
Old School: Thomas Edison Elementary to Become Homes for 26 Families
More than seventy years after it opened as Fourth District Elementary School and nearly four years after it closed as Thomas Edison Elementary, the old schoolhouse on Scott Boulevard debuted in its new life form Wednesday morning. Twenty-six beautifully designed and constructed apartments will be available to low-income families. Complete with new, custom cabinetry, hardwood floors and sweeping vistas of the neighborhood (and for one lucky renter, a 180 degree panoramic view of neighboring houses and the Cincinnati skyline), in addition to original features that remind the new residents that the building was once a school.
What was once a basketball court is now the floor for several apartments and what was once the school stage is now a community meeting space. It was upon that old stage Wednesday that the community celebrated the new development. Holly Wiedemann, President of AU Associates, the Lexington-based developers of the project told of how she and her colleagues had visited Covington in 2009, toured the building, worked with the City, the Commonwealth and the neighborhood, and by February 2010, had broken ground. "This is a $4.7 million investment in the city and we achieved the ultimate dream of recycling this building," Wiedemann said.
For Covington City Manager Larry Klein and Covington Independent Public Schools Superintendent Lynda Jackson, speaking on the stage was a return to a time earlier in their lives. Klein played on the Covington Latin basketball team in 1968 and the team used the gym to practice. He would take a bus from his home in Elsmere to the corner of Pike & Madison. "That was the beginning and end of my athletic career," Klein joked. "This is something to be proud of. You can tell how much love and care that went into building this place. I know there was just as much love put into it by AU."
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