English: Picture of
Larimer School located at 540 Larimer Avenue (at the corner of Larimer Avenue and Winslow Street) in the
Larimer neighborhood of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 12, 2009. The school was built in 1896, an addition was made in 1904, and the auditorium and gymnasium were added in 1931. The school is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. The interior includes
terrazzo floors and
marble wainscotting. The exterior includes an ornately decorated door on the southwestern side of the building (perhaps
Romanesque-inspired
Renaissance Revival) with statues on pillars, a
bas-relief sculpture over the door, and human faces near a marble portion of the roof. Architects:
Ulysses J. Lincoln Peoples,
George M. Rowland. Architectural style:
Renaissance Revival,
Art Deco.
The public school closed in June 1980, and has been empty since that time. A Second Chance Inc. purchased the building in 2000, in hopes of creating a
community center and
day care on the premises. Unfortunately, they were not able to raise the 8 million dollars needed to renovate the building, so they sold it in 2005 to a local developer named
Emmett Miles. Mr. Miles was there on the day I took this picture, and he was nice enough to show me his plans for the building, which include a community center and day care, as well as an
education center for all ages focused on
technology and
green jobs.