March 2026.
2nd Avenue Elementary School is one of Columbus’s historic Italianate schools. At present, it is the third-oldest school building in Columbus (behind 1st Avenue School in Harrison West, built a year earlier, and 3rd Street School in German Village). Unlike the other existing Italianate schools, the additions to 2nd Avenue School also did not really affect the original form of the building.
2nd Avenue Elementary is located at 68 East 2nd Avenue in the Italian Village neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by 3rd Avenue to the north, 2nd Avenue to the south, and houses on the south and east.
History
1922 photo of the school. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
2nd Avenue Elementary’s construction began in 1873. An example of the Italianate style, the school was designed by Max Drach, and it opened in 1874. Soon after, an addition on the west side of the school was completed in 1883, which is connected to the original building via a hallway. This appears to have been a response to overcrowding at Central High School, as students who lived north of Union Station were assigned to 2nd Avenue’s addition as a precursor to the construction of North High School.
The school in 1950. (All Columbus Data)
2nd Avenue Elementary continued to operate through the 20th century. A one-story Modernist addition was built onto the east side of the school in the mid-20th century, and the western addition was later altered to include a new entrance. Judging by its glass block window and Beaux-Arts-inspired portal, this was probably done in the 1980s or 1990s.
1981 photo of the school. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
Despite holding a re-dedication ceremony in 2001, 2nd Avenue Elementary School closed in 2007. In 2008, the school was acquired by Junior Achievement, an extracurricular organization intended for students that teaches free work and financial-related programs. They continue to occupy the building today.
Photos
Angled view of the school from the southeast, with its mid-century addition in view:
I swear every single historic school in Columbus has had one of these monstrosities tacked onto it in the 1950s and 1960s. I understand that they were necessary to expand the small square footage of the aging schools, but they never respect the original building architecturally and are just a sprawling mess without cohesive form or design.
At least the 1874 school has a clear method of expression (even if it’s backwards-looking):
The stone foundation, tall window with hood molds, and shallow pitched roof aside from a large cross gable are all very common of these schools, along with Italianate architecture in general.
Brick corbelling and metal cornice:
The branches prevented a straight-on shot of the datestone, so this is the best I got:
Can it even be called a datestone if it’s metal?
Here’s the original school in relation with its 1883 addition:
The 1883 addition in particular is pretty far removed from the school, and the two are connected with a thin hallway. They are almost identical in design.
I think the buried portion is a later change and probably dates to 1920-1940. A shot in the dark that is purely speculation and unsourced is that it was a modification by Howard Dwight Smith during his role as Columbus City Schools architect, as it is very similar in design to his work at Ohio State. It has a stripped-down classical appearance with a metal overhang that is common to OSU campus architecture at that time.
These circular stone details on the corridor are classical ornaments known as paterae, but they look kind of like Art Deco automobile wheels to me. Very streamlined.
These small Italianate schools so commonly received an addition in a similar style that it becomes difficult to tell what is original or what isn’t. Here, the original footprint is very obvious, especially from above.
I thought that this obelisk near Mt. Pleasant Avenue was cute--it is very similar to the art style that was popular when I was in elementary school.
…aaaand anyone older than 25 now feels their bones creaking. This is what I mean by “documenting architecture from a Gen-Z perspective”--anything from the late 90s-early 2000s is therefore nostalgic to me.
From the western parking lot:
The cognitive dissonance required to build a classical portal and matching hood mold onto a historic building, but then fill in a window opening with glass block:
Maybe they were trying to save costs, but then why build an expensive carved stone portico?
I thought the entrance was one of Howard Dwight Smith’s modernizations to these aging Italianate schools in the 1920s (as was the case for 1st and 3rd Avenue Schools), but it doesn’t show up in the 1950 photo, so this has to be a Postmodern-era change.
It is also in unusually good shape, lending credence to a more modern construction date.
The hood molds here are rather gnarly and spalling from age, and the cages over the windows are pretty unusual to me. Placed to stop would-be juvenile escapees, maybe?
Now, as an elementary schooler I never thought about escaping the confines of my elementary school. (Granted, my school was a late Modernist design and was relatively child-proofed.) I’ve definitely considered it during architecture school, though. ;)
Sources:
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ohio/id/12251
https://www.teachingcolumbus.org/a-history-of-columbus-schools-1812-1912.html
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ccs/id/2728/
https://allcolumbusdata.com/school-and-education-history/
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2008/11/19/junior-achievement-to-use-closed/23616774007/
https://centralohio.ja.org/mission-vision/
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/p16802coll19/id/7151/rec/276
https://catalog.archives.gov/medialz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/99000702.pdf