Schools Celebrating the 100th Birthday of the Dale Park School

By Beth McDaniel Community Development Director, Cincinnati Waldorf School

The Cincinnati Waldorf School warmly welcomes the Mariemont Community to join us in celebrating the 100th anniversary of our beautiful school building!

Friday, May 2, 2025

1:30-2:30 p.m.: Join Our May Day Celebration at Ann Buntin Becker Park

2:30-5 p.m.: Reception at the Cincinnati Waldorf School

The Dale Park School was designed by A. Lincoln Fechheimer and Benjamin L. Ihorst. This architectural team also designed the Theodore Roosevelt School in South Fairmount, Ault Park Pavilion, Linwood School, and the Isaac M. Wise Center (now Zion First Pentecostal Church). Building began in 1924, and The Dale Park School was dedicated on May 16, 1925.

The building has been a school for most of its 100 years, save a 15-year period when it served as a Community Center. After Mariemont completed the new junior high in 2012, the Cincinnati Waldorf School (CWS) purchased the building and has been fortunate to call the Dale Park School home ever since.

Today CWS employs 50+ faculty members and serves over 300 students from parent and child classes through high school. CWS is part of a global movement of Waldorf schools numbering more than 1,200 worldwide. Interestingly, the opening of the very first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany was relatively contemporaneous with the dedication of the Dale Park School, happening just a few years earlier in 1919.

Students and families at the Cincinnati Waldorf School have made a home in our beautiful building on Chestnut Street and enjoy the adjacent park, creek, walking trails and playgrounds, all of which support a handson, nature-based educational experience.

We are excited to welcome our Mariemont neighbors to join our annual May Day Celebration, which echoes early festivities at the Dale Park School (see adjacent photos)!

Please arrive at Ann Buntin Becker Park by 1:30 p.m. to enjoy student dancing and musical sharing around the May Pole, then join us for a reception at the Dale Park School. Light refreshments will be provided in the CWS Community Room, and tours will be offered.

Please know that our May Day celebration is open to our CWS community as well, so parking is likely to be limited. School dismissal will be happening from 2:45-3:30, so we also ask that our visitors be mindful of blocking car line traffic.

We look forward to seeing you and celebrating a beautiful building that has provided a space for educating our community’s children for 100 years!