- Yeah, for decades here at Central High School, this is where every school day began, walking up these front steps.

And a hundred years later, well, this is where the memories start too.

(gentle music) - Every time I enter that building, I always think, "If I could hear voices of the past, what would they be calling out to me and saying?"

(bell rings) Or would I hear a bell ring?

Or I just always think of stepping in the same spot, maybe, where there is real connection, with people who have come before us.

- [Jeff] Erin Allsop, the archivist, for Central Piedmont Community College, has a view of this oldest building on campus from her office window, and the newest building on campus right next door, where the college is curating the a hundred year history of Central High and Second Ward High too.

(gentle music) - We didn't live this experience, this is just our way of telling the stories of others, who experienced it for themselves.

- [Jeff] Allsop gives us a private peek at what may be the rarest item in her collection.

- So this is leather, it's a leather bound or a suede bound book, rather.

- [Jeff] This Snips and Cuts yearbook from 1911, 12 years before the old Charlotte High School relocated in 1923, to the new Central High School.

Also on display, is Anna Elizabeth Sutton's diploma from 1928, the second four year class to graduate from Central High.

The diploma itself, hidden away, for who knows how long, in the home of a Sutton relative.

- And he's walking on campus with this big frame and came in and said, "I wanna donate this to you.

This is still here."

- [Jeff] That Central High Legacy includes decades more of these donated scrapbook memories, lots of Charlotte and black and white reminders of what life was like for Central High graduates and their families.

Most memorable may be this old hand me down high school cheerleading sweater, which I mean it's beautifully detailed and beautifully crafted.

- [Jeff] And beautifully preserved too.

Allsop showing us the sweater's woven patches on the front and on the back and look closely on the sweater's collar, where you can still see this old pink tag from the dry cleaners.

- Yeah, I'm a cheerleader.

I still have my cheerleader outfit.

I could go check and see.

- [Jeff] Yep, former Charlotte Mayor and City Council member Patsy Kinsey, was a Central High cheerleader too.

Class of '59, 28 years after her mother also graduated from Central.

- My homeroom teacher I think, was her Latin teacher at Central.

- Wow, so it was kind of a family tradition for you, Central High School, yeah.

- And I think when I went there, the school pretty much looked the way it did, when she was there.

- Kinsey adds, that's pretty much, what Central High School looks like today.

After the restoration renovation and rededication of the old building, that she and other graduates pushed for back in 2007.

They even replanted a willow tree out front, to replace Central High's original 1923 willow tree at the school's reunion, celebrating Central High's reopening.

- It was so exciting, exciting to be on the grounds there at Central Piedmont Community College.

- In fact, the old Central High building is where Central Piedmont actually started, back in the early '60s.

Central High was also the original campus for Charlotte College, which eventually became UNC Charlotte.

- I would say that my fondest memory of all of that building, attending Central High School, was the fact that Charlotte College was in the basement of the building.

- [Jeff] That's Charlotte sports writer, author, and talk show host John Kilgo, class of '55, who went to high school and college in this old building.

He was one of several Central High graduates, interviewed by UNC Charlotte, prior to that 2007 reunion.

- Lots of rivalries, but lots of friendships developed too.

- [Jeff] Former TV executive, Jim Babb, class of '51, remembers those old central football games at Memorial Stadium.

- Lived across the street from the school most of my life.

- [Jeff] And longtime Charlotte Observer Editor, Jack Claiborne, Central High class of '50, says Charlotte's largest high school, was also a neighborhood high school for him.

- We're off again to meet a few people on the back roads of America.

- [Jeff] TV Hall of Famer, Charles Kuralt, was voted most likely to succeed, by his Central High classmates in 1951, before decades of popular on the road stories for CBS.

- [Sportscaster] It's Jim Beatty (indistinct) it on.

- [Jeff] But Central High's most famous graduate was on front pages everywhere in 1961.

- [Sportscaster] You may be seeing track history right here and now.

He still has about 45 to go.

- [Sportscaster] He's gonna make it.

He's gonna run the first four minute mile It looks like he made it unofficially 3.58.6.

- His track team buddies from high school knew him as Jimmy Beatty, Central class of '53 Now breaking an indoor world record with the whole world watching why?.

- [Sportscaster] And now the victory lap for Jim Beatty.

Let's listen to the crowd.