Open Air School, Columbus: A 1928 Tuberculosis-Era School Reborn as Local Businesses

Open-air schools were built on a simple idea: children exposed to plenty of fresh air in every season, with rest and good food, would grow strong enough to resist tuberculosis. The concept began in Germany and reached the United States by 1908. Columbus, Ohio, built its Open Air School in 1928, on a wooded hill above the Olentangy River — and fittingly, it was brought back to life during the pandemic, when people gravitated outdoors to be together.

A school built for fresh air

According to its National Register nomination, the school had all the typical features of an open-air school:

• a natural setting and outdoor play areas;
• a rest room where students napped on cots;
• classrooms with abundant windows, kept open all year;
• a dining room serving students three meals a day.

By the time it closed in the 2010s, it was no longer an open-air school: the outdoor play area had been enclosed, and the rest room and dining room turned to other educational uses.

The rehabilitation

The Kelley Companies, a Columbus family-owned developer, bought the building in 2018 and rehabilitated it using both federal and Ohio historic tax credits, turning it into space for local small businesses — a fitness center, a café, a restaurant, a pottery and a design firm.

The new uses sit easily in the old school. Lockers still line the quarry-tile hallways; historic classroom doors were kept, with fire doors installed behind them; wood floors and other features remain in the classrooms. The project also reconnected inside and outside, as the school once was: an outdoor play area is now a shaded patio, and with a discreet railing the old play terrace has become a rooftop amenity.

A neighborhood destination

The school is now a destination in the Old North Columbus neighborhood, and it keeps so many historic features and finishes that visitors say it still feels like a school. The project won a James B. Recchie Design Award from Columbus Landmarks, and the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office gave Preservation Merit Awards to the owners, architects, preservation consultant, and design and branding firm.

Sources

Based on "Case Study: Open Air School, Columbus, Ohio," National Park Service Technical Preservation Services, a work of the United States government in the public domain.