Central High School (Pueblo, Colorado)

Central High School is one of seven public high schools located in Pueblo, Colorado, United States. A part of Pueblo City Schools, the high school was the second for the city of Pueblo, and was founded in 1881. It is the only high school to have two Medal of Honor recipients, William J. Crawford (Class of '36) and Carl L. Sitter (Class of '40). The school at one time had a reputation for gang membership and used an ad campaign to improve its image.DemographicsHispanic 76.1%White 18.1%African American 3.3%Asian 0.1%Native American 2.3% 77% of Pueblo Central High School's students are eligible to receive a free/reduced lunch rate.ArchitectureThe present Neoclassical building on Orman Avenue is built of brick and consists of five floors and an outlying building used as a gym and school meeting area. It was built in 1906. The foyer features right-facing swastikas set into the tile floor. The original Central High School building on Pitkin Avenue (later used as an elementary school) was built of pink rhyolite; the "Stone Schoolhouse" was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.HistoryCentral first opened in 1883, and in 1886 graduated its first class of nine students. In 1889 Central introduced vocational education into its curriculum, making the district the first west of the Missouri River to introduce what was then called "manual training" into the schools.