Abandoned High School in Kentucky

Old Dayton High School, Dayton Kentucky

Date added: July 01, 2023 Categories: Kentucky School

The former Dayton High School Building is a typical example of between-the-wars school buildings, with a mild Collegiate-Tudor Revival architectural flavor largely provided by minimal glazed white tile trim and Tudor-arched brick entrances. Its full three stories stand out dramatically, however, within the context of the fairly modest residential neighborhood in which it was originally and is still located. The building is set between the hills of Northern Kentucky and the Ohio River near the center of the Riverbend on which much of the small town of Dayton, Kentucky is sited. The school is clearly visible from the eastern sections of Cincinnati, Ohio, opposite, with concomitant views from its upper stories toward the downtown Cincinnati skyline and the Ohio hills across the river.

Constructed rapidly after the previous 1890s school building on the same site burned down, the present structure was erected in 1924-25. So important was it to the community that funds for the construction of the gymnasium-auditorium at the rear were raised voluntarily by local civic organizations when the School Board decided they could not afford to incorporate these facilities within their building program. Dayton is a fairly old, close-knit, largely German Catholic community, and this high school, used for almost fifty years until 1982-83, when a replacement was built nearby, was a major local institution.

Dayton is a community of just under 7,000 population at present; the population was listed as 8,200 in 1923, just before the construction of the high school. It was formed in 1867 by the official consolidation of two villages, Jamestown and Brooklyn, which had been laid out just before 1850. Dayton was enlarged about 1920 and the new school building may have responded to increased needs, as well as the fire. Although largely residential, Dayton has had several important industries as the basis of its economy for over a century.

The former high school building is directly on the site of the previous Dayton High School, which is believed to have been erected about 1895. A view of it, published in 1923 just before the fire that led to the construction of the present building, suggests that the earlier structure corresponded at least in location and outline to the existing entrance and flanking classrooms; even the projections of the main entrance may reflect the presence of the earlier feature, although the turn-of-the-century school had only two-and-a-half stories and different fenestration.

The exterior design of the Dayton High School is typical of the period, competent, and executed well in mottled brick with glazed white tile moldings and trim, although the interiors have and seem to have had no architectural interest whatsoever. Nevertheless, the main block and the 1930s additions have ample-sized, well-lit rooms and adequate central circulation corridors. The building is basically structurally intact, in spite of some water damage and vandalism.

As mentioned above, the gymnasium/auditorium at the rear of the school was part of the original construction, as a result of civic pressure and contributions. The three-story wings at the southeast and southwest corners of the building, flanking the gym, are believed to have been erected in 1937-1939 under the auspices of the Federal NRA and/or WPA programs. In 1960-61, a limited renovation of the school resulted in some changes to the windows.

It is believed that the architects of the High School were E. C. Landberg & Associates. This firm, with offices in nearby Newport, Kentucky, consisted primarily of Edwin C. Landberg and his younger brother G. Truman Landberg (ca. 1898-1951). According to the latter's obituary (Cincinnati Historical Society), they designed the Ninth Street Baptist Church and the North Avondale School in Cincinnati, a school in Mariemont, Ohio, a planned suburb near Cincinnati, as well as many other buildings in the Greater Cincinnati Area, including Northern Kentucky, particularly public schools in Campbell County. They designed the Lincoln Grant School, an attractive facility for black children erected in the East Side of Covington in 1931. E. C. Landberg was active in the Masonic Order, and is said to have designed not only the Masonic Temple on Sixth Street in Dayton, still one of the taller and more interesting institutional buildings in the town, but also the magnificent 1955 Scottish Rite Masonic Temple at 1553 Madison Avenue in Covington, one of the largest in the country. Another building attributed to the Landbergs is the Rifkin Building on the southwest corner of 6^th and McKinney Streets in Dayton; like the Dayton Masonic Temple, it dates from about the time of the High School. There is also a drawing for an unidentified three-story office building signed by E. C. Landberg in the Kenton County Public Library Photograph Collection.

Building Description

The former Dayton High School is a three-story building set in a residential neighborhood in Dayton, Kentucky. Dayton is one of a series of communities connected by Kentucky Route 8 along the south side of the Ohio River opposite the eastern sections of Cincinnati, Ohio. Except at the mouth of the Licking River, which is flanked by Covington to the west and Newport to the east, there is relatively little space between the Ohio River and the Kentucky hills behind to the south. Dayton is located on the lower slopes at the northernmost bend of the Ohio River in northern Kentucky; the lower part of the town along the river was subject to frequent flooding until a flood levee was completed in 1982. Kentucky 8 runs approximately east-west at this point and forms the main commercial thoroughfare of the town, called Fairfield or Sixth Avenue. South of it the ground slopes up gradually and then steeply south of Poplar (the equivalent of 9^th Street): The High School extends across much of the south side of the block of 8^th Street between Walnut to the west and Vine Street to the east. It is the largest and most conspicuous structure in the central part of Dayton, and can be seen from the Cincinnati bank as rising massively above its residential neighbors against the Kentucky hillside.

The building was built close above the sidewalk near the center of the block, and additions have built it up solidly back to the alley that splits the block east-west. West of the building is a playground-parking lot, with a one-story shed building along 8^th Street. There is also a paved area to the east, with a handsome late 19th-century residence remaining on the southwest corner of 8^th and Vine Streets. On the north side of this block of 8^th Street' are several brick and frame 19th-century Italianate dwellings of some interest; on the northwest corner of 8^th and Walnut is a turn-of-the-century stone church; most of the surrounding housing, however, is rather modest but adequately maintained, with a pleasant sense of "neighborhood."

The front of the school lot along 8^th Street is bordered by a limestone crenellated wall that dates from before 1923, and there are sections of a similar wall along the alley at the rear. The ground level behind the wall is nearly at the top of it, sloping up slightly to the concrete foundations of the school building. The original high school structure appears to be of wood on masonry-bearing walls, although the southeast and north 1930s additions flanking the gymnasium probably have reinforced concrete construction.

The walls of the original block and the sides of the corner additions have somewhat mottled orangish brick; the additions are clad in more uniform, paler brick. Most of the trim is white glazed tile, there is a plain watertable, a molded course at the base of the parapet, coping above the parapet, windowsills and shoulders on the buttress strips that define the corners of the end-pavilions, and some additional trim on the entrance features. The parapet is stepped up over the three main front and side entrances, with an embossed tile panel over the main (8^th Street) entrance. The latter is flanked by small one-story octagonal projections with sash windows on the wider front faces. These projections (like the smaller entrances at the ends of the facade) are clad in brick below the continuous watertable down to the level of the steps, which are just above ground level.

The octagons have their own brick parapets with tile courses above and below. The recessed Tudor-arched main entrance has a finely molded and angled frame, and there is a low gabled tile parapet with vertical panels in the Tudor manner, with square flat tops at the ends and center of the gable. The panels are Gothic-arched with crossed ribs above the wider central panel. The side entrances and the narrower doorways set just inside the front end-pavilions have deep-set brick Tudor arches and parapets; the smaller front entrances lead into the stair-halls at mid-landing level, and their between-floors windows are framed by vertical brick pilaster strips.

The original windows seem all to have two-over-two pane wooden sash windows, but the additions are metal horizontal-paned casements; several of the original windows have also been replaced with similar metal frames, even on the front. Most of the front windows are paired, except for the single openings in the stair towers and quadruple strips in the end-pavilions. The fenestration on the sides is less regular, with strips across the third floor and smaller windows flank-ing the side entrances. The rear corner additions have still another pattern of metal frames. The original openings have unobtrusive brick upright jackarches extending slightly beyond the frames.

The interiors of Dayton High School are virtually without architectural interest, although basically intact. Aside from simple stair-railings in the original section, and the impressive appearance of the upper strip windows with their spectacular views, no feature has any Significance. Frames and moldings are minimal in both the original wing and additions, and materials are plaster and painted wood or metal. Floors are tiled or carpeted, not in very good condition. The walls are mostly sound, with some water damage, like the floors of several rooms on the top story.

The plan consists of classrooms across the front and sides, wrapped around the lower gymnasium at the center read. An east-west corridor across the rear of the main block has southern extensions to the added classrooms. The main entrance leads into a vestibule with a half-flight of steps to the main first-floor level, but the upper stories over this entrance contain classrooms. The main entrance is flanked by administrative offices, including small compartments in the octagonal flankers. The staircases are located at the other entrances on the front and sides and flanking the gymnasium at the rear from the alley. The classrooms are of normal size, except for large spaces on the top floor in the additions; probably laboratories. The gymnasium is a standard single-volume space of two-story height, with the former cafeteria located in the basement below. Not all of the basement is finished. An oddity is the series of four chimneys without openings along the north wall of the front corridor on all three stories.

In 1937-1939 the southeast and southwest corners flanking the original gymnasium at the rear of the main north block were filled in with compatible three-story blocks. The sides of the additions; facing east and west, continue the brick cladding, the horizontal tile courses above the stone foundations and defining the parapet, and the basic fenestration pattern of the original front and sides of the building, although the double windows are of a different steel industrial type, with smaller panes around the central, moveable sections. The rear walls of these 1930s additions along the narrow south alley are exposed concrete with vertical structural buttresses, relating to the original exposed construction of the gymnasium, which has a somewhat lower roof, allowing windows above it on the third floor of the rear of the main block and the new corner wings. Although these wings project slightly on the sides, they basically fill in the original rectangle of the building and the fact that they are additions is hardly apparent at either the sides or the rear.