herr2ck: School Within a School

September 2025.

Ramseyer Hall used to be the College of Education’s University School, which was employed to train college students studying to become teachers. It hasn’t served this purpose for decades, but the building is still used by the College of Education today.

Ramseyer Hall is located on north campus. It is bordered by Woodruff Avenue and St. Stephen’s Episcopal to the north, the Arps Garage to the south, High Street to the east, and College Road and MacQuigg Lab to the west.

History

Rendering of the principal facade. (Knowlton Archives)

Ramseyer Hall was designed as the “University School” by university architect Howard Dwight Smith in 1930. A Beaux-Arts composition, it’s pretty similar to a lot of Smith’s other educational work across Columbus. The building’s construction began that September, the general contractor being D. W. McGrath and Sons, and it was completed in April 1932. Ramseyer Hall opened for the autumn quarter of 1932.

Ramseyer Hall in 1935, three years after its completion. (Buckeye Stroll)

Ohio’s legislature approved the construction of a school on campus as early as 1910, and it appeared on subsequent master plans, but apparently it took 20 years to actually build one. The University School was an experimental school for kindergarteners through high school seniors, and it was overseen by the College of Education. It was built with amenities common for schools of the time and even today, such as a two-story gymnasium, library, laboratories, and a kitchen and cafeteria. Most of these are long gone, though.

A classroom inside the school c. 1950s. (University Archives)

The school’s method of teaching was pretty unique for the time. Class sizes were just 25 students, and they were allowed to have input in what they learned. Students did not earn grades; instead, a letter was sent to their parents each semester that documented the student’s progress. However, it still held traditional school activities like dances, and the school had sports teams and a yearbook.

The Board of Trustees voted to close the University School in 1963. Its final high school class graduated in 1967 and elementary school did a year later. The building was converted to conventional college classrooms, and it reopened in 1969.

The University School was renamed “Ramseyer Hall” in 1969 after Dr. John Ramseyer, who taught at the school for 13 years and eventually served as its director from 1948 to 1951. Ramseyer became a professor afterwards and was the director of the College of Education from 1965 to 1968.

Photos

I think Ramseyer Hall is one of the “hidden gems” on campus, as its interior is unusually ornate and intact. It also serves as a look back at historic views on education, which I’ll elaborate on as we explore (so strap in for a long one). This photo from March 2024 is the best one I have of the main façade:

This brick Beaux-Arts design language is very typical of Howard Dwight Smith’s academic work. Each part is articulated differently, but I think the overall composition is strong.

The primary entrance is ennobled by its projection from the remainder of the building, its portico above the doors and crowning pediment, and liberal usage of stone:

The pediment:

I’m unsure if this entrance is technically in the Doric or Tuscan order. The omitting of fluting and simplicity across the building makes me think Tuscan, but the steeper pitch of the sides is more archaic Doric. Regardless, there’s other weird stuff across the building, like the portico’s pediment being broken and the inclusion of denticulation elsewhere, so I’m just gonna say it was Howard Dwight Smith playing with his precedents.

The pediment is broken with a lamp, likely symbolizing knowledge:

The entrance itself is detailed with copper egg-and-dart molding:

Classic “scarlet sign”:

“University School” sign:

These light poles are original, but the globes have been replaced, and the modern ones are a bit out of scale.

Above is the seal of the university surrounded by festoons:

There’s this funky rounded projection on the east side, which contains the stairs. Kind of an odd moment:

Detail of the entrance there, which has a slight denticulated cornice above:

I really like the main body’s usage of vaulting across the third floor.

Each bay is surrounded by a pilaster with a stone capital. The space between the large windows is filled with green tile spandrels, which mimic the copper roof’s oxidation and provide a pop of contrasting colors.

The northwest entrance is articulated similarly, but it is simpler:

No portico here, just a stone base and balconette above the doors.

It’s subtle, but there is a slightly decorated parapet above:

The east facade was tougher to capture, due to it mostly being obscured by nearby foliage. Here is the rounded projection on that side:

Detail of the acroteria:

The northeast corner:

I really like when brick is used cleverly to create varying textures and effects. Here, the corners are recessed to imitate quoins, and the “lintel” (brick fails in compression, so this is certainly reinforced by hidden steel or rebar) above the second-floor window stands out due to its odd angle and orientation. There is a simple cornice along the roofline, which carries over the Doric order the rest of the building follows.

Ramseyer Hall makes an L in plan, so there’s two south facades. The one extending southward is pretty bare:

There’s still a pleasant textural effect attained through the brickwork and cornice, though. I do wonder if that central portion on the first floor was once a window or door.

The Arps Garage creates a choke point effect leading to the southwest portion:

Each entrance in the rear has a quote carved into the surrounding masonry. This southernmost entrance urges students to seek out new experiences in life:

This is something that has gone the way of the dodo when it comes to academic architecture. I think this hearkens back to a time where education was very much valued, as back when Ramseyer Hall was constructed, a popular maxim was “education is the [cheap] defense of nations.”

I’d say this assertion is correct, as more educated people tend to think more critically and are better prepared to enact change for the better. Yes, even defend the nation, as the quote asserts. This placement on what was an elementary school is not an accident either.

“Cheap” is an important part of that quote too, even if frequently omitted; it sure would be more cost-effective to educate our children and young adults as opposed to dumping billions of dollars into the defense budget. Unfortunately, many people view education today (especially higher education) as if it is a tool to indoctrinate students into becoming anarchists who worship Satan and identify as transgender furries. Understand the fact that uneducated people tend to vote a certain way, and the current administration’s attack on education begins to make more sense.

I am all for academic and intellectual freedom, and Ohio is currently stripping away these rights as you read. Senate Bill 1 gags professors from teaching what is basically considered “woke, Marxist ideology” (i.e. just about anything that is critical of capitalism, right-wing politics, race, gender, etc.)

I think a lot of people tend to attack Gen-Z because we are perceived as lazy, immature, apathetic, and so on. I’m sure there is some kernel of truth to that fact, but barring the fact that this has been said about literally every generation of young people ever, the attack on education is playing a role in this perception. Teachers have low salaries, and passion for the role alone is not always enough to incentivize becoming one. Most people can probably remember one teacher that had a big impact on them. The effect of education on our lives is much greater than we might realize. If education becomes as toothless as our government is attempting to make it, Gen-Z and Gen Alpha absolutely will become lazy, immature, and apathetic.

It is especially concerning that the political party supposedly extolling the values of “freedom of speech” is simultaneously attempting to suppress these same rights. I really hate this revision of history that is currently being written: how the Civil War was fought over “state’s rights” (rights to do what?), how white people were meant to inhabit North America and Native Americans deserved their eventual plight, how Adolf Hitler of all people “wasn’t the bad guy!”, and how civil rights activists like MLK and Malcolm X were “radical leftists replacing ‘traditional American values’ with DEI.” I could go on and on. It is especially shameful that we as a nation cannot acknowledge our mistakes and try to be better, how we are trying to simply sweep them under the rug and remain doomed to repeat the same history. The fact remains that these things happened and affected, and still affect, our marginalized groups, regardless if we turn a blind eye to it or not.

Indoctrination absolutely DOES happen in schools--I went to Catholic high school, and it took years to reprogram all the nonsense they planted in my head there. It just does not happen in the way that Ohio and the American government thinks it does. In a time where your elected officials want you to keep your head down and drink the kool-aid, so to speak, it is very important to think critically about what you are being taught in school. Read the banned books. There are quite a few parallels between our government’s views on educated people/controversial books and those of dictatorships and totalitarian states such as Hitler’s Germany and Mao’s China. (Fun fact - scholars and intellectuals were referred to as the “Stinking Old Ninth” in China and were one of the “undesirable” categories during the revolution.)

My intention isn’t necessarily to tell you to vote a certain way, but it’s important to understand that education is a necessary function of a country, as our times are attempting to tell us otherwise.

The west facade:

I went to the top of the Arps Garage and got a more level view of the bell tower. Here is a nice overall view:

The base has large brick quoins and small windows, which appear to be original wood sashes:

Urns:

Central window:

The copper roof:

One of the third floor’s skylights:

A better look at that mini-greenhouse seen earlier:

Another look at the roof’s gingerbread:

I was blown away at the level of detail inside the interior of Ramseyer Hall. It was highly decorated for a campus building, and much of the original ornament remains intact. I kept my digital camera on hand for a few photos before transitioning to my phone like usual. I unfortunately failed to get a photo of the main lobby in its entirety, but I have some details here:

Ornate crown molding along the ceiling:

Northeast stair:

I haven’t seen green terrazzo flooring before, that’s interesting.

What really stuck out to me was these plaster rosettes. They are in excellent repair and look beautiful:

The ceiling also has these naturalistic borders:

First floor hallway:

I never did get a photo of those square vestibules by themselves, but one can be seen in the middle of the hallway above.

The first floor has this massive wooden display case:

I bet the broken pediment here was meant to echo the one on the portico outside.

Every floor has an elaborate tile backsplash behind the drinking fountain, which was apparently handmade. The first floor’s features a heraldic lion:

The second floor hallway has more modern light fixtures, and lockers line the walls:

Detail of the quasi-Block O motif in the central vestibule:

Another fancy wood case:

The second floor’s decoration features floral motifs instead of classical ones:

The practice of making schools beautiful and detail-rich buildings is another long-forgotten aspect of this era. After Modernist schools began ushering in the idea that form follows function, things like this never really came back. I’d argue that later and even contemporary architecture can be decorated and be beautiful (albeit in different ways than before), but it seems like that possibility does not extend to academic architecture.

I understand that the needs of students, especially young ones, are a lot different than the adult users of a college campus. I just think that the schools that we send our children to deserve to be ennobled and that students should feel valued as a result. Even if it’s just painting Bluey on the wall of an elementary school.

The second floor’s drinking fountain almost looks like a rising sun with the protruding border:

The third floor’s hallway:

I really love this vaulted ceiling and the skylights here.

I’m sure skylights aren’t great for energy efficiency, especially large ones like this, but being able to naturally light a hallway is much nicer than crappy artificial lights. Did your school have skylights?

Okay, finally a good photo of the vestibules I was talking about in their entirety:

Detail of the eagle motif on the chamfered corners:

I was thoroughly confused about the presence of a front door that wouldn’t look out of place on a house:

I thought this was the teacher’s lounge, but after looking at Howard Dwight Smith’s floor plans on the first floor displays, it’s the entrance to the home economics classrooms. That makes a lot more sense.

Looking north from the northwest stair: