When the final bell rings, some schools don’t close; they transform.

Larry Giantomas wiped away tears as he walked through Central High. It was spring of 1995, 25 years after the school’s final graduating Class of 1970 received their diplomas, and emotions were high as he and others toured through their old building. The dedication ceremony for the Central High Apartments marked a new chapter for the school’s long and storied history. A graduate of 1951, Larry wore his faded blue and orange graduation tassel pinned to his jacket as he relived teenage memories.

Walking past the grand stained glass window, climbing the worn marble steps, entering into his homeroom, he heard echoes of friends and times gone by. Former Central students like Larry came to pay their respects to the school, and to see a preview of the 106 new apartment units completed that year. Basketball courts, classrooms, and even the pool had been transformed into unique living spaces to give the historic educational building a new purpose.

Hosting its first class of students in 1874, Central was rebuilt, remodeled, expanded and repurposed many times before it finally graduated to apartments in 1995. Like many historic buildings in South Bend, evolution becomes necessary to fit with modern needs. The city has an almost hermit crab-like ability to see not just an old shell but new possibilities. The Colfax School, constructed in 1898, is another example of this kind of transformation. After the last school bell rang out in 1976, the building sat empty for only a year before it was turned into the Michiana College of Commerce in 1977, followed by a conversion to the Colfax Cultural Center in the 1980s, which remains in operation today.

Even as time marches on, we can coexist with the memories of the past by listening for the impressions of laughter, learning, and lives being lived in the school halls of history. “Old buildings show you who you are as a community,” said Judy O’Bannon in a 1996 Tribune interview about the Central High project, “They are our meeting and gathering places. Each community needs one.” And in these old school buildings, there are still lessons being learned and lessons being taught…how to play a new board game with friends, how to appreciate local art in a gallery, how to cook a new meal, how to live in a city that is constantly reinventing itself.

More Local & Family History Resources

Schools and libraries of the past used card catalogs to locate books in the collection. Did you know we still have some of the library’s original card catalogs? They no longer point to books in our collection, but to our clipping files. These files are folders of newspaper clippings collected by librarians over decades on a variety of local people, places, events, and buildings. Come to the Local & Family History department on the third floor of the Main Library and a staff member will be happy to pull some clipping files for you to look at, whether it’s for research or just for fun! We also recommend checking out the books