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COSI and Central High School

Description:

The first building in the Columbus Civic Center along the Scioto Riverfront, Central High School educated children from 1925 until it closed in the 1980s. The building was a key piece in the rebirth of the riverfront and the west side following the 1913 flood. The Neo Classical Civic Center... Read more

The first building in the Columbus Civic Center along the Scioto Riverfront, Central High School educated children from 1925 until it closed in the 1980s. The building was a key piece in the rebirth of the riverfront and the west side following the 1913 flood. The Neo Classical Civic Center was the result. The project was part of a massive school building campaign in the 1920s that produced North, South, East, West, and Central High Schools after Ohio passed mandatory school attendance laws that also required rooms for home economics, printing, industrial arts and other vocational training. The auditorium once housed the infamous Burkhart mural, Music, that was whitewashed over during a summer in the 1940s. The principal questioned its morality and acted on his own authority. The whitewashing made national magazines because it came at the same time as Adolf Hitler’s censorship of the arts in Germany. In the 1980s, the school board sold the building to the city who allowed the building to be used to house the exhibit, Son of Heaven. This exhibit of rare Chinese art allowed many to see the building’s potential. In 1999, the building was expanded and converted into the Center of Science and Industry or COSI. The auditorium was removed and the mural, Music, was stored at the Ohio Historical Society until it was taken to Fort Hayes to be restored by students (and now hangs in the Convention Center) The historic Central High School façade and sunken courtyards face downtown, while the contemporary elliptical west elevation houses COSI’s main entrance.

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COSI and Central High School
Categories
Architecture
Address:

333 W Broad St
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Franklin County

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