Jesup Wakeman Scott High School, Toledo

Jesup Wakeman Scott High School in Toledo’s historic Old West End stands as a landmark of early 20th-century educational architecture. Designed in Tudor-Gothic style by Toledo architect David L. Stine and completed in 1913, the structure features terra cotta details, high ceilings, original skylights, and a symmetrical façade crafted from robust masonry. Its design has drawn attention for its strict yet magnificent architecture of the beginning of the 20th century. The building was preserved through a major renovation in 2011 that retained historic elements while integrating modern systems.

The school bears the name of Jesup Wakeman Scott, a former editor of The Toledo Blade, entrepreneur, philanthropist and civic leader who reportedly envisioned Toledo as the “Future Great City of the World”. He donated land in support of higher learning, and the school stands today as the city’s longest-standing high school building.

After receiving a $1 million grant from the Gates Foundation in the early 2000s, Scott High School was reorganized into four smaller academies, each designed to support a different area of career interest. This approach mirrored a wider national move toward more focused, specialized education in high schools, implemented here within the school’s historic environment.