The Bellows School, also known as the Bellows Avenue Elementary School, is a historic school building in the Franklinton neighborhood of

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. The building was constructed for the

Columbus Public School District Columbus City Schools, formerly known as Columbus Public Schools, is the official school district for the city of Columbus, Ohio, and serves most of the city (portions of the city are served by suburban school districts). The district has 46,6 ...

in 1905, designed by local architect

David Riebel David Riebel (August 7, 1855 – July 29, 1935) was a German-American architect in Columbus, Ohio. He was the head architect for the Columbus public school district from 1893 to 1922. In 1915, ''The Ohio Architect, Engineer and Builder'' consider ...

and built by George Bellows Sr. The elementary school operated until 1977; since then the building has been mostly vacant. The building was deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office in 2006. In 2014, a developer announced plans to renovate the structure, despite plans from Ohio's transportation agency to demolish it to expand nearby highway exit ramps.

Attributes

The site has . It has a highly visible location, adjacent to Ohio State Route 315 and just north of Interstate 70. The building is designed in the Renaissance Revival style. It features a rusticated limestone foundation, an elaborate bracketed

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

, a main entranceway of intricate carved sandstone with Neoclassical foliate details, and more simple side entrances with stone pilasters. For its architecture, user as a major school facility for decades, and prominence as a notable work of

, the school is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The building has an intact exterior, with original brick walls, limestone trim, and a slate roof. The building still retains original wood window sashes and some doors. While vacant, the building has had corrugated metal coverings to discourage trespassing. The building has never had any additions made to it.

History

Built in 1905, the building was built and named for local architect and builder George Bellows Sr., father of the artist

George Bellows George Wesley Bellows (August 12 or August 19, 1882 – January 8, 1925) was an American realism, American realist painting, painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He became, according to the Columbus Museum of Art ...

. The school was designed by German-American architect

, head architect for the school system from 1893 to 1922. The school closed in 1977 and has mostly been vacant since then. The building was deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office in 2006. Amid the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT)'s I-70/71 split project, the building was set to be torn down, as part of the long-range plan for the highways. The proposal would create new exit ramps around the interchange, increasing traffic safety and efficiency. No build alternative was found that would lead to the building's preservation, as studied in a 2008 ODOT report. One alternative design was not recommended, as it would take land from the nearby Dodge Park, a public park that provides services to residents in neighboring areas. It would result in the loss of a baseball field or a soccer/football field, and part of a walking trail. The school building, even if renovated into housing, was deemed to not provide fundamental services to the neighborhood that the park offers. In 2014, even despite the planned demolition, developer Yhezkel Levi purchased it. The building is planned to be renovated, to include office space in its basement and 27 apartments on the main and two upper floors. A complex of eight townhouse units and three single family homes is proposed for the site around the building. The developer is going forward as the highway project may take several decades before it reaches that area, and there is no money budgeted for that section yet. The developer hopes that the renovation and any historic designations would make the state's purchase of the site more costly and difficult. The building was listed on the Columbus Landmarks Foundation's endangered buildings list in 2014 and 2015. By 2017, Levi had replaced almost all of the roof, shored up rotted floors, remediated for asbestos, and removed piles of trash and debris. As of 2021, the building is still under renovation, with new windows added to upper floors that year.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1905 establishments in Ohio 1977 establishments in Ohio Defunct schools in Ohio School buildings completed in 1905 Elementary schools in Ohio Endangered buildings in Columbus, Ohio Schools in Columbus, Ohio