By 1911 Central School was obviously inadequate as a first-class high school. Kulack and Loebrick described the difficulties facing the board of education. Voters, given a choice of three locations, opted for the site on North Fifth Street, just east of the original building. Then there were legal complications and delays having to do with the contract for the building and of course, rising costs. There was even a snafu in an all-important public ceremony. "On the morning of September 14, 1917, at 10:00 a.m., a crowd of dignitaries were gathered at the site of the new school. Trowel in hand, some local personage stood ready to lay the cornerstone of the new school, when a whisper in his ear resulted in the final delay. The crowd was dispersed and asked to return at 4:00 p.m. Incredibly, someone had forgotten to assemble the items to be buried in the cornerstone!"

The outer structure was built during the fall and completed before the winter of 1917. It must have been a great day when high school students left old Central to their younger brothers and sisters and took their places in the fine new school. The class of 1920 claimed the honor of being the first to graduate from the new building.

The souvenir dedication booklet is full of detail, even including a picture of the Bedford Quarry in Indiana, where the limestone originated; it shows the noble entrances and the spacious marble corridors, the offices, the classrooms, the laboratories, the lockers, and even the teachers' restroom with its wicker furniture. It was great! And it had cost, with equipment, $312,213.00.

In the spring of 1926 the gymnasium was completed. At last there were basketball courts, dressing rooms, a place big enough for the whole student body to assemble, and a floor for parties and proms. What a shock for alumni of these years to be told that Central's gym had become inadequate and that a new one was an absolute necessity (in 1985)!