Rogers Clark Ballard Memorial School is a historic building in Glenview, Kentucky, part of the

Louisville metropolitan area The Louisville metropolitan area is the 43rd largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States. It had a population of 1,395,855 in 2020 according to the latest official census, and its principal city is Louisville, Kentucky. Th ...

. It was built in 1914 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. John Bacon Hutchings (1859–1916) was the architect for the

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

-style building. The school was named after Rogers Clark Ballard, a boy who died in 1909. He was from a prominent family in Louisville, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs.

S. Thruston Ballard Samuel Thruston Ballard (February 11, 1855 – January 18, 1926) was an American politician, philanthropist, and miller, who served as the 33rd Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky from 1919 to 1923, under Governor Edwin P. Morrow. Samuel Thruston B ...

, donated the site for the school from their land and gave $6,000 toward the building. The school began as a result of a joint effort by parents and the county board of education. When it opened in 1914, the school replaced four one-room schools in eastern Jefferson County. The school was known as Ballard School. It originally accepted students from different areas, but that changed in 1949, when the county board adopted a resolution that students had to attend school in the district where they lived. This school eventually closed in 1959. It was superseded by Wilder Elementary School in the Jefferson County Public School system. Ballard High School, which opened nearby in 1968, was named for this previous school. The building is now the home of a private school, Virginia Chance School, for students age 2 through fifth grade. The school is situated on 26 acres on a bluff overlooking the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, surrounded by woods and fields. The two-story main building has had extensive renovation that was designed to remain sensitive to the history of the building as the former Rogers Clark Ballard Memorial School.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Jefferson County, Kentucky Arts and Crafts architecture in Kentucky School buildings completed in 1914 1914 establishments in Kentucky Educational institutions established in 1914 Educational institutions disestablished in 1959 School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Schools in Jefferson County, Kentucky

See also

References