{"nrhp_refnum":"80003000","name":"Indianola Junior High School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"420 E. 19th Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Columbus","county":"Franklin County","state":"OH","lat":40.00370673300006,"lon":-82.99087445299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-06-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Indianola Junior High School is a three-story buff brick public school building at 420 East 19th Avenue in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, built in 1929 and designed by Howard Dwight Smith.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is architecturally significant as a 1929 brick institutional structure with modernistic influences and terra cotta, balcony and sculptural ornament. It is also significant for education, since Columbus is said to have established the first junior high school in the country with Indianola. The school moved into this building in 1929 because of overcrowding.","narrative":"Indianola Junior High School, at 420 East 19th Avenue in Columbus, is a three-story buff brick school completed in 1929. Its eighteen bays use a pier-and-spandrel design with recessed windows, and the front entrance is topped by a carved bison head, with stone tiles showing stylized animals alongside. A bas-relief of an Indian chief sits above the third story, and balconies, shields and terra cotta urns add ornament. Inside are oak woodwork, ornamental plaster, leaded and tapestry glass, and a wood-burning fireplace, with some woodwork salvaged from the earlier school building. Howard Dwight Smith, an Ohio State University architect who also designed Ohio Stadium, was the designer, and Erwin Frey created the sculpture. The building matters for its architecture and for its role in education: Columbus is credited with starting the junior high school concept with Indianola, which moved here in 1929 from a 1907 building because of overcrowding.","period_of_significance":"1900- (specific date 1929)","architect_builder":"Howard Dwight Smith","architectural_style":"Modernistic influences; reviewer notes describe it as Art Deco influenced, Depression Modern and Jacobethan Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, publicly owned, in educational use, in good condition and unaltered on its original site.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:12.786797-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/80003000.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003000/f46d6f8868-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003000/f46d6f8868-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Hamaxides","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indianaola_Middle_School_Entrance.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Hamaxides</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indianaola_Middle_School_Entrance.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988485","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianola_Junior_High_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q27840128"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/franklin-county/indianola-junior-high-school-80003000/"}