CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati City Council committee voted Tuesday to reject a landmark designation for a former Evanston school. The vote followed hours of occasionally-heated debate that primarily fell along racial lines.
“It is a sad thing to witness and so it taints everything,” said council member Reggie Harris.
The former Hoffman School building is currently owned by developer Kingsley + Co. It was sold to the developer by Christ Temple Baptist Church earlier this summer.
Kingsley + Co. plans to demolish the building to build mixed-income housing units. Both the church and developer were opposed to historic designation.
In early June, Cincinnati’s Planning Commission voted against recommending the site be designated as a local landmark. A council committee took up the issue on Tuesday, ultimately rejecting the designation as well.
It was standing-room only in council chambers as city leaders held the public hearing.
“It's where they learned our ABCs,” said Beth Johnson, executive director of the Cincinnati Preservation Association. “It's the center of community life here in Evanston.”
The Cincinnati Preservation Association had led the push for landmark designation. Supporters say the building is architecturally and historically significant.
“Demolishing it would be erasing a part of this neighborhood's history,” Johnson said. “It was built during the Progressive Era of education and so it was one of the first schools that incorporated things like playgrounds and a lunch room.”
Opponents argued that the designation would impede a private business deal. Many said it was a race issue too, since the church is a predominantly Black congregation and many who are in favor of the historic designation are white. Developer Kingsley + Co. is minority-owned.
“For this council to even have this meeting pertaining historical attachment to a building that has absolutely no historical significance whatsoever is a travesty to us as Black folks in his city,” said Freeman McNeal, a deacon with Christ Temple Baptist Church.
McNeal described the building as “beyond repair.”
“It seems to me that you're trying to appease some rich white people at the expense of Black people, Black development and the housing needs of the Black community,” said one public speaker during the hearing.
In total, the meeting went nearly four hours.
Ultimately, five council committee members voted to oppose the designation, while four voted in favor.
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