South Messenger - September 20th, 2020

PAGE 12 - SOUTH MESSENGER - September 20, 2020
www.columbusmessenger.com
Remembering old Hamilton Township High School
By Linda Dillman
Staff Writer
In 2009, the walls came tumbling down
on Hamilton Township High School’s 1939
and 1962 buildings, but it was not the first
time in the district’s history that a high
school was replaced–it was actually the
third occasion.
In the late 1800s, the district’s first fouryear
high school opened in Lockbourne and
was in use until 1918, when the Miner
High School on Rohr Road opened. Today,
the Lockbourne site–which also served as
a masonic lodge–is undergoing a massive
renovation, taking the structure back to its
original appearance. The Miner building
now houses apartments.
In 1939, school operations moved to
Lockbourne Road, when a new $230,000
state-of-the-art high school, financed by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Public
Works Administration, was hailed as one of
the most modern and completely equipped
school buildings in Ohio for a smaller
school district.
Hamilton Township school district officials
in the 1930s said the multi-level
structure–which fell to a wrecking ball 70
years later–housed a complete industrial
arts department equipped for instruction
in automotive work, gas and electric welding,
foundry, woodworking printing and
metal art.
A first-of-its-kind photography darkroom
was included in the design, which
was a new concept for high schools, as well
as a first-floor general science laboratory.
Programming for young women included a
home economics department featuring a
cooking laboratory with four electric stoves,
sewing and dining rooms, and a bedroom
where girls were taught housework and
basic nursing.
A 500-seat auditorium served double
duty as a performance space and gymnasium
for 230 students. With the construction
of Lockbourne Air Force Base and the
influx of military families, student enrollment
pushed past the 600 mark by 1959.
A million-dollar addition was constructed
in 1962 and housed a dedicated gymnasium,
classrooms, industrial arts space,
printing lab, band and choir space, offices
and a full-service cafeteria.
As air base operations continued to
grow, enrollment throughout the district
grew to 4,000 students in the 1970s, pushing
capacity to its limits with grades 7-12
in the high school complex until an intermediate
building opened on Rathmell
Road.
Prior to the new building, resources
were so tight that three students often
shared one locker.
Hamilton Central Elementary on
Messenger photos by Linda Dillman
The cupola of the 1939 Hamilton Township High School building was demolished on
June 29, 2009 to make way for a new complex.
Rathmell Road opened in 1953,
replacing a Shadeville school where
students had no indoor plumbing or
running water and brought their own
drinking water to school when an
outdoor pump froze in winter.
The elementary school closed and
was razed in 2006 to make way for
the construction of the new $25 million
high school on Rathmell Road,
which mimics the look of the 1939
building with towering Ionic columns
and a cupola.
The new building opened in time
for the 2009-10 school year. Inside, a
53’x8’ high mural honoring the township
and the school district’s history
greets visitors to the cafeteria and
commons area and a Hall of History,
with class graduation composites
dating back to 1918, lines classroom
hallways.
The gymnasium and remaining portions of the
Hamilton Township High School 1962 addition
were torn down on June 26 2009.