Then and Now: Historic Ross School 1310 Ordway

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Historic school On Ordway

The neighborhood’s historic Ross School at 1310 Ordway Place will be occupied again soon after more than a year of vacancy.

Nashville Classical Charter School — currently at the corner of 10th and Fatherland — has been approved for the site and has begun an interior renovation, according to school founder Charlie Friedman, who addressed the neighborhood association in February.

A 1925 photo of the school, which is more than 100 years old, shows that little has changed. And Friedman said the plan is to keep it that way.

“That beautiful, historic facade will look exactly the same,” he said.

Friedman answered several questions that he said he’s heard lately.

He anticipates a more efficient drop-off and pickup process compared to the Head Start program that had been at the building, and he said the city considers Nashville Classical’s current traffic pattern at Fatherland to be a model worth emulating.

And he’s considering a way to make the playground that fronts 14th Avenue South available to the neighborhood, perhaps with a lock and access code.

Friedman moved from Philadelphia three years ago and founded the school, which currently has 181 students in kindergarten and first grade, with plans to add a grade each year. The school on Ordway will house grades K-4 with a maximum of 325 students. The renovation, which includes bringing the building into codes compliance, will cost about $750,000.