Miller Vocational High School
1932, 1950, 2022
In September 1928, The Minneapolis Star ran the headline, “Girls Rush to Enroll for Garment Worker Training”. Twenty girls were the first enrollees to the Girls’ Vocational High School program to train young women for jobs in the garment industry. The Twin Cities Apparel Industries and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union needed workers and requested that the Minneapolis Board of Education provide a course in advanced dressmaking. It was believed that the thirty-five garment factories in the Twin Cities could absorb between 150 to 200 newly trained workers each year.
The Girls Vocational High School was originally located on the same city block as the current building. Prior to 1932, the facility was known as Central High School, and was the only high school in Minneapolis, offering academic studies as well as vocational training. However, the building was old and was officially condemned in the early 1920s. An article in The Minneapolis Tribune in early 1931 reported on a public hearing attended by several hundred people, including parents and teachers, demanding that the building – branded as a fire trap unsafe, unhealthy and entirely inadequate for school purposes – be replaced.
By 1932, Vocational High School, formerly known as Central High School in downtown Minneapolis, was deemed to be “unsanitary, unsafe and unfit for use as a public-school building”, after plaster fell from the ceiling in one of the classrooms. After lengthy debate, the board of education determined in early 1931 that the present building could not be improved and that a new building would be built. It was determined that the plans and specifications for the new building would be drawn by the board of education’s own body of engineers and architects, without outside help.
On May 13, 1932, the Minneapolis Star carried a photograph of the building under construction. The Vocational High School was built as a four-story building, constructed such that additional floors could be added (although the building remains a four-story building). The architectural style is Streamline Moderne, similar to the Minneapolis Auditorium, demolished in 1989, and the Minneapolis Post Office. Edwin H. Enger, architect for the board of education, designed the building.
Vocational education has a long history in Minneapolis, including several physical facilities, building names, mergers and closures. The four-story building completed in 1932, was lauded as offering one of the best programs. The Miller Vocational High School building filled the entire city block, bound by South 11th and 12th Streets, and 3rd and 4th Avenues South. According to the Minneapolis Star Journal, the school was considered, “one of the most modern vocational schools in the country.” Attendance averaged about 2,300 students, eventually serving both men and women.
Trade skills taught included woodworking, typesetting, nursing, and dress making. The new school was named after Mary Miller, a teacher related to early Minneapolis settlers who built the first house on the west side of the Mississippi.
In early 1935, an open house at Vocational High School included exhibits and demonstrations, including cooking classes, drama performances, book binding, sewing exhibits, and metal work.
On October 27, 1935, The Minneapolis Journal reported on a mural to be painted on the walls of the library. The painting, depicting youth working in trades, was designed and painted in fresco by Lucia Wiley, an Oregon-based artist.
During World War II, there was an immediate need for labor in manufacturing plants supporting the war effort. The Vocational High School offered classes day and night, training more than 19,000 people outside the regular high school program. When veterans returned from the war, Vocational High School provided occupational training.
On February 9, 1949, the merger of Miller Vocational High School and the Boys’ Vocational High School was announced. Minneapolis School Board members voted to change the name of the school to “Minneapolis High School and Technical Institute, Elizabeth M. Fish, Founder.” The vote essentially ended the memorialization of Mary Miller, after whom the original school was named. Elizabeth Fish led a decade-long
campaign for the vocational school in Minneapolis, and was the school principal for many years. She held the distinction of being the first woman in the country to lead a vocational school.
The vocational high school closed in 1976, and in the mid 1980s, the building was sold to a developer who converted the building to offices. The building was renamed Century Plaza. Preservation of the building was lauded at the time, to prove as the developer said, “you don’t have to tear things down”. Hennepin County bought the building in 1996, and used it to house Human Services offices until the spring of 2017.
The building sat vacant and was purchased by Swervo Development in 2022. Swervo is a Minneapolis-based development company known for purchasing distressed historic or unique properties. Century Plaza was to be a mixed-use property, keeping the existing parking ramp and incorporating full-size Apart-hotel accommodations along with a new police precinct.
The decision was made to relocate the Minneapolis Police Department’s First Precinct to this facility. They had outgrown their existing space in downtown Minneapolis and needed a facility that could accommodate state-of-the-art technology and modern-day policing efforts. The First Precinct opened in August 2025 and is a model for other police departments using integrated technology. It occupies 36,000 square feet, one-third of the first floor and lower level of the eastern portion of the building.
The remaining building was converted to 146 Apart-hotel suites ranging in size from studios to three-bedroom units. A pickleball court, fitness center and yoga room are all available to guests of Roami at Century Plaza, the on-site hotel that welcomes long-term guests, convention goers, corporate clients, and overnight guests. A fifth-floor addition to the building includes a 4,000 square foot patio with skyline views of downtown Minneapolis.