McCormick School Recommended for Listing on National Register

For Immediate Release - April 11, 2011

Contact: Kim Schuette, 614.297.2314 or 800-340-6131 or by email at kschuette@ohiohistory.org

State Board Recommends McCormick School To National Register Of Historic Places

(COLUMBUS, Ohio)- Members of the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board voted Friday to recommend that the state historic preservation officer nominate McCormick School in Huron, Ohio to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service along with four other Ohio properties.

Located at 325 Ohio Street, McCormick School, formerly known as Huron School, is a striking Art Moderne building. Built in 1943, it was the first concrete school constructed in Ohio and has been in continuous use as a school building by the Huron Board of Education. Art Moderne, although quite common style of architecture in the late 1930s, was rarely used for public building and was especially rare for schools. The building was designed Harold Parker, an architect in Sandusky, Ohio, who designed other notable building in the area, including the Register-Star News Building in 1920, the Commercial Banking and Trust Company building in 1924 Strobel Athletic Field and Stadium in 1937 and Madison Elementary School in 1939.

If the National Park Service, the agency that administers the program, agrees that the school meets the criteria for listing, it will be added to the National Register of Historic Places. The final decision to add a property to the register comes about 90 days after the National Register nomination is formally submitted to the park service by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office.

Portraits of Huron’s Past: George E. Rhinemiller

Ingenuity and good business sense never go out of style and are necessary components for success. Yet, success may not be all that it seems. One of the successful businesses owners of Huron, Ohio’s past was George Edward Rhinemiller. George was born on September 25, 1883 to John and Margaret Rhinemiller. The Rhinemiller homestead was located on Berlin Road in Huron. George attended the public schools in Huron and then completed a technical course through the International Correspondence School of Scranton, Pennsylvania. In addition, George likely received practical training from his father who was known as a respected and prosperous farmer who always employed the latest farm implements.

George’s first adventure in the business world was in 1908 when he established a farm implement trade in Huron. He sold the most innovative and modern farm implements available, including the Hoover Potato Digger, which was produced in Avery, Ohio. George’s next venture was a sand and cement business. George’s greatest business success, however, came when he established an automobile sales and service business. In 1912, he erected a three-story, brick building at 607 South Main Street, Huron, which housed a showroom, garage and repair shop that had the most modern mechanical equipment. George was an agent for Oldsmobile, Chandler, and Chevrolet motor cars and Vim light delivery cars.

By 1915, George had abandoned his other ventures to focus his efforts exclusively on his automobile business. George became known as one of the most successful automobile salesmen in northern Ohio. In addition, he employed assistant agents in both Berlin Heights and Norwalk.

Around 1904, George married Bertha Jarratt, the daughter of Isaac and Martha (Harris) Jarratt of Huron. A son, Edward George, was born to George and Bertha in 1909. In 1910, George and Bertha built “an attractive and modern house of nine rooms” located at 513 Williams Street. Of course, the Rhinemillers also constructed a garage for their automobile.

Though success came for George Rhinemiller in the form of a profitable business, his personal life was struck by tragedy. In 1917, George’s son, Edward, died at the age of eight after a short illness. This tragic event seemingly sent George’s life into a downward spiral. By 1918, George and Bertha were living at the Reiger Hotel in Sandusky, and George was running the Rhinemiller Garage located on Jackson Street in Sandusky. In 1920, George no longer had his own business and was employed as the manager of an auto store. By 1925, George and his wife, Bertha, had divorced.
According to the 1930 census, George had married a woman named Florence, fathered two children, Betty Jane and George, Jr., was living in Rochester, New York, and working as an automobile banker. (Bertha Rhinemiller had moved to Cleveland and worked as a waitress.) The difficult times of the Great Depression greatly affected the profitability of the automobile industry with automobile sales down by 75%. This decline personally affected George Rhinemiller. On May 24, 1933, apparently despondent over failed business transactions, George committed suicide. His body was returned to Huron for burial in the McMillen Cemetery. George’s life, like so many others during the Great Depression, ended so pointlessly.

Tufa Rock Houses

Have you ever seen the handful of houses in the Huron's Rye Beach neighborhood that are constructed using a strange-looking, porous rock and wondered what exactly it was? The rock is called tufa. Tufa is a porous rock formed by the deposition of calcium carbonate from supersaturated water. According to Mike Angle, a geologist with the Ohio Division of Geological Survey, tufa and its sister, marl, are “a bit of an enigma for geologists to classify.” These rocks differ from all other bedrocks in Ohio because, unlike limestone and other bedrocks that are millions of years old, they are still being formed. Tufa, a soft, volcanic-looking rock that ages and hardens in the sun, is essentially a porous deposit of calcium carbonate. “It will form anywhere where ground water is super-saturated with calcium carbonate” states retired Ohio geologist, Nate Fuller. When the precipitation of the calcium carbonate occurs underground, marl is formed. When it precipitates out above ground, tufa is formed. Upon settling, the carbonate encrusts those objects with which it comes in contact.

Large deposits of tufa and marl are fairly rare and not very widespread; yet, small quantities of tufa rock can be found throughout western and northern Ohio. Deposits of tufa and marl are associated with areas containing caves or caverns and/or seeps or springs along relatively steep slopes and valleys. In Ohio, the largest deposits of tufa were traditionally found at White’s Landing, the Resthaven Wildlife area just northeast of Castalia, and the area around Miller’s Blue Hole, all in Erie County near Sandusky Bay.

In all areas where it occurs, the majority of the tufa and marl has been mined. At Resthaven, the largest deposit in the state, tufa/marl initially covered an area of about 3,500 acres and averaged six feet deep. This area was mined extensively in the early 1900s by the Portland Cement Company of Sandusky for use in their cement products. At White’s Landing and other areas, including Huron’s Rye Beach neighborhood and the Catawba Cliffs neighborhood, the tufa/marl was used primarily in the construction of homes, most of which were constructed during the 1920s and 1930s. Today, tufa is used widely in rock gardens around the world and provides a perfect substrate upon which to grow plants including Dianthus, Hosta, and Phlox.

McCormick School: Huron's Architectural Gem

Though McCormick School is often taken for granted, it truly is an architectural gem that should be treasured by the residents of Huron, Ohio. When McCormick School (originally known as Huron School) was completed in 1943, it was the first architectural concrete school constructed in Ohio. R. L. McCormick, the Executive Head of the Huron Public Schools, convinced the residents of Huron to build this new school. McCormick promised that the new school would serve not only the students of Huron, but the entire community. In the late 1930s, Huron’s approximately 2,500 residents agreed to fund this new school, despite the difficult times of the Great Depression.
Harold Parker of Sandusky was hired as the architect for the project. Parker had designed notable buildings in Sandusky including the Register-Star News Building in 1920, the Commercial Banking and Trust Company building in 1924, and Strobel Athletic Field and Stadium in 1937. Though not originally intended to be a concrete structure, Parker altered the plans for McCormick School to utilize concrete and incorporated attributes of the Art Moderne style. Though quite common in the late 1930s, the Art Moderne style was not typically a style used in public buildings, and was especially rare for schools. New techniques for reinforcing concrete with metal netting, bars, and cables were developed in the early twentieth century, and the popularity of concrete as a dominant commercial, industrial, and transportation-related building material was firmly established by 1940. In addition to choosing concrete as the building medium, Parker altered the front entrance block, added curved walls with glass block windows in two classrooms, and incorporated strong horizontal lines. By including these changes, Parker morphed the plans for McCormick School into a distinctive Art Moderne structure. It is unclear as to when construction actually began on the school, but efforts were delayed and altered due to World War II and the resulting lack of materials and laborers. The roof of the centrally-located gymnasium-auditorium was originally intended to contain steel trusses. But, due to the lack of steel available during this time of war, six reinforced concrete barrel shells were used over this central area. Thin-shell concrete construction was introduced in the United States by Anton Tedesko in 1933, and the first permanent concrete thin-shell structure was built in 1934. This technique, which used a minimum of scarce materials, involved casting the roof-barrel shells in place. The use of the thin-shell technique in 1943 for the roof-barrel shells at McCormick School, though a small-scale operation, was not only an early application, but quite innovative. The total cost of construction for the school was $315,000, plus $35,000 in equipment.
Though McCormick School is currently used for 7th and 8th grade students only, it was originally built to accommodate elementary students on one side of the building and high school students on the other. In the spring of 1943, all of Huron’s students experienced moving day. The students packed up their belongings and whatever else they could carry and walked from the current school located where the Huron Public Library now stands to the newly completed school on Ohio Street. As promised by R. L. McCormick, the school was available for community gatherings and adult education when not in use by the students. Some of the activities for which the school was available included use of the outdoor athletic fields, use of the gymnasium- one night per week for women and one for men, and an adult Spanish class. Further, the lovely dinning area (now the cafeteria) with its huge, cylindrical chandelier was used for dinners and receptions by various groups, and the auditorium/gymnasium was used for civic forum programs, league basketball games, and other programs. In addition, the auditorium has been the summer home of the Huron Playhouse since 1949.
Though in need of some minor renovations, this sturdy concrete structure has stood the test of time and is a reminder of the dedication that Huron residents had to education of their children. McCormick School is currently under consideration for listing on the National Register of Historic Places for its unique architectural style.

Upcoming Speaking Engagement

I will again be speaking on Isaac W. Hoover and his famous potato digger. This engagement will be on Sunday, February 28, 2011 at 6 PM at St. John's United Church of Christ in Milan Township, Ohio. I am forever amazed at the enthusiasm and interest surrounding the Hoover Potato Digger!