Just Askin': What's the oldest high school in Cincinnati?
The Enquirer's Just Askin' series aims to answer the questions that no one seems to have an answer for, not even Google.
If you've lived in Cincinnati for any time at all, you surely must have noticed the city's fascination with where you went to high school. It's a top-five get-to-know-you question.
A 2012 "Cincinnati Magazine" article says our fascination is due in part to the "social shorthand" one's alma mater provides. Many people who grew up in Cincinnati stay here or come back after college. This means when we talk to other home-grown Cincinnatians, we know the high schools they're referring to and the traits, or, er, stereotypes associated with them.
Each area high school is known for its particular geography, academic or sports reputation, quirks and traditions. However, only one school can claim that it's been around the longest.
Question: What is the oldest high school in Cincinnati?
Answer: St. Xavier High School. Barely.
The all-boys Catholic high school in Finneytown was founded in 1831 and is the oldest high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, according to a job description posted online by the school more than a decade ago. An article published in The Enquirer in 2006 also says St. X is the oldest school in the area.
However, it's a very close call. Another Cincinnati high school opened only seven days after St. Xavier, said Nicholas Kemper, St. Xavier's Director of Archives.
Bond Hill's Woodward Career Technical High School, then called Woodward Free Grammar School, opened on Oct. 24, 1831. St. Xavier, then called the Athenaeum, opened a week prior on Oct. 17, 1831.
Even though St. Xavier has Woodward beat for the "oldest high school in Cincinnati" title, Woodward has other honors to boast. Woodward is one of the first public schools in the country, according to the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library. Woodward is also the first high school west of the Allegheny Mountains, which extend from Pennsylvania to Virginia.
Both St. Xavier and Woodward have changed drastically since they were founded.
The Athenaeum was located on Sycamore Street downtown. The school was renamed St. Xavier College early on and served boys ages 12 through 20. At one point, it was a boarding school. In 1919, the older students split off and Xavier University was created in Avondale. The high school stayed downtown for another 50 years, until moving to Finneytown in 1960.
Woodward Free Grammar School opened on Franklin Street in Bond Hill, according to the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library. In the 1850s, the school joined the Cincinnati Public School System and was renamed Cincinnati Woodward High School. In the early 2000s, Woodward had two campuses: the Woodward Career Technical High School and the Woodward Traditional High School. Today, only the technical high school remains.
Do you have a question for Just Askin'? Send it to us at localnews@enquirer.com.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Just Askin': What's the oldest high school in Cincinnati?
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