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Historical Nelsonville Schools in Renovation Process

Posted on: Tuesday, June 23, 2015

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The Nelsonville Restoration Foundation announced last week the Ohio Housing Finance Agency approved tax credits to reconstruct two historical buildings, the Nelsonville High School and Junior High after fifteen years of preservation.

The junior high school was built in 1907, and the high school was built in 1924.

Dorothy Gettle, the Nelsonville Restoration Foundation chairman, who attended both schools and graduated from Nelsonville High in 1953, says she remembers how the schools used to look and is excited about the renovations.

“When I got the call from Joe McCabe, who is the Vice President of the Woda Group, I said thank you so much Joe, that’s wonderful. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Gettle said.

The Woda Group of Westerville will be reconstructing and managing the renovations.

The junior high has not had much done to it since the 1980’s, but the high school is currently utilized for Global Gymnastics. Grants from Children Services in Columbus and local organizations helped with funds to build a new roof for the high school. The high school recently received a block grant from the Athens County Commissioners that provided two new restrooms for Global Gymnastics and on June 6th the foundation received a grant that allowed the high school to get six new windows.

The high school also holds a museum filled with pictures from former class graduates and all the trophies the school won for sports.

Gettle is not sure what the foundation’s next step will be.

“We’re not sure at this point until we talk to the developer, talk to the board of directors, and our attorney Gary Hunter to see where the foundation will move on from here,” Gettle said. “We were just interested in being able to restore the building so now we have to make plans on what we do on the future, which we have not done that yet,” she added.

Check out the video above to hear more from Dorthy Gettle about what the grants mean to the Nelsonville community.