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1938 – 1972 (boys' school from 1909)
Founded: The diocese dates an all-boys Central Catholic High School to 1909, standing on the southwest corner of Cathedral Square, where the St. Mother Theodore Guérin Chapel now stands; its yearbooks at the Allen County Public Library run from 1915. In 1938 the boys' school and St. Augustine Academy for girls were merged into a co-educational Central Catholic — the city's first co-educational Catholic high school — in a new building on Cathedral Square, dedicated by Bishop John F. Noll on January 8, 1939.
Course: Enrollment passed 1,400 in 1956. A period note from the school's own record: in the Ku Klux Klan era, opposition kept Catholic schools out of Indiana state tournament play. Bishop Leo A. Pursley's fundraising campaign then built two suburban Catholic high schools — Luers on the south side and Dwenger on the north — and drained Central Catholic of its students.
Fate: Central Catholic closed in the spring of 1972. The diocese used the building for a time to house refugees being resettled in Fort Wayne; the school was demolished in 1984 and its site became a parking lot. The Diocesan Museum keeps an exhibit on the school, and its alumni association remains active.
Sources:
- Today's Catholic, "Fond Memories Still Linger 50 Years After Closing of Fort Wayne's Central Catholic High School" (Nov. 23, 2022) — the 1909 boys' school; the 1938 merger; enrollment 1956; closing 1972; demolition 1984.
- Diocesan Museum exhibit, via Today's Catholic; Allen County Public Library yearbook index (Central Catholic, 1915–1972), via ACGSI.