Thursday, March 17, 2016

SCHOOL'S OUT (FOREVER)!!

The wholesale eradication of the historic public school buildings in Cleveland, Ohio, by the Cleveland Board Of Education, has been going on for so long, most see it as a "given".  No other type of historic building in Cleveland is as guaranteed to have a short 'life' as Cleveland public school buildings.  There is no discrimination.  Size does not matter.  Elegance (wherever relevant) does not matter.  Good state of preservation does not matter. The sole determining factor is age.  Usually it is at least 50 years, although there have been a few that have been "younger".  The next one to be destroyed is Tremont School.
TREMONT SCHOOL - 2016
Designed by Walter McCornack and built in 1917 as an elementary school, it has lately been used for a good number of years now as a K-8  'Montesorri' school (whatever that is -- if anyone can tell us, please do!)   Despite its substantial size, elegance, and good state of preservation, AS ALWAYS, it has been deemed to be "inadequate for today's educational needs" (or however else that tired propaganda is usually worded).                     
The neighborhood surrounding this school was not long ago one of the few mostly intact late-19th and early-20th century neighborhoods remaining in Cleveland, with a mostly working-class demographic.  But, in recent years, it has become a suburbia-wannabe, overwhelmed with art galleries and snooty restaurants.  The historic architecture, much of it modest and lacking sufficient "sophistication", is no longer "tolerated" and is being slowly but surely being purged from the neighborhood and replaced with luxury housing.  The destruction of this historic school building fits right into the "master plan" for the neighborhood.