Heritage Ohio comes up with “top opportunities” list

Heritage Ohio is a widely renowned preservation group in the state of Ohio, the prime Midwestern state and also the thirty-fourth largest state by area in the United States, and is busy nowadays due to its most up-to-date “top opportunities” list. It has been learnt that in the list there are almost 60 buildings, including four in central Ohio. What makes Heritage Ohio calls them ‘opportunities’”? According to Executive Director Joyce Barrett, because it’s more positive than saying the buildings are endangered.

Heritage Ohio is basically a not-for-profit organization committed to encouraging and assisting people and organizations to protect and preserve the heritage of state and has been proceeding with the same ideals from the inception. In accordance with its own views, historic preservation and downtown revitalization are vitally important in the movements to protect the buildings, landscapes, art, artifacts and landmarks. It is to be noted that it is the Statewide Main Street Coordinating Program in Ohio, as designated by the National Main Street Center.

What is the basic intention of Statewide Main Street Coordinating Program? It is to assist cities and towns within the state with downtown and neighborhood business district revitalization. Statewide Main Street programs support local Main Street efforts through creating economic development tools and resources according to the state’s specific economic conditions;
competitively selecting local Main Street districts and programs to participate in the state network.

Now the list is quite large this year since one opportunity is a group of about 50 buildings: Roman Catholic churches in the Cleveland Diocese that have been targeted for closing. Let’s look at the list. It includes central Ohio sites like Trautman Building, a commercial building on S. High Street in Downtown Columbus; a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired house on the Far East Side known as the Gunning House; the Newark birthplace of Johnny Clem (”the little drummer boy of Shiloh”); and the Holland Theater in Bellefontaine.

Apart from this, there are other sites including Bell’s Opera House, Hillsboro; Clifton School, Cincinnati; Sorg Mansion, Middletown; Stone Eagle Farm, Avon; and Tremont House, Bellevue.