus changed, the auction gave residents one more way to keep Central’s story rooted in local homes, not just in photographs and fading recollections.