Willson School

Willson Middle School was built in 1903 in Cleveland, Ohio, designed by architect Frank S. Barnum. ² The school took its name from Willson Avenue, the street it originally faced, which itself had been named for Hiram V. Willson, a lawyer and the first judge of the Northern District Court of Ohio. ^{2 4} A citywide street-renaming initiative in 1905 changed Willson Avenue to East 55th Street, though the school retained its original name. ⁴

The building expanded in 1927 with a three-story addition featuring a gymnasium and auditorium, designed by George Martin Hopkinson, a Cleveland School Board architect, in a style matching the original structure. ⁴ Declining enrollment eventually led to the school’s closure in May 2005. ¹ A replacement pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school was later proposed for the site, though it remained undetermined for some time whether the original building would be rehabilitated or demolished to make way for new construction. ³

In August 2026, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District filed for a demolition permit for the abandoned Willson School after it could not find a development partner to preserve or redevelop the building. ⁵ The demolition cost is projected to be $721,191.

The Willson name lives on today at a different, active Cleveland Metropolitan School District building at 1122 Ansel Road, a PreK-8 school known for its inclusive program pairing deaf and hard-of-hearing students with hearing students.