Take a stroll anywhere in Lakeside, Ohio located on Lake Erie and you will find quaint houses, cottages, fairy gardens, lush shade gardens and plenty of things that will catch your eye.A stroll farther away from the lake on Walnut Street yields an overflow parking lot that is crammed with cars that can not find room to park on the narrow streets of Lakeside.  Not only is it a parking lot it is the site of the abandoned Lakeside School that was built in 1912.  I can not find much information about the school other than the fact that is was closed in 1956 and still stands today . I did find this picture of the old school.  If you click on the “Built in 1912 ” it will take you to the original photo.

There obviously has been a project of sorts to revitalize the outside of the abandoned building and last summer Chris and I took a walk around to just look at the brightly painted windows.  One painted window thanked the Katharine Crampton Memorial Art Show for sponsoring the project.  This is an ongoing juried art show that has been in existence for over 50 years and while I could not find any information on the event for this year I imagine it is still occurring.  From everything I can gather Katharine Crampton was a huge supporter of the arts and the art show that is held in her memory each year in Lakeside, Ohio draws in quite an elite group of artists.  The windows or rather sheets of plywood that are replacing the long gone windows in the school house appear to have been painted as part of a project though this same art show although I can not find much information online about it.  I am hoping some of my Lakeside experts will be able to fill in the blanks for me.It does not really matter who painted those windows or why or even when it was done. What matters is that it brightened up a building that was falling into disrepair and makes it look a little bit nicer.  After all, we all like to look at pretty things, right?

There are still some empty spots to be filled in and I did not check back this June to see if that had been painted. 

But just look at some of what has been painted.  I just love the colors and varying themes.

So enjoy a walk around the historic Lakeside School and if you know any more details let me know in the comments section.   I would love to know more of the history.  Don’t forget that every comment this month means a 50 cent donation to our current Comments for a Cause — The Connestee Falls Scholarship Fund.

To read more of my Lakeside, Ohio posts please click here and see the listing at the bottom of that post.