John Fremont was apparently the first Republican candidate for president (he obviously lost, since Abraham Lincoln was the party’s first successful candidate for that national office). It is not surprising, with the strong German abolitionist population in St. Louis, that a school would be named for him.

It is a classic example of a school in St. Louis before the “golden age” of William Ittner and Rockwell Milligan, but I still really enjoy these buildings, with their interesting Renaissance Revival architecture.

Take the window treatment below; it is straight from the architecture of Michelangelo in buildings such as the Laurentian Library and the New Sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence.

The school has now been converted into senior apartments, which I think is a great use of the surplus building stock no longer needed by the school district, and helps keep residents in their neighborhood as they age.

See the Lyon, the demolished Hodgen and in particular the Mount Pleasant School for comparison.