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Roosevelt School

Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown Community
Forum Name: Fun Pictures and Video
Forum Description: Share your Middletown Area Fun Photos and Video
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3355
Printed Date: May 01 2024 at 10:35pm


Topic: Roosevelt School
Posted By: 409
Subject: Roosevelt School
Date Posted: Oct 07 2010 at 1:05pm
Looks like demo is about to begin. Fencing is up around the building.
 



Replies:
Posted By: Mike_Presta
Date Posted: Oct 07 2010 at 5:53pm
Strange...I haven't heard any protests from the local historic buffs!!!
 
Is the Historic Commission aware of this???


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“Mulligan said he ... doesn’t believe they necessarily make the return on investment necessary to keep funding them.” …The Middletown Journal, January 30, 2012


Posted By: Paul Nagy
Date Posted: Oct 07 2010 at 6:13pm
Does the Historic Commission have any out of city experts on that commision?
Paul Nagy


Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Oct 07 2010 at 6:59pm

Might have been an even better location for Pendleton Art Center



Posted By: viper771
Date Posted: Oct 07 2010 at 7:30pm
When was it last a working school?? I am sure it could have been revamped into something else.


Posted By: Rhodes
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 1:03am
spiderjohn made a great point. Not only could this have been the PAC, but they could have combined it with the MAC and used the entire building for art displays, classes, artist studios. They could have had their own auditorium for those intellectual lectures I always hear those types like. And the gym could have been converted to a full museum/gallery. I'm still against using tax payer money for PAC, but this just got me a little excited. Too bad the building will be gone in a few weeks. Thank God the city is rescuing that old building PAC is going to use downtown! What a waste.

Like the good book says, where there is no vision, the people perish.


Posted By: Rhodes
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 1:04am
viper771, it was a school just last year I think. It hasn't been closed that long.


Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 7:21am
Hasn't been too long ago that they put new windows in the school. Now, the taxpayer gets to see their tax money get hauled away in the old dump truck.

I agree spider, the PAC and the Middletown Arts folks could have used this building for their arts. Would have been nice to have preserved this. I was in it last in 1961-62 and 63 for 7th, 8th and 9th grade. Anyone remember "Mousy" Matson the 8th grade math teacher, Valda Wilkerson-music teacher, Homer Sorrell-wood shop. Mr. Krebs-Metal shop, JR. Line-Mechanical Drawing, or Ralph Rettig, the gym teacher? How about KiKi Demetrion (Jack Gordon's wife now_ for Latin, I believe up on the 3rd floor? Just some memories while we're on the subject of the school.


Posted By: 409
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 8:07am
Vet.....I remember them all. The only exception is I had JF Mills for Mechanical Drawing. His famous line when looking over a drawing was "Get the Point" as he poked your hand with a sharpened mechanical pencil. Today that would be child abuse.


Posted By: Nick_Kidd
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 9:19am
The reason the school board wants to tear down all of to old school buildings: keep out charter schools. Remember when a charter school wanted to pay $80,000 for Jefferson? Our schools can not compete with any other educational system, so tear them down rather then take a chance on someone that would actually educate some of our children.

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Government is not the answer to problems, government is the problem.


Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 9:41am
lol--I had all of the mentioned teachers at Roosevelt.
 
I remember getting swats from Mr.Rettig one day. He was so excited about the opportunity, that he went to the classroom next door to get Gordon Lindsay so that he could watch since they were both friends with my family. So--as I bent over and took the punishment, they were both laughing like never before. Didn't hurt though.


Posted By: 409
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 10:56am
Spidey....Speaking of swats....I remember the most feared of all the paddles.
               Mr. Willoughby's!! (sp).


Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 11:10am
Spider, you old troublemaker, you! How about the daily fights in the alley across the street from the school as you walked home going toward McGee Ave? Had a kid named Damon Lansaw who was alot bigger than the normal Jr. High kid at that time. He failed a few grades back then. He loved to pick on the smaller kids as they walked home. I got the "Lansaw push" on the concrete a few times. The "bullying" was going on back then too. Today, they make such a big deal about this.


Posted By: Hermes
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 11:36am
In most locations where they have old schools they use to turn them into apartment's. Whatever happened to that idea ?
 
Why is the city on such a big kick to demo everything ? I still say contact Wright Patterson and let the AF come in and just bomb the crap out of it.


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No more democrats no more republicans,vote Constitution Party !!


Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 12:05pm
Vet--I was a Jefferson kid living on Jackson St., so I walked home the other direction through Sunset.
Thst was another main location for the scheduled after school fights.


Posted By: SupportMiddletown
Date Posted: Oct 08 2010 at 11:48pm
Here are some photos someone posted on Flickr:
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldohioschools/sets/72157605888243906/with/2622734325/ - http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldohioschools/sets/72157605888243906/with/2622734325/
 
Notice that one of the building inscriptions reads: "True nobility is based upon character." When they tore down McKinley, they kept the entrances with their inscriptions for use on Rosa Parks. Both were/are beautiful buildings, very sad to lose. Either could have been transformed into the senior center or housing.


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Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Oct 11 2010 at 7:17am
Converting this landmark structure into the PAC, the charter school, senior living or something constructive would have brought much-needed balance to the community. With the crime stats in the area just west of this bulding, any opportunity for jobs or business would have been an area boost.
 
Still--no one really wanted it, or no real deal could be reached apparenty/
Just seems that it could have been marketed much more aggressively by the school system and/or the city ED Dept.
 
Obviously they really wanted this building down, despite the huge whole that will be left in the middle of Central Ave. With all of the historic buzz downtown, why was this less important?
 
I know--shut up Spider!


Posted By: SupportMiddletown
Date Posted: Oct 11 2010 at 8:38am

^Yep. They studied moving the historical society and school board in there, but when that didn't work, the building was deemed too costly to reuse. Nearby communities have been very successful with senior housing conversions, such as the old Notre Dame High School in Hamilton.

You may remember that a charter school was interested in using it last June, which is my guess why they didn't want to wait any longer. Here is an article on that: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=128D6BB5A3ADDD88&p_docnum=1 - http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=128D6BB5A3ADDD88&p_docnum=1
 


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Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Oct 11 2010 at 10:44am
OK SupportM--let's take this to the next progressive step:
 
Roosevelt school is unfortunately down and gone--the spot is barren/re-planted.
We now have a parking lot behind, a green space track/football field, and a nice sidewalk path that could also be converted into a driving lane.
 
What could be put in place adjacent to Central Ave. that would tie all of this HUGE new mid-town green space opportunity to the re-birth of the Sunset Park swimming pool/tennis courts/bball courts/park complex to create a major entertainment/gathering spot?
 
A stage/bandstand somewhere to showcase the former park dept. music series? Dog park?
The area is perfect and prime for something to be used by and to involve every sector of our community.
If we can give away approx.1 mill $$ to Mr.Verdin, and the same to Duncan, along with the grossly inflated property purchases and demos, e can study and come up with something positive for this important area.
 
Forget about the former downtown for now:
PAC is on it's own
If Kasich wins, there probably will be no train
the Main St.Project seems to be on hold
The Cincy St.project seems to be on hold
The Manchester Inn is shaky at best
Sorg Opera House is a disaster
BiC Commons is all but forgotten
 
Let's move elsewhere for golden opportunities
 
Come on, mtown--lay off the pointless taunting, and join in to help move forward!
the area has been seriously over-emphasized with little progress lately



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