February 2026.
Milo Arts is Milo-Grogan’s best-known landmark. Built as the Milo Public School before the neighborhood was annexed into Columbus, it has since been converted to a live-work space for local artists. This will also be a very special series of articles, as I was uniquely granted access to the inside of the building (which is not normally given) after befriending an artist who I met outside.
Milo Arts is located at 617 East 3rd Avenue in the Milo-Grogan neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by 3rd Avenue and houses to the north, Starr Avenue to the south, 9th Street to the east, and an alley and Milo Arts’ galleries on Cleveland Avenue to the west.
History
The school in 1909. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
Milo Arts was built in 1894 as the Milo Public School, which served the formerly separate city of Milo northeast of downtown Columbus. It is an example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style and was designed by architect John M. Freese, who is also known for the Franklin Park Conservatory. When Milo was annexed into the city of Columbus in 1908, it became part of Columbus City Schools. It began as a school for all ages, but it was an elementary school for most of its operating lifetime.
An early class of Milo students. (Milo Arts website)
Conversations with Rick Mann and a resident artist revealed particular dates for the building’s additions (which are not mentioned by any other source of mine), which I was able to back up via the 1921-1961 Sanborn map. First, a rectangular two-story addition was built onto the south end of the original 1894 school in 1922. It is simple in design with industrial windows, but it has blind arches embedded in the facade above the first floor’s windows. In 1954, an auditorium was built onto the east end of the school, which is Mid-Century Modern in style and has concrete and steel construction. Finally, a third addition extends southward from the 1922 addition, which was built in 1957 with glass curtain walls.
The Milo Public School closed in the mid-1970s, and it became a flea market in 1978, operating as such until 1982. Its current owners, Rick Mann and Russell Snyder, bought the building in 1983. The school building was in very poor condition and required extensive renovations for residential conversion--the Milo Arts website says “the deterioration of the building was quite advanced, and parts of the complex were virtually uninhabitable.” Despite this work, Milo Arts was almost closed due to building code violations. Early residents stated that Mann took a while to fix code issues with the building, which the city government “made him pay dearly” for. Mann also filed for bankruptcy twice in 2007 and 2009. However, community and family support kept Milo Arts alive.
Rick Mann and his wife Donna in front of Milo Arts. (Milo Arts website)
In October 1984, the 1950s addition to the building began its use by the Victory Mission, which provided food, clothing, and shelter to local homeless people. At its peak, they occupied 60% of the building, and renovation work to enable their presence included a new roof, common bathrooms, and the restoration of the original boilers. Milo Arts itself was originally studio space in the odd areas unused by the mission. The founders envisioned a mixed-use complex where artists could live, work, and perform. After the Victory Mission’s departure in April 1988, the entire building became free for Milo Arts’ use. It was established as a self-governing commune of artists and related disciplines (architects being one of them) alone.
Milo Arts quickly developed the standards it still uses today. Artist candidates are required to put sincere effort into developing their artwork, as well as give back to the building’s community and wider neighborhood through service. Every artist is considered to have an equal role in Milo Arts’ growth and development, and the organization emphasizes constant change. The first new tenants after the founders were accepted on September 16, 1988. Milo Arts soon became involved with the surrounding neighborhood, beginning with a survey of the houses nearby in November 1988. They helped work to establish a Commission District in Milo-Grogan (headed by Rick Mann), and a major priority for the organization is to reunite the geographically divided neighborhood.
A more recent photo of the school. (Milo Arts website)
A 2012 Columbus Dispatch article discusses the owner’s struggles with getting the building code-compliant and the city’s response. I’ll preface this by saying Milo Arts emphasizes that their use of the building is very unusual in regards to traditional building codes, as artists’ studios do not have a specific legal definition, which makes the process more complex. In 2001, a court ordered Rick Mann to acquire an occupancy permit and install fire sprinklers. City inspectors did not inspect the building consistently, which limited Mann from obtaining work permits. Since the early 1990s, 43 code violations were found, but Mann stated that he had difficulty with city approval for renovation plans. (It seems like the scope of work increased every time he presented them for approval.) The city visited again in 2011 and found more code violations, threatening Mann with jail time if he didn’t resolve them within 30 days. He missed several of these deadlines and was granted extensions, likely due to funding issues and the stringent fire code requirements. Milo Arts’ website states that the city attempted to vacate the building in 2000 and 2012, which was ultimately unsuccessful. They also write that the building’s occupation status has varied from “tacit approval to notification of violation.”
Mann later said he “lost his way” and that he was threatened with losing the building via sheriff’s sale. Milo Arts’ roof had blown off, and the insurance company did not pay out. It seems like in recent years there has been more progress made with addressing the building’s code violations, and renovation work has been ongoing. In 2016, Milo Arts finally received a certificate of occupancy. However, in 2021, a roofer fell to his death while repairing the building’s roof. Additionally, in recent years, Milo Arts has expanded beyond the school building. The block west of the school, along Cleveland Avenue, is now home to 934 Gallery and The Dallas, the former of which opened in 2015.
Despite these issues, Milo Arts is an invaluable asset to the neighborhood. Mann makes an effort to combat the ongoing gentrification of Milo-Grogan by keeping rent low and refusing offers from developers for the building. Renovation work is still ongoing, which as of my visit included re-roofing. I’m glad that the Milo Arts community has continued to hang on, as restoring old buildings such as this one gets very expensive, especially if they were not maintained properly over their lifetimes. Having met Rick Mann, I can say that he is a down-to-earth person who cares deeply about the work his resident artists do, and even geeks like me who come to ogle at the soot-stained battlements of his building.
Photos
At the time, I thought that this would be a quick 10-minute trip, and that I’d be heading off to some other destination afterwards (probably Italian Village). However, I ended up spending an entire hour at the school. Since I have so many photos, I’m splitting off my interior photos and prose into a second part, while solely focusing on the exterior for this first post.
A nice oblique view of the drab, stalwart Milo Arts, which I took about an hour after the next couple photos:
Most of the people in or around the building were talking about the brand-new Mercedes parked in front (at left). Yep… Milo-Grogan is changing, although that has mostly been confined to the areas west of Cleveland Avenue.
The main facade, as best of an angle as I could get it:
The school’s form is symmetrical, yet it is very picturesque through the various towers and projections, along with the window treatment. Although the masonry is sooty from age, it lends the former school a lovely haunted house-like quality. It’s a shame I visited in February--I think a cloudy fall day would have suited the building better.
Zoomed in a bit more on the tower bases and entrance arch:
I guess I never got one of the arch by itself, which stinks, because it has a unique ellipsoidal shape and an almost concave visual effect with the tapering column capitals. I also spoke with the gentleman in the red jacket later on, as he had offered to move out of frame. He is a local who is friends with some of the resident artists in the building.
Engaged columns supporting the imposts:
They have octagonal shafts and almost pilaster-like column capitals.
The impost blocks have a little ornamental flourish where the archivolt ends, and it lacks the denticulation of the other voussoirs:
I have a glossary if you’re struggling to use context clues to figure out this jargon. ;)
A stone tablet above the portal, which gives the building’s name and its date of construction:
Another view of it from right below the portal:
Modified Corinthian capitals above, which have highly textured vegetal carvings:
Arches above and the small attic windows:
These two towers are excellent and rival even the work of David Riebel in Columbus’s schools. Their spires rise higher than any of the gables on the north facade, bringing emphasis to this entrance area.
In this photo of the west tower, you can see one of the resident artists, Bela, at left. I was able to enter the building with his help.
I like this photo better than the one I had of the east tower (which I left out of this post), but the two are practically identical anyways. However, the steeply pitched roof is denuded of its shingles, part of ongoing renovation work.
The towers’ foundations have three smaller windows punched in:
The cornerstone is part of this tower, which credits Freese as the architect:
The stone details contrast nicely with the creamy brick walls. They were probably a warm brown at first, but 130 years of soot has granted them an almost charcoal hue.
The slightly recessed brick in the tower’s cupola is an alteration, as they were originally open. It also appears that the second floor’s windows are the original wooden ones.
Detail of the vaulting and the leafy ornamentation at the corners:
The bricked-up cupola and its corner pilasters:
I always love these kinds of witch-hat roofs on Romanesque-influenced buildings.
The eastern tower has its slate roof in place still, but the cornice is absent:
Projecting northeast wing:
The first floor has vaulted windows with prominent arches, which is carried over to the attic level (though those windows have largely brick vaulting). The second-floor window openings are rectangular, and they are surmounted by an overscaled lintel.
The foundation uses irregularly sized brown ashlar, which appears to be the same as the type used on the entrance portal and vaulting. This lends the building a sense of solidity.
The first floor’s triple windows:
The single course of brick here is pretty unusual--typically, these arches are either all stone or all brick.
Second floor windows:
Yes, these are on the west side of the building and not the east like two photos ago, but the two sides are identical anyways.
Peaked roof gable and smaller attic windows:
These have fun overscaled arches, too.
I started walking around the school at this point to take pictures of the sides and additions. This is a vacant commercial building that has been coated with vibrant murals by Milo Arts residents:
This wildstyle graffiti piece reads “MILO,” and the tag in the corner says “MILO-GROGAN.” Bit of a mouthful for a writer’s name…just kidding.
The west facade is similar to the north, aside from its stepping backwards and the lack of towers:
This wing is very similar to those in front, aside from the large industrial window. This likely replaced a set of vaulted windows, and it appears to date from the 1922 addition.
If I recall correctly, it was installed because the room was converted to a workshop. I could be spitballing though.
Rectangular windows above, which also appear to be original:
The end of the roof gable has some more leafy decoration:
I don’t think I’ve yet done a detail shot of this style of window on the third floor--here’s one now:
These arches are mostly brick, with some subtle texture in the topmost course, but they are bordered with stone. The bricks are also a pinker shade, which adds further polychromy to this facade.
The residents keep a garden on this side, but since it was February the soil was mostly barren with a few dried-up husks of dead plants:
West facade of the 1922 addition:
Hard to put this one under a stylistic category--it’s vaguely Tudor Revival, but the massive industrial windows are more early Modern.
Detail of a first-floor window, which has a blind arch and different courses of brick above:
I concur with the statement expressed by this artist. ICE is the modern-day Gestapo and disappearing the “undesirables” at the insane racist whims of the government.
It seems that the resident artist here has put up some plastic sheeting behind their windows:
934 Gallery and more murals:
Now we’ve reached the most recent addition, the 1957 one on the far south end of the building.
Very pragmatic and structurally “honest”--by the placement of the brick piers, it’s clear where each classroom is. This kind of architecture is ubiquitous on Ohio State campus, and even my own high school was Mid-Century Modern like this.
At least the brickwork has a few darker units speckled in there for some visual interest:
Detail of the curtain walls:
Various bricks are stacked up on the southern end of the addition. The ones on the left seem similar to those on the 1894 building, but I’m unsure of the others’ provenance.
The eastern end has had its spandrels painted red:
I hate how banal Milo Arts’ additions are, even the one from 1922. They focus entirely on function and disregard context entirely. At least their height is much shorter than the main building and therefore do not detract from it.
Where the 1922 addition meets the 1957 one, which is also the building’s parking lot:
Same overall concept on the east side here:
East facade, which unlike the west has the ugly protrusion of the 1954 auditorium addition sticking out like a sore thumb:
The other irritating thing about these designs is that they ignore the axial relationships and symmetry established by the 1894 building and are placed haphazardly about. This is true of practically every Columbus school that received an addition in the mid-20th century. I’m not critiquing Modern architecture as a whole--there are many successful additions and alterations in that style--but Columbus and OSU seem to be particularly poor at designing in that language.
The windows here have been covered with various artwork. Their size and regular spacing reminds me of movie posters on the wall of a theater.
Eastern wing of the 1894 school:
Renovation work ongoing on the nearby gable:
Now we’re back where we began.
After I had taken some initial photos of the facade, I met a man outside who happened to be one of the building’s resident artists. He first showed me his apartment in the school’s basement, before speaking with Rick Mann to set up a visit to the interior. This interesting sojourn is documented in my second part of this post.
Sources:
https://www.miloarts.com/history-of-milo-arts
https://www.miloarts.com/about
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ohio/id/10753
https://web.archive.org/web/20211027155928/https://www.dispatch.com/article/20121029/NEWS/310299793
https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/worker-injured-in-fall-e-3rd-avenue-10-7-2021
https://934gallery.org/exhibitions/gallery/
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/columbusmaps/id/5311/rec/13
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