herr2ck: East High School

February 2026.

East High School is Columbus’s high school east of downtown. Unlike West and South High School, which have their predecessors still standing, it is like North High School and only has a portion of its original location still in existence. The current 1922 building is a solid example of Beaux-Arts architecture.

East High School is located at 1500 East Broad Street in the King-Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Long Street to the north, Broad Street to the south, Parkwood Avenue to the east, and Taylor Avenue to the west. It is also kitty-corner from Franklin Park.

Old East High School was located at 1402 Franklin Avenue in the Franklin Park neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It was bordered by Oak Street and Fair Avenue Elementary School to the north, Franklin Avenue and Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls to the south, and houses to the east.

Old East High School History

Contrary to the other high schools in Columbus, East High School doesn’t have much history available online. Much of what I know is through its relationship to other schools such as the original South High School.

Historic photo of the first East High School building. (Wikimedia)

East High School was established in 1898, coinciding with a rapid expansion in Columbus’s school building stock that decade. Its first building was completed that year, with the students briefly attending classes at Ohio Avenue Elementary School and Felton Elementary School during construction. It was a Renaissance Revival design by architect David Riebel, who was the school district’s architect at the time. (Its form and design are also very similar to the old South High School, which still stands.) After the current East High School opened in 1922, the old building was reused as the Franklin Junior High School.

Sanborn map snippet depicting the old East High School with its first addition. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

Old East High School received two Mid-Century Modern additions. The first, built in 1953, had an auditorium, gymnasium, and cafeteria. A second addition was built onto the west side of the first in 1967. (I thought the former Fairfax-Evergreen Exchange slightly east of the high school on Franklin Avenue was the addition and took pictures of that, which is featured in a separate article.)

Old East High School’s additions in November 2015. (Google Maps)

The 1898 building was demolished in 1977 for the construction of Franklin Alternative Middle School, now known as the Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls. Its additions continued to stand through at least 2024, but as of my visit, they were long gone.

Early foundation work on the Bryden Road school. The older building awaits its fate in the background. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

East High School History

Rendering of East High School as a Collegiate Gothic design by David Riebel’s firm. The existing building has a similar layout but was designed in a different style. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

Columbus was expanding its school building stock in the 1920s. Its other high schools were built during the decade (North, South, and Central High Schools in 1924, and West High School in 1929), undoubtedly to serve Columbus’s growing population and modernize the aging 19th-century high school buildings. East High School was the earliest of the five, as it was built in 1922 by Howell & Thomas in the Beaux-Arts style. It was built with a central auditorium, two gyms separated by gender, and a manual training department. The school was dedicated on October 11, 1923.

1924 postcard of East High School. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

There isn’t much history of East High School after its construction was completed. However, it has had several notable alumni. Two Ohio State football players who have had their numbers retired, Chic Harley and Bill Willis, graduated from East High School. Other football alumni include Bernie Casey and Jim Marshall. In addition, two graduates that were important to Columbus’s history were writer/cartoonist James Thurber and Florence Kenyon Hayden, the first licensed female architect in Ohio. (She designed Oxley Hall on Ohio State campus.)

A $28-million renovation and addition to East High School was completed in 2008, the school’s first. A 34,000 square-foot gymnasium was built onto the north end of the school in a matching New Traditional style, which has three basketball courts and room for 1,850 spectators. This work also included restoration of the original skylights, woodwork, and cast-iron staircase railings, while installing new light fixtures.

Photos

An angled view of the school from the southeast:

I think the sloping site lends the orthogonal building an even more imposing visual quality.

Much of the Broad Street facade is dominated by a taller portico, which has six Corinthian columns and a disproportionately large frieze:

A closer look:

It has more of a pared-down, Lincoln Memorial-like look without a big pediment.

The wings of the school are likewise very austere and almost Stripped Classical in design:

A subtle cornice crowns this section, and the slightly recessed window bays hint at pilasters (though none are actually present).

From the southwest corner now:

The western facade has a bit more spice, seen in the entrance and reliefs here:

Classic Greek philosophers and a quote (it’s tough to see, but it’s the same one on the portal of 3rd Street School):

These little modules must be where the stairs are, because they lack windows.

Another view of the classroom wing:

A small stone sign with the school’s name stands outside the entrance, versus being engraved on the frieze:

Even though East High is a less lavish example of Beaux-Arts design, it still has an air of fashion with its tall portico. It certainly makes entering a much fancier proposition.

Did YOUR high school have three-story columns?

Balustrade serving as a railing for the stairs:

The Corinthian capitals have a modified design, much simpler than the textured acanthus leaves of antiquity, and the entablature lacks the decorative details of that order besides denticulation:

The doors themselves have been replaced, but the original metal lintel, transom window, and stone portal are all intact:

This decorative topper has a more Renaissance flair, and it has some egg-and-dart below:

I got a closer look at the east side’s reliefs, which are presumably authors (I haven’t read my classics):

Engraved quote below:

This seemed to be the base to a light pole of some kind, which no longer has anything on top:

From this extreme eastern end, you can see how much higher the central portico is:

Not my best photo of the east facade (why I did this one instead of the sunlit west side is beyond me), but you can still see how it has the same fenestration as the south: