The original building at the intersection of Lake Avenue and Second Street first opened in 1893 and closed in 1971, being used as office space until it was converted to apartments in 2024.

The Historic Old Central High School is a massive, three-story Richardsonian Romanesque building of Lake Superior Brownstone.

[3] The Historic Old Central High School, occupying a prominent position in the Hillside neighborhood, was designed by the prominent East Coast architectural firm of Palmer, Hall, & Hunt, with local assistance from Duluth-based architects Oliver G. Traphagen and Francis W. Fitzpatrick.

From 1898 to 1942 a 17-foot (5.2 m) cannon stood on the high school's steps, a prize captured from the Spanish cruiser Almirante Oquendo during the Spanish–American War in 1898.

As America entered World War II the cannon was donated to a scrap metal drive and melted down.

[7][8] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972; the nomination described it as "one of the state's finest examples of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture".

Saturday Properties, a St. Louis Park-based developer, bought it in 2022 for $3 million, and began converting the building into apartments.

The conversion, which preserved original features such as the auditorium (reconfigured as a common space), hallways, and lockers, was completed in 2024.

The new school was situated on a campus of over 70 acres, with commanding views of Duluth and Lake Superior, and featured a football field.

In November 2013 the Duluth City Council met to finalize plans to rezone the land from an R-1 (residential zone) to a commercial C zone paving the way for ISD 709 to sell Central High School to potential land developers for commercial purposes.

In 2022 Chester Creek View LLC purchased the majority of the property, including the school building, for $8 million.