Arthur Street School makes the National Register of Historic Places

ASHLAND — The National Register of Historic Places recently added the Arthur Street School in Ashland to its compendium of historic buildings.

The school, located at 416 Arthur St., was added on Feb. 18, and joins another Ashland building on the register, The Freer Home (formerly the Ashland County Children’s Home).

The Arthur Street school, formerly known as the Walnut Street school, was originally built as a two-room wooden structure in 1871. Three-and-a-half decades later, the schoolhouse was replaced by an eight-room brick building in 1907 after the board of education passed a resolution for the change.

The structure that stands today was constructed in 1927. In 1981, the school was officially closed and the building remained as administrative offices for the Ashland city school district until 2016.

Last year in June, the district agreed to sell the 93-year-old building to Schwab Development, LLC.

Ashland native Kyle von Kamp was excited to see the school make the national register. To him, seeing local buildings on the register is something to take pride in.

“I think it’s important that we find ways to preserve these historic buildings so that they can be remembered and honored for times to come,” he said.

Von Kamp is a member of Preservation Ohio, a statewide non-profit corporation focused on advocacy for and education about Ohio’s historic buildings, downtowns, neighborhoods, landscapes, and communities.

He also recently created a Facebook group in early March called “Save the Hess and Clark Building,” that focuses on sharing ideas on how to preserve the building. In only two months, Von Kamp grew the group to 332 members, all by word of mouth.

“I was pretty impressed with how many people joined so quickly,” he said. “It really shows that our community really cares about its history and I think that’s great.”

While the Arthur Street School’s placement on the national register does not provide it with protection from being torn down, a placement does allow for benefits such as national grants and tax credits.

Von Kamp says for both buildings (if Hess and Clark were to be put on the national register), rehab projects could keep the historic buildings alive while still giving them a use.

“Why not turn these buildings into low-income housing or something useful to the community,” Von Kamp said. “There’s ways to keep these buildings intact so that they won’t be lost to history.”