Historic Public Schools of Cincinnati

Part VII: Parting Words and the Dearly Departed

In honor of the unofficial beginning of the school year, a seven part series on the architecture of public schools in Cincinnati prior to World War II.

A few things to wrap up . . .

First, I added the original Walnut Hills High School on Burdett Avenue in Walnut Hills to the Part II: 1890 – 1899 post.

Second, there are two trade high schools in Walnut Hills that sort of fit my criteria for 'Historic Schools', however I do not know who designed them and the one is not that attractive. They look like could be by Tietig & Lee or Elzner & Anderson just based on some of the others schools they did. But again, I am not sure and can only speculate at this point.

Automotive Vocational School (1928)
Walnut Hills – 2315 Iowa Avenue
Architect: Unknown
Style: Commercial Style – Classical Revival
No longer used as a school however it is still owned and used by CPS.

Printing High School - School of Graphic Arts (1930)
Walnut Hills – NE Corner Essex Place & East McMillan Street
Architect: Unknown
Style: Commercial – Classical Revival
No longer used as a school.

And finally, a number of historic schools have been demolished in my lifetime. The first two listed below, sadly, I do not remember at all. But the remaining schools have all been demolished as part of the facility improvement project Cincinnati Public is currently undertaking with the Ohio School Facilities Commission. The demolition of Carson is really what prompted this entire seven-part post. I just wanted to see all the schools and document them in a quick and easy way before others were lost.

If there is anything I’d like to show by the series is that our historic schools are really irreplaceable treasures. While the older schools may not meet today’s standards and in some cases may be functionally obsolete, we should be more diligent to see that more do not go by way of the wrecking ball. I believe in progress but I also know once they are gone, they are gone forever. Complete preservation is out of the question but so should demolition in my opinion.

The dearly departed in order of construction:

Columbian Public School (1897)
Corryville – Martin Luther King Blvd. & Harvey Avenue
Architect: Henry Siter
Style: Romanesque Revival
Demolished – 1993


Avondale Public School (1907)
Avondale – Reading Road & Rockdale Avenue
Architect: Edward H. Dornette
Style: Tudor Revival
Demolished – 1975

Pleasant Ridge (1909)
Pleasant Ridge – 5945 Montgomery Road
Addition: 1931
Architect: C.C. & E. Weber
Style: Neo-Classical Revival
Demolished – c. 2006

Carson (1916)
West Price Hill – 4323 Glenway Avenue
Architect: Samuel Hannaford & Sons
Style: Tudor Revival – Collegiate Gothic
Demolished - 2008

Condon (1922)
Avondale – 7735 Greenland Place
Architect: Samuel Hannaford & Sons
Style: Spanish Romanesque Revival
Demolished – 2002

Bond Hill (1932)
Bond Hill – 1510 California Avenue
Architect: Charles F. Cellarius
Style: Colonial Revival
Demolished – 2002

References:
Ohio Historic Inventory Sheets
Flischel, Robert. An Expression of the Community. The Art League Press, Cincinnati, 2001.
Historic images from Library's Cincinnati Memory Project.