A school built in the early 1900s will soon be getting a new life as a STEAM school. But seniors at the building next door want to memorialize the rich history of the former Central High School. Their civic public policy class is researching the impact of the building and its events on the greater community, with the end goal of creating a historic marker in front of the school.

Perhaps you’ve seen blue and yellow historic signs across the state.

Why would you give a second thought to the building outside your classroom window?

“As a student who has been here for 4 years as a senior, we’ve always heard about the school next door, but we never decided to look into it because it’s just the school next door," said Oro Hasan, a student at Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central (ITC).

That building next door used to be a high school. Soon, it will be again. But what happened there before it closed?

“It was such an important school on its own, and it’s going to become important in the future, but we need to preserve what was important then, to understand how it’s going to be important later on," said ITC student Angie Grevi.

They are studying primary source documents like yearbooks.

“Playbills, programs, different sporting events that happened; we found a vast variety of events that brought both the school community together and the city of Syracuse together because we’ve all kind of interconnected ourselves in that way," said Grevi.

They’re also learning stories, like the student who died trying to save another student from drowning in the lake.

“It really just informs our community on who we are as people. As someone who’s lived in Syracuse her whole life, I’ve always seen it as a sort of boring city, but stories like this really invest you in where you are and what’s going on around you," said Hasan.

So how can students turn this research into action? This 12th-grade class is applying for a historical marker through the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.

“It’ll mean that we were able to preserve a piece of history that was so important to Syracuse, and knowing that we at least had a hand in it, I think that’ll be something we cherish for a very long time," said ITC student Amelia Grimshaw.

“That’s my job. I need them to start thinking that way, where do they think they’re going to take our culture in the future, what societal values are they going to pass on to their kids," said Katie Argus, social studies teacher at ITC.

The students hope to soon see a historical marker of their own creation around the corner. It’ll be a while before their application is reviewed, approved and a sign is potentially created and placed in front of the school.

To apply for a grant to get a historical marker in your community, head to WGPFoundation.org.