Baden School (1907).Photo byunknown author, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Baden School at 8724 Halls Ferry Road in St. Louis, Missouri is a historic building listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 26, 2022.

This historic School completed its construction in 1908. It's important because of its architecture. This is another school in the St. Louis area designed by the prominent William B. Ittner (1864-1936), two years before leaving his role as St. Louis’ Superintendant of School Buildings.

Ittner was always studying school buildings trying to improve them while focusing on natural lighting, ventilation, sanitation, and safety. He also incorporated ongoing technology related to air purification systems, central heating, indoor plumbing, fireproofing, and classroom telephones. Ittner designed around 500 schools around the country.

As of 2022, 14 of Ittner's designed school buildings in St. Louis are listed on the National Register.

The Baden School

Baden School was part of a campaign to make sure the growing student population in St. Louis had a modern and safe school. Ittner was hired to design newer buildings.

The Baden School was designed to replace an older three-room schoolhouse which was near Church Road and Bittner Street. The old building also didn't have electricity and the three rooms were for first through seventh-grade students.

A previous architect for the school board, August Kirchner, was tasked to review existing school buildings. In 1896, the Health Commissioner of the city issued a "scathing report" which found the buildings were unhealthy and unsanitary.

Part of Ittner's role was to correct an outdated environment and unsuitable conditions of the older school. During the 1904-1905 school year, the Board of Education acquired a new school site on Halls Ferry Road.

Three portable school buildings were constructed at that site. In 1907, there was a contract for a new 22-room school building. Eight other new school buildings were being constructed that year.

The new Baden School was the most costly. It had electricity, it was fireproof using reinforced concrete, and it had heat and ventilation systems. The school also had indoor plumbing linked to the city's water system.

The new school was designed by Ittner's "E" plan intended to increase natural lighting and cross-ventilation. While Ittner's plans and specs for all the schools in St. Louis haven't survived, the spec book for Baden School made it down through generations and is at the Missouri History Museum's library.

The portable schools were established so students could get out of the close by older schools that were deteriorating.

On September 6, 1908, the St. Louis Post Dispatch announced that the Baden School was one of three new schools to open that year. The newspaper's article also indicated it would be the first year that vaccinations would be required for all students.

In May 2024, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the Baden School which was closed in 2009 was slated to become apartments by the Lutheran Development Group.

It's great to know a historic building isn't demolished and instead repurposed.

Thanks for reading!