R.I.P.: THE DEATH OF A VICTORIAN

This post is going to be very different (as you will easily see) from all the posts typically seen on this blog.  How so?  This post will be dominated by pictures -- all educational/informative illustrations created by architectural historian Tim Barrett.

In a nutshell, this is about one of the most intrusive and destructive remodeling ever done to a historic structure, having occurred in 2020.  Seen in the Ohio City neighborhood at the southwest corner of West 32nd and Carroll, it was for many years the First German Reformed Church.  Fast-forward to sometime in the second half of the 20th century, it was acquired by the Jesuit order, to become part of their ever-expanding campus of Ignatius High School, but no longer used as a church.  

Please follow along with the information and views in the illustrations below.  As you know, "A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words"!!!  [Note; You most likely will have to use your device's zooming tool.]

Mr. Barrett says: "Although this was never intended to be a grand church. this, one of the region's oldest extant sacred structures, is now a pastiche that only serves to confuse its own history."

Mr. Barrett, contemplating a possible 'reversal' sometime in a more enlightened future, adds, "Removing the new brick wouldn't be a problem.  That's probably reversible.  However, the concrete slurry now bonded with the historic brick would totally destroy that brick if you even tried to somehow separate the two.  What was done has totally and irreversibly eliminated the visible restoration of the original historic material and appearance of this building.  Tragically, it was only exposed for a few weeks.  O yes, it's there, like the buried dead below ground in our cemeteries, and like the dead, we'll never see them or it again."