Central High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma 1917-1976

The new Tulsa Central High School was opened for the first time in September, 1917. As the town grew, so did the school. The south half was added in 1922, completing the building, to cover an entire city block. It had one hundred and four rooms and floor space for ninety-six more such rooms, space used for business, maintenance, and other necessary purposes. Tulsa Central furnished the laundry for all the Tulsa public schools and had the only high pressure heating plant in the school system. Central had four floors and an underground structure made up mostly of hot and cold air tunnels used in the ventilation system. Here also were located the laundry, boiler, and engine rooms. The school had three gymnasiums, two swimming pools, and two auditoriums. The north auditorium was used as a meeting place for maximum groups of one thousand and for showing educational motion picture. The south auditorium was used for all lplays, assemblies, and meeting of large groups. From 1918 to 1945 Central High School had an enrollment varying from 1,116 in 1917 to 5,107 in 1939.