January 2026.
West High School in Hilltop is Columbus’s public high school on the west side. Its predecessor is located in Franklinton and has been converted to apartments. Both have a similar classical-inspired design that was very common at the time, though they are expressed differently.
Old West High School is located at 120 South Central Avenue in the Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by State Street to the north, Town Street to the south, Brehl Avenue and houses to the east, and Central Avenue and the Starling K-8 School to the west.
West High School is located at 179 South Powell Avenue in the Hilltop neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Olive Street to the north, Magly Field and Postle Road to the south, Powell Avenue and houses to the east, and an alley to the west.
Old West High School History
A postcard of the old West High School building. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
The NRHP listing for this one isn’t published online yet (it was listed in 2022), so I have to take a lot of Wikipedia’s info at face value here. West High School, along with the three other directional high schools (North, South, and East), were built to serve the growing population of Columbus as Central High School in its earlier downtown location became overcrowded. Even though the first West High School is also in Franklinton, it is further west than Central High, which is immediately across the Scioto River from downtown Columbus. This allowed it to serve the growing Hilltop.
The first West High School building at 120 S Central was designed by Columbus school architect David Riebel in the Beaux-Arts style. Construction began in the summer of 1907, and the school opened on September 8, 1908. As of 1916, the school had 457 students. Architect Howard Dwight Smith then designed an addition onto the east side of the building in 1926, which held a cafeteria, five classrooms, locker rooms, and specialized classrooms for sewing and mechanical drawings. Despite this new addition, old West High School was apparently still not large enough, and the current West High School in Hilltop was designed by Smith immediately after.
The only photo I could find of the gym addition. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
After the new West High School opened, the old building became Starling Middle School in 1929. A Mid-Century Modern addition with a gymnasium and auditorium was added to the south end in 1955. Starling Middle School eventually became Starling Elementary School.
Starling Elementary School moved across Central Avenue to a newly constructed building in 2012, and the former West High School was left abandoned circa 2014. It was considered at risk of demolition for the following years and made it to the 2021 list of Columbus Landmarks’ Most Endangered Properties. Luckily, in 2022, a developer purchased the building and converted it to affordable housing. The project also involved the construction of new townhomes where the 1955 gymnasium addition stood. Today, the entire complex is known as Starling Yard.
West High School History
Historic photo of West High School shortly after opening. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
West High School’s construction began in June 1927, designed by Howard Dwight Smith in the Colonial Revival style. It was built on land that was formerly Camp Chase, an army camp during the Civil War. It opened in 1929 and has operated since.
View of the interior in 1940. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
Like West High School’s predecessor, the current building has been modified over the years. In 1953, a third floor was added to the northwest end, which brought it to the same level as the other walls. Two additions were also built onto the west side of the school around the same time.
A notable event of West High School’s history was its desegregation in the 1970s. In 1973, 14 minority students at Columbus’s schools filed a lawsuit alleging that the school district intentionally drew attendance boundaries and appointed teachers and staff to segregate the schools. At the time the trial began in 1976, 70% of the 96,000 students in school at the time attended a school that had an 80% or more racial majority, and 50% of the schools were at least 90% white or Black. A district judge sided with the students in March 1977, finding that on the west side of Columbus, the lines for attendance zones were drawn specifically to separate Black and white students. The Board of Education appealed to the United States Court of Appeals, which sided with the district court, and the board appealed again to the Supreme Court. In a 7-2 decision in July 1979, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling and decided that the school district must desegregate and begin a busing program. This decision led to white flight and a sharp decline in enrollment, leading to the closure of Central and North High School.
West High School’s original cupola was removed in August 2016 due to structural instability. After backlash from alumni and the community, Columbus City Schools approved funding for a replacement, which is built of more weather-resistant materials. It was installed in 2018. However, the school is still old and lacks air conditioning, resulting in students asking to go home due to high temperatures.
Photos
I only have two pictures of the current West High School, so I’m just going to lump the two together here.
An oblique view of old West High School:
Right after I took this picture, some driver honked at me while going by. I had this happen twice in Springfield, too. Is it a common tactic to mess with photographers?
The west facade:
Even though the school lacks overt columns, it still employs several classical features that land it squarely within the Beaux-Arts style. The symmetry, prominent entrance, roof pediment, and cornice are all hallmarks of the style. Additionally, the piers beneath the arched windows suggest the shape of pilasters.
The entrance and windows here have a stone border:
Vaulted second-floor windows and pediment:
The black paint/vinyl is…a choice. It doesn’t match the buff brick or gray stone.
North facade:
Here, you can see the addition that Howard Dwight Smith designed and its larger window openings (brutal glare):
It’s tough to tell where exactly the two meet, since they are in a very similar style. I think the building always had a T-shape to it, and Smith’s addition is the part that lacks the cornice and stone foundation.
It ain’t a Howard Dwight Smith design without inspirational quotes above the doors:
East facade of the addition:
Even though its design is simpler, it still follows the established classical symmetry of the original building.
The newly constructed apartments south of the school:
Not the worst contemporary design I’ve seen, and the brick veneer is an attempt to respond to the school building.
Here is the current West High School:
I say Colonial Revival instead of Beaux-Arts/Neoclassical because of the brick exterior, simple rectangular windows, and cupola design.
Pediment and cupola:
Looking back on it now as I write this in July 2026, I really had issues with centering my photos and standing in alignment with the building. These are the kind of subtle details it takes a minute to learn when doing photography. In the above picture, for instance, the center of the cupola is not aligned with the center of the portico, which makes the photo look off-center.
Sources:
https://www.teachingcolumbus.org/a-history-of-columbus-schools-1812-1912.html
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/443/449/
https://www.wosu.org/desegregation-of-columbus-schools-lesson-plan
https://columbuslandmarks.org/2021-most-endangered-sites/
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ohio/id/22500
https://starlingyard.wodagroup.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_High_School_(Columbus,_Ohio)