Duluth Central High School – Duluth
Borrowing from the design pages of Henry Hobson Richardson, America’s most famous Romanesque-style architect, Duluth architects Palmer, Hall, and Hunt gave their hometown a high school building in 1892 to rival even the master’s work. Every detail-from carved smiling cherubs and grotesque animal figures over the cavernous entrance to the 230-foot tall clock tower-conveys the best in Richardsonian Romanesque design. The massive brownstone structure towers over the city’s business district and cost over half a million dollars to construct, making it one of the most costly public works projects of the era. Today the building, no longer a high school, serves numerous functions for the Duluth Public School District. Architect for the restoration was Richard Whitelman, Duluth.
