Central High School photograph   Save
Ohio Guide Collection
Description: Dated ca. 1935-1940, this photograph shows Central High School, located on the west bank of the Scioto River in downtown Columbus, Ohio. The photograph was taken from South Civic Center Drive on the east side of the Scioto River. Columbus Public Schools sold the building in the 1990s and soon after the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) bought the building and remodeled it for the new site of COSI. Most of the front of the school remains facing the river. The new addition sits on what was the football field of the school. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B11F05_15_001
Subjects: Columbus (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Center of Science and Industry (Columbus, Ohio); High schools--Ohio; School buildings--Ohio; Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)