CPS Dedicated to Saving District’s Artwork and Architecture

Many of Cincinnati Public Schools’ buildings are architecturally striking and historically significant. With about a third of the district’s buildings constructed before 1940 — six are a century or more old — Cincinnati Public Schools’ older buildings are impressive examples of school architecture featuring such styles as Collegiate Tudor, Colonial Revival, Romanesque Revival and Jacobethan. These schools are traffic-stoppers, with castlelike facades, gargoyles and grotesques, clock towers, domed roofs and column-flanked entrances.

Inside, there is artwork such as stained-glass windows, Rookwood-tile drinking fountains, terrazzo, friezes and bronze and marble treasures.

In spring 2002, the Cincinnati Board of Education established the Building Artifacts Fund. Donations and other money designated for the fund will help pay to salvage, store and re-use architectural elements from older schools slated to be closed during the 10-year Facilities Master Plan.

Many of the district's historic buildings will be fully renovated, while ones no longer to be used as schools will be sold. The district sought and received waivers from the state’s Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC), which allowed CPS to renovate the historic buildings.

In summer 2002, before the former Condon School in Avondale was demolished, the building was stripped of many architectural elements. Some of these elements will be incorporated into the new Rockdale Academy being built on the Condon site. Proceeds from predemolition auction of Condon’s interior items were placed in the Building Artifacts Fund.

Photos by Robert A. Flischel