Alfred A. Benesch School has had many missions and name changes over its long life as a school in the Central neighborhood.
According to Cleveland Metropolitan School District records, Benesch was first named Outhwaite in 1880. It was originally called Outhwaite School for Boys, and it served primarily Jewish children.
In 1926, Outhwaite became an alternative school for underachieving youngsters who needed to catch up with their peers, according to the Western Reserve Historical Society.
Its name change didn’t come until 1963, when the Cleveland board of education unanimously voted to rename the school in honor of Alfred Benesch, a longtime Cleveland school board member and founding partner of the Benesch law firm, who graduated from Outhwaite in 1891, according to a brief history by the late Benesch’s international Cleveland-based law firm.
Several years after that vote, a new Benesch was built at East 55th and Quincy, a block away from the old school. A school district consolidation in 2013 sent students from Carl and Louis Stokes Central Academy to Benesch.
This time it was Benesch’s turn to close. The district said school enrollment had fallen and the school needed major repairs. The school board voted in December 2025 to close the building and encouraged students to attend George Washington Carver school about a half mile away.
