A brief history of Wisconsin Avenue: A video from WMTV's "Morning Show" featuring author Stuart Levitan

Madison Central High School closed 40 years ago and I've been trying to pull together enough information for a post about the closing of the school and the last graduating class...and not just because several people have been nagging me to do so.

Until that post is ready for publication, here's a video from WMTV's "Morning Show." featuring Stuart Levitan, author of "Madison: The Illustrated Sesquicentennial History, Volume 1, 1856-1931," giving a four-minute presentation on the history of Wisconsin Avenue, accompanied by large-scale versions of some historic photographs of the area. He stumbles over the name of the school at first, but finally manages to say "Central High School."

You'll have to put up with some advertising and some newscaster chit-chat before you can see and hear the material about Wisconsin Avenue, but I think it's worth the wait.

Note: Thanks to Judy Karofsky for the tip about this video. Judy is not a Central alumna, but lives in Downtown Madison and is involved in historic preservation. I interviewed her for my article about the preservation of the Central arch, and, among her observations was this one: "At the beginning, it may have seemed frivolous, but the importance of the arch has increased over time." Using her always-handy iPhone, she's also shared some other terrific sources of information about life in Downtown Madison, including this series of photographs of a large house being moved around the Square.