Central Junior High School/Keating Junior High School
Pueblo County
The 1927 Classical Revival-style Central Junior High School, renamed Keating Junior High School in 1937, is situated in the heart of the City of Pueblo. The concept of junior high schools was introduced in the 1910s and grew in popularity in the 1920s. Adopted across the nation, the innovation aimed to keep students in school by easing the transition between grade school and high school. To meet this educational need the school was constructed in 1927 and rapidly growing enrollment let to an expansion of the school in 1929. The school served as School District 20’s first, and for many years only, junior high school.
Central Junior High School/Keating Junior High School is important to Pueblo’s history because it reflects the district’s implementation of the 1910s and 1920s concept of educational reform through creation of the junior high school, an intermediate level facility between elementary and high schools that recognized the different social and educational needs of young teenagers. Additionally, the property is significant as a well-preserved example of the Classical Revival architectural style applied to educational buildings. It also is an illustration of a purpose-built 1920s junior high school building, including functional rooms reflecting then new teaching methods and curriculums. The school is further locally significant as a work of Pueblo architects William W. Stickney (1922 central part) and Walter F. DeMordaunt (1929 east and west wings).