Ohio Historic Site Preservation Board Approves State’s Nominations to National Register of Historic Places
(COLUMBUS, OHIO) — The Ohio History Connection held a public meeting of the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board on Friday, June 24 at 10 a.m. at the Ohio History Center.
The Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board is a governor-appointed panel of citizens and professionals in history, architecture, archaeology and related fields.
The board approved 12 of 13 proposed Ohio nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, which is a list of historic places worthy of preservation because of national, state or local significance.
To be eligible for listing on the National Register a property or district must qualify for at least one of the following:
-Be associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history
-Be associated with the lives of people significant in our past
-Embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction, or represent the work of a master, or possess high artistic values or represent a significant, distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction (e.g. a historic district)
-Yield, or be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
The 12 Ohio nominations include:
Alliance: City Savings Bank & Trust Company, 449 E. Main St.
The City Savings Bank and Trust Company building is nominated
as one of two major banking institutions in the city of Alliance and as an excellent example of a bank hall and office tower designed in the Neoclassical style by national architects Simons, Brittain & English with offices in Columbus, Ohio,
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known as “Bank Builders.”
Cincinnati: Joseph and Cecilia Bappert House, 1550 Neeb Rd.
The Joseph and Cecilia Bappert House is an outstanding local example of a single-family Tudor Revival residence built as part of an early-20th century subdivision for a prominent Cincinnati businessman. It’s also significant for featuring original artwork by well-known Cincinnati artist, Mathias Noheimer. Built in around 1936, the two-story Tudor-Revival residence exhibits numerous Tudor Revival architectural details, including an asymmetrical design, original leaded-glass casement windows throughout the house, half timbering on the façade, a central tower marking the front entrance. Additionally, the house retains the original and well-preserved, hand-painted wall murals by artist Mathias Noheimer. The Flemish and Germanic Renaissance artistry of the murals correlate to the strong German heritage of Cincinnati. The Bappert House retains a high degree of integrity with its setting little changed and with few alterations on both the exterior and interior.
Cleveland: The Commodore Hotel, 11990 Ford Dr. /11309-11325 Euclid Ave.
Completed in 1924, the Commodore is cited as one of several better known apartment hotels built in the mid-1920s in Cleveland’s East Side area. The apartment hotel accommodated short-and long-term guests and eventually evolved into permanent apartments. Apartment houses and residence hotels flourished in America’s industrial cities from the 1870s to the 1940s and provided housing options to a range of incomes. It is significant on the local level for its association with the development of urban streetcar transportation and multi-family living for upper-middle-class residents in the University Circle area of Cleveland. The Commodore is a representation of the greatest construction boom of multi-family dwellings in Cleveland, a broad trend that swept the United States from 1900 to 1965.
Cleveland: Grossman Paper Box Company, 1729 Superior Ave.
Grossman Paper Box Company is significant for its associations with the company bearing the same name, a notable contributor to Cleveland’s packaging industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beginning as a small, back-room operation in 1880, Grossman Paper Box Company grew to become one of the largest and most successful packaging manufacturers in Cleveland, eventually consolidating with other local companies in a 1926 merger and later being acquired by even larger national corporations. Grossman Paper Box Company was one of the only local paper box manufacturers to survive over multiple decades, continually growing and adapting during a period of rapid change in the industry, and was the oldest such company in existence at the time of its merger.
Cleveland: Lion Knitting Mills Co., 3256 W. 25th St.
The Lion Knitting Mills building is significant for its association with the history of Cleveland’s garment industry, for its role in garment design and invention, and for the company’s role in promoting war production. Founded in 1912 by brothers Louis and Harold Ensten, the Lion Knitting Mills Co. produced high quality knit goods for 78 years. The company began its humble operations in a loft at 1011 Power Ave. in downtown Cleveland, but by the 1920s had commissioned the design and construction of a new facility and moved to 3256 W. 25th St. to utilize the skilled labor force living in Cleveland’s near west side neighborhoods. The company produced a variety of knit goods for the military and the private-label market. Lion’s first product, the varsity or award-letter sweater, was knitted on hand-operated machines. By World War I, the company had installed belt-driven knitting machines which were used to make woolen watch caps for the U.S. Navy.
Columbus: Engine House No. 6, 540 W. Broad St.
Built in 1892, Engine House No. 6 is a two story, Romanesque Revival style building constructed of brick and limestone, located on the northeast corner of W. Broad St. and North Mill St. in the East Franklinton neighborhood in Columbus. It’s significant for its association with the history of firefighting provided by the City of Columbus. Completed in 1892, Engine House No. 6 is a two story, Romanesque Revival style building constructed of brick and limestone designed by architect John Flynn and built by contractor, D. Spencer & Sons. Engine House No. 6 is one of the few remaining Columbus engine houses built during the late nineteenth century, a period of considerable growth for Columbus resulting in changes in the way the city dealt with fighting fires. As the city extended its water mains further outward during this period of growth, water pressure declined, as the pumps at the municipal water supply were insufficient to maintain pressure for such great distances. In order to effectively fight fires in any part of the city, steam powered pumping engines, which could significantly increase pressure from the city’s fire hydrants were put into use by the fire department. Engine House No. 6 was one of about 12 engine houses that was either newly built, as is the case with Engine House No 6, or rebuilt to accommodate the larger equipment during the early-to-mid 1890s.
Columbus: Franklin Park Medical Center, 1829 E. Long St.
The Franklin Park Medical Center is significant for its role in African American history in Columbus. The Franklin Park Medical Center’s founding doctors faced entrenched segregation and discrimination in society and in the medical field. Working together, the founders, Dr. Authur Clark, Dr. Harold McDaniel, Dr. Richard Ruffin, Dr. Jaime Smith-e-Inca and Dr. Walter Thomas established a practice that enabled them to flourish professionally, especially in the field of public health and preventative medicine in an underserved community. The Franklin Park Medical Center continued to operate as a professional building for African American doctors and dentists until 2006.
Fairview Park: NASA Lewis Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Rd.
The accomplishments that occurred at the NASA Lewis Research Center have been an essential part of the development of American and international space exploration. The construction of the center was a direct response to President Kennedy’s call in 1961 that landing a man on the moon was a national priority. The new NASA facility was designed and constructed to house 1,100 additional staff members engaged in research and development. The engineers and others played a significant role in the development of the Agena, Atlas and Centaur rocket programs and contributed their rocket expertise directly to the manned Apollo program through the 1960s. As NASA downsized the Lewis facility in the early 1970s, the Launch Vehicle Division continued at full throttle, and for the first 35 years of the building’s existence, Lewis engineers managed 119 total unmanned launches from a Launch Control Room, including interplanetary missions, lunar vehicles and satellites.
Kent: L. N. Gross Company Building, 315 Gougler Ave.
The L.N. Gross Company building is significant as a representative of the impact of the Kent Chamber of Commerce on planning and economic development within the City of Kent through their facilitation of the construction of the L.N. Gross Company Building. It’s also significant as an early manufacturing facility designed by premier Portage County and Kent architect, Charles G. Kistler, the first licensed architect in the City of Kent. Economic development and successful commerce within the City of Kent is directly linked to the pro-active planning, community engagement and fund raising efforts of the Kent Chamber of Commerce during the early 20th century. The Chamber also helped fund civic improvements including rebuilding of the dam, widening of the Main Street Bridge in Kent, and worked for the installation of the white way lighting system and the first zoning code for the city. The L.N. Gross Company was a manufacturer and distributor of women’s garments founded in 1898 in Cleveland, Ohio, The Company’s expansion into nearby Kent reflected the growth of the garment industry with the growing demand and popularity of ready-made clothing at the turn of the 20th century.
Okeana: Morgan Township House, 6464 Okeana Drewersburg Rd.
The Morgan Township House served as the structural center of governmental authority and has also hosted social functions in this rural Butler County township for over a century. To this day, Morgan Township does not have an incorporated community, so the township has occupied a vital role in fulfilling local governmental functions in this predominantly rural community. The Morgan Township House is also significant for its association with the Butler County Mutual Protection Company, a short-lived grass roots entity that represented opposition by some members of the local community to Civil War policies enacted by the Lincoln administration.
Rossford: Edward Ford Plate Glass Company Employee Relations Building, 140 Dixie Highway
This building is significant for its association with the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company, a significant employer and developer of the City of Rossford. The building represents the relationship between Edward Ford and his considerable labor force that worked, lived and socialized in the community that his company created. This building, constructed in 1917, is the culmination of a strong relationship that Edward Ross Ford had with his employees at the Ford Glass Works, later to be known as Libbey Owens Ford. The building provided the employees opportunities for personal enhancement and entertainment with an auditorium and gymnasium with multiple smaller spaces for meetings, rehearsals and discourse. Constructed in a Neo-Classical Revival style, the building makes a striking statement about the importance of the structure with its location prominently placed on the primary road for Rossford.
Woodlawn: Frederick and Harriet Rauh House, 10068 Leacrest Rd
Built in 1938, the Frederick and Harriet Rauh House is significant for its rare expression of the International Style in Greater Cincinnati. Of the early Modernist architects working in Cincinnati, its architect, John Becker’s design for the Rauh House represents the first fully developed International Style design in the Cincinnati area. The largest and most sophisticated of Cincinnati’s early Modern houses, it most strongly demonstrates the influence of Modernism in concept and planning. The house has undergone a faithful restoration that included preservation of original features and recreation of missing elements. The house retains its entire 8.96-acre suburban site, which includes features of the original landscape plan.
###
Review Process for the National Register of Historic Places
Nominations are made through the Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office. The Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board will review each nomination’s National Register eligibility, and then make a recommendation to the State Historic Preservation Officer. The final decision to add a property to the register is made by the National Park Service, which administers the program nationwide.
###
Ohio Historical Society is now Ohio History Connection
On May 24, 2014, the Ohio Historical Society changed its name to the Ohio History Connection. Established in 1885, this nonprofit organization provides a wide array of statewide services and programs related to collecting, preserving and interpreting Ohio’s history, archaeology and natural history through its more than 50 sites and museums across Ohio, including its flagship museum, the Ohio History Center in Columbus. For more information about programs and events, call 800.686.6124 or go online at www.ohiohistory.org.
