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1971 – present
Course: When Central High School closed in 1971, its 1904 building at 1200 South Barr Street became the Fort Wayne Regional Vocational High School, the district's vocational center. In 1990 it was renamed the Anthis Career Center, and in 2015 the FWCS Career Academy at Anthis. The district's 2015 announcement said the new name better reflected the programs while continuing the honor, and that the blue in the academy's logo connects it to its roots as Central High School, whose colors were blue and white. The site marker, dedicated 16 July 2014, compresses the whole lineage into one inscription: Public High School 1904, Central High School 1922, Anthis Career Center 1971.
Not demolished: A persistent local memory holds that the Central building came down. It did not. The History Center notes that despite the 1971 closing the building remains relatively true to its original design, and it stands today at 1200 South Barr Street. Two real demolitions feed the confusion: the old Central gym was torn down during the building's vocational-center years, and the separate Central Catholic High School across the street, closed in 1972, was demolished in 1984. Neither was this building.
Namesake: Anthis is a person. Bill Clinton Anthis (1926-2021) served as superintendent of Fort Wayne Community Schools from 1980 to 1990 and gave the district 33 years, much of it at North Side High School as guidance director, dean of boys, assistant principal and principal, after beginning his career as a teacher and coach at Rockville, Indiana, following Navy service. One Indiana State University booklet dates his superintendency to a 1977 award; the district's own timelines place it in 1980 to 1990, and those govern here. Working notes for this record once supposed a Kesling or Towles stage in the building's lineage; no source supports one, Jeff H. Towles was a school board member of the era and a different school's namesake, and the lineage above has no room for either step.
Programs: The academy serves students from public, private and homeschool backgrounds across northeast Indiana, applying through their home school counselors, most programs open to juniors and seniors. Its programs page claims ten programs and lists nine headings: Automotive, Construction Trades, Cosmetology, Information Technology, Culinary Arts, Early Childhood Education, Health Sciences, Public Safety, and Welding Technology, many offering dual college credit and industry certifications. Fire Science and Criminal Justice meet off site at the Public Safety Academy at Southtown Centre. In 2015 the district said the academy served 22 high schools. The building also hosts the district's Center for Academic Success high school program and adult education English classes.
Fate: Operating, as FWCS's career and technical education center, in the oldest school building in the district still teaching, on the second home of the city's first public high school.
Sources:
- Fort Wayne Community Schools, Career Academy Our History and Programs pages: the lineage, the programs and the building's present use.
- Fort Wayne Community Schools news release, 23 April 2015: the Career Academy renaming, the Anthis honor and the blue logo.
- The History Center, Central High School pennant record: the building's survival in near-original form.
- Historical Marker Database, Fort Wayne Public High School marker: the 2014 inscription.
- Fort Wayne Newspapers, Bill Anthis obituary, January 2021, and FWCS board timelines: the superintendent's life and dates.
- Indiana Historical Society, M 1376 historical sketch: the 1971 vocational conversion and the 1990 and 2015 renamings.