M ay 2 0 2 2 • M a r i e m o n t, O h i o • Vo l u m e X LV I , N o . 8
Architects of Mariemont: Dale Park School Part II By Matt Ayer Last month this series featured the life and work of Lincoln Fechheimer, the architect chosen to design Mariemont’s school building. The Mariemont Company’s marketing booklet described the educational benefits for families coming to this new town: “The Public School District of Mariemont will be created, under control of the County Superintendent; teachers have been engaged; and school will open on time in a temporary building until The Mariemont School, capacity 400, is finished about June 1, 1925. This school, kindergarten, and the eight grades will be operated free by the Company.” Fechheimer laid out a perfectly symmetrical structure consistent with the Georgian Revival style and blending beautifully with the similarly designed Dana Group townhomes and apartments across the street on Chestnut Avenue. The building had ten classrooms and was described as such: “This brick structure, of the most modern design and fully equipped, was erected as an exemplar of what other school buildings must be to conform to the Mariemont ideal.” Construction those days was not yet preceded by soil borings for foundation design. A surprise to the Mariemont Company, when the steam shovel excavated the boiler room area in the basement, it broke into a six-foot layer of muck and was extricated with tremendous effort to avoid its burial. Further investigation indicated that the entire building site was above a spring that flowed upward through a sandy layer, creating the phenomenon known as “quicksand.” After consultation with the architect, a drainage system below the quicksand layer was
The beautiful view from Wooster Pike of Dale Park School as Designed by Fechheimer. constructed and piped to the creek. The sand dried and the foundation could be poured onto solid ground. Water from that spring trickles into the creek at the base of the hill to this day. Today we see Fechheimer’s artistry primarily on the front and east side of the building, as two uninteresting additions from the 1950s hide the original south and west sides. Well intended at the time, the defilement of this classic, historic structure reinforces the need for Mariemont’s Architectural Review Board (ARB) and protections for designated landmark structures in our Village Code of Ordinances. Picture the beauty of this building set back from Wooster Pike atop its small hill, perfect in symmetry with its geometrically simple but balanced features, topped with its cupola and weathervane.
Fechheimer specified Flemish bond for bricklaying, whereby each course is laid alternating the header and stretcher end of a brick. The double-doored entrance to the school is flanked by pilasters (rectangular columns), graced with a semicircular fanlight beneath a pediment (triangular gable). The fanlight windows featuring divisions of sixths are best appreciated from the inside of the building, particularly where the windows are repeated at the entrance. This beautiful window pattern is also used in the stairwells of the building and in the attic on the east side. Dale Park School has served as a school in a few formats and as a community center over the years, but today is currently beautifully maintained and preserved by the Cincinnati Waldorf School for its Lower Cont'd on page 4