This Elementary School was abandoned in 2003

Hempstead School, St. Louis Missouri

Date added: December 17, 2023 Categories:

Main Facade from northwest corner of lot (2006)

Hempstead School, located at 5872 Minerva Avenue, in St. Louis, Missouri was designed by Ittner in 1906; opened in 1907 and remained in use as a public elementary school under the direction of the St. Louis Board of Education until July of 2003.

In 1903 the St. Louis Board of Education bought a lot at the corner of Minerva Avenue and Hamilton Boulevard for $13,150.00. In 1905, Governor Joseph Folk signed compulsory education into law, and forced the public school system to expand its facilities for the education of an additional 2,629 students. To compensate for the influx of students the new law added to the Cabanne neighborhood district, William B. Ittner, Commissioner of School Buildings, was given a budget of $180,560.80 for a new school in 1906. The H. Lloyd Building and Construction Company began work on the school later that year. The 73,465 square-foot school opened on September 10^th, 1907 at a cost of $182,484.16. But the school was not completed until 1908, when the wardrobe doors, electric, heating, plumbing, and blackboards were installed for a total cost of $191,503.45. Hempstead was maintained as an elementary school over the next 95 years and closed in 2003 as a result of budget cuts by Board of Education.

The school was named after Edward Hempstead, the first Missouri delegate in Congress. Hempstead worked with the federal government to secure land in Missouri and Arkansas to be used for the public school systems. Hempstead took his seat in office in 1813, working with Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House. One of his major undertakings was deciphering the Spanish and French land grants, and spoke in Congress to prohibit the abolition of grant recognition in areas west of the Mississippi River.

Hempstead School was built in the E (Open)- Plan. The E (Open)- Plan, as defined, is a main center block paralleling the street and three wings, usually with two on the ends and one at the center. Hempstead School follows this design, with variation in two places. The first is the presence of two projected entrances just inside the center-facing walls of the outer wings. The second deviation from the basic E-Plan is the projection on the rear of the building, which contains the kindergarten. The spatial arrangement of the interior follows the E-Plan archetype: a one-sided corridor with four classrooms approximately 24' X 32' on the front of the building; two to three classrooms in each wing; a stairwell at the corners created by the core and the wings; a stairwell in the central wing; and basement bathrooms. When constructed, the building contained separate playrooms for boys and girls on the ground level, an element common in many of Ittner's designs.

Hempstead School was built in the Jacobethan style, a motif Ittner favored in two-thirds of his buildings from 1901-1910. The multi-colored red brick walls are accented very little, and stone is used sparingly, keeping the design and materials simple. The only distinctive elaboration is on the entrance, which Ittner "dignified" with a Flemish gable, stone-encrusted arcade, and relief sculpture. The inclusion of castellated towers on the corners of the central projection is repeated in many schools from his career as Commissioner of School Buildings.

Building Description

Hempstead School, located at 5872 Minerva Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, is a 1906 two-story brick and stone Jacobethan Revival-style elementary school. A variation of the basic E-Plan, Hempstead School is centered on City Block 3823 W at the corner of Minerva Avenue and Hamilton Boulevard, facing northeast. The symmetrical front facade is divided into 6 parts, including two projecting, gabled wings on either end, three projected entrances, and the building's core. Polychromatic exterior brickwork is broken by decorative stonework, banded windows, and stone belt courses on each facade. Half-timbered dormers and clustered stack chimneys ascend from the red slate roofline. The school sits on a 464' X 240' asphalt lot, enclosed by an iron fence, with playground equipment on the northwest and northeast corners, and a landscaped front courtyard with a school name plaque. In 1990 renovations were made to the building, which included repairing the brick front gables, some window replacement, interior updates, and an 83' X 53' one-story multipurpose room added to the southeast facade. The interior plan retains integrity, showing the characteristic classroom arrangement of the Ittner E-shaped plan, however, some neglect and vandalism have left a few rooms in poor condition.

The Hempstead School is located in the Cabanne neighborhood, on the western edge of St. Louis City. The original school building measures approximately 457' X 240', and is bounded by Hamilton Boulevard to the west, Minerva Avenue to the north, Laurel Street to the east, and an alley to the south that divides it from the remaining residential portion of the block. The residential character of the neighborhood continues to reinforce the setting and feel of the early 20^th Century school by retaining the turn-of-the-century multi-family buildings and a Gothic Revival-style church across the northeastern corner of Hamilton and Minerva.

The facade of Hempstead School contains two projecting end bays with front gables, two inner entrance projections, and a central projection containing the main entrance. The central projection is accessed by a low stone stair surrounded by brick walls with stone coping. The double-door entrance is recessed behind a three-bay stone polychromatic arcade. A Tudor arched four-pane transom is mounted above the doors, with boarded three-pane lattice windows and transoms on either side of the entrance. Above the arcade rise seven brick arches with intricate relief sculpture in the stone supports. Fourteen blind arches separate the lower half of the projection from the second floor four one-over-one windows with transoms and stone quoined window surrounds. The second transom light has been replaced with an air conditioning unit. A sash window with stone sill and arched stone lintel fills the stone-coped Flemish gabled parapet. Brick detailing and a stone finial accent the gable. The corners of the projection feature two crenelated towers. The first floor of each tower contains bricked window openings with stone lintels, while the second level holds a single camber window with stone sill and lintel. Stone belt courses run below the first-floor windows, and above the second-story windows. Additional courses run across the entire projection, located just above the arcade, the blind arches, and the second-story windows. In the latter, cartouches project from each corner of the towers.

The core of the building extends to the northwest and southeast from either side of the main entrance. The fenestration on the first and second levels consists of five banded, triple-hung windows on either side of a central one-over-one sash window. The ground level contains a three-one-three fenestration, though the windows have been boarded to protect against vandalism. A stone belt course accents the top of the water table, which ends halfway up the ground level.

On the outer edges of the core stand crenelated entrance projections. A paired double-door entrance with boarded sidelights and a six-pane transom stand below a compound Tudor arch. The second floor contains three banded triple-hung windows with single-pane transom lights and a soldier lintel. A half-timbered dormer rises above the crenellation, with two boarded sash windows.

The projecting wings at either end of the building have five banded triple-hung windows with soldier lintels on both the first and second floors. The three ground-level windows have been boarded to protect against vandalism. The cross gable contains stone in the apex, and a single window.

The northwest facade is symmetrical and simple compared to the front. Five banded triple-hung windows are centered on the first and second levels, with a single sash window on either side. The ground floor contains the original wood windows which have been boarded from the inside and covered with metal screens: The fenestration consists of three sets of three windows, separated by a single window opening. Three have been replaced with air conditioning units. The roofline contains two clustered stack chimneys with stone coping and a ventilation cross gable.

The symmetrical rear facade can be broken into five parts, including the outer wings, the central projection, and the core. Each outer wing contains two bays. The outer bay contains three boarded windows on the ground floor, five banded triple-hung bays on the first and second levels, and a sash window in the stone-coped gable. The inner bay contains double-door entrances recessed below compound arches on the ground level, with a single one-over-one sash window on the first- and second-story. On the core of the building are five banded triple-hung windows. A brick wall with three window openings and a double-door entrance rises to the first floor, with an aluminum fencing enclosing the courtyard. The core, along with the brick and aluminum walled courtyards, connects to the central projection. This portion of the building contains two sets of double-door entrances on the ground floor with sash windows on either side. These windows project off the wall, and rise to the first-floor balcony. Boarded windows and wood doors access the balcony. Above each of these projections are five banded triple-hung windows. A polychromatic chimney stack rises a full story from the western end of the rear projection.

The original fenestration of the south east facade mimicked that of the northwest. Five banded triple-hung windows with single sash windows on either side fill the first and second level. The northern six openings on the ground level are still intact, but at the southern fenestration of the ground floor have been replaced by an entrance to the 1990 addition.

The 1990 one-story brick multipurpose building is attached to the southeastern facade of the original building by a small corridor, which replaced the southern five windows of the ground floor. The corridor contains double-door entrances with sidelights and Tudor arched transoms, recessed below compound arches, which replicate those found on the original building. The northeast and southwest facades are nearly identical, with brick walls separated by four brick pilasters. The southeast facade is simple, displaying only the stone and brick belt courses that accent every facade of the addition. The roofs of the corridor and the addition are flat.

The main central entrance on the front of the building leads to a stairwell, which dumps into a central T-Shaped fan room. This room has retained historic water fountains on the eastern wall. A partition wall is broken by five windows, and a stairwell that leads to the rear corridor. Glazed brick lines the walls of the corridor, with painted brick above. From east to west along the rear wall, the corridor contains a custodian closet, two small storage rooms, the boiler and coal rooms, and a classroom. The corridor terminates in perpendicular hallways at either end, which are accessed by stairwells from the front secondary entrances. The west hallway opens to two classrooms and a resource room on the east, and the boys' restroom and library on the west. The east hallway opens to a lunchroom and kitchen on the west, and a music room, special education classroom, and girls' bathroom on the east. These rooms share the brick detailing of the hallway. A corridor in the eastern wing connects the original building to the addition. The addition contains a lobby storage room, and bathroom at the west end, with the gymnasium filling the remainder of the space, and an exit door at the southeast corner.

The ground floor has been slightly altered to account for the new multipurpose addition. The present lunch room and northern classrooms once contained separate girls' and boys' gymnasiums. The lunchroom was originally located in the eastern wing, replaced by the present music and special education rooms. Unfortunately, vandalism and neglect have left a few of the ground floor rooms, including the lunch room, in disrepair.

Accessed by the original wood and glass main entrance, the central stairwell features a marble chair rail, and dumps into a central corridor that runs east to west. The hallway terminates in stairwells in the east and west wings of the building, which feature the original wood and glass doors and surrounds. The stairwells contain the original wood railings and trims, as do the hallways, which also retain the original hardwood floors and marble baseboards. On the north side of the building are four classrooms, with coat rooms at one end. On the south side of the main corridor is the original kindergarten room, with coat rooms on either end. A bathroom is found on the eastern side of the kindergarten room, accessed from the hallway. Offices are found across from the stairwells at either end of the hallway. The west wing contains a small passage and two classrooms on the south wall, and a large classroom on the west wall. The east wing contains a large classroom on the south wall and a passage that connects to two classrooms on the east wall. A large classroom is found on the north wall of both wings. The classrooms are accessed by the original wood and glass doors, and contain the original wood cabinetry, hardwood floors, and 1908 blackboards. The wardrobe doors were installed in 1908 as well, and the wardrobe rooms maintain the original wood and iron coat hangers.

Some renovations have been made to the first floor, including general updates to plumbing and electric to comply with code, and the installation of dropped ceilings in some of the classrooms. The height of the ceilings has been maintained as much as possible.

The second floor is accessed only by the east and west stairwells. The long corridor maintains its wood chair rail, historic water fountains with iron supports, and hardwood floors. Three classrooms fill each wing. A small classroom is across from the eastern stairwell, and the nurse's office is located across from the western stairwell. The teachers' lounge and art room are located on the south wall of the corridor, along with two bathrooms. These bathrooms maintain the original wood stalls and entrance doors. Four classrooms with coat rooms are located on the north wall of the building, with an office and the principal's office in the main front projection. A bathroom and a storage room (which features the original shelving) fill the space created by the front towers. The second floor also retains the original masonry and wood elements, as found on the first floor, though vandalism has left a few of the rooms in poor condition.