Inner City Tennis Project
Mar 18, 2023
Dohn Community High School is a multi-campus, non-profit school serving high school age and adult students. We deliver continuous progress to a full-spectrum of learning needs. We promote community engagement, social development, and career fulfillment following graduation.
A History of Our Main Campus Building 608 E. McMillan Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
For most of its history, the building located at 608 East McMillan Street, known as the Sattler Building, served educational purposes rather than the industrial uses for which it was intended. Architects Kruckeyer and Strong designed the 3-story limestone building for the Randolph Sattler Company, steel engraved printers and publishers (note the “S” in the oval above the center door facing McMillan). The company moved from their downtown location at 3rd and Vine Streets to the McMillan address in 1927.
Educational Use Since the 1930’s
By the 1930’s, the building was used as a printing trade school. Four temporary buildings were erected, and an adjoining garage was remodeled as a machine shop for the Mechanical Trades School. After WWII, the Sattler Building housed the Veterans Vocational Training Center and two vocational high schools. In 1953, the vocational high school program for the Cincinnati Public Schools was transferred to the new central High School of Central Parkway the site now occupied by Cincinnati State Technical and Community College).
608 E. McMillan has been home to a trade school, Board of Education offices and a failed Cincinnati Public School At-Risk High School. Today, Dohn Community High School, with 608 E. McMillan as home base, thrives.
The administrative offices of the Cincinnati Board of Education were located in the building until 1967, and in September of 1969, the McMillan Adult Center for at-risk junior and senior high school students opened. In 1987, the McMillan Center enrolled about 850 students. Following a study that indicated the school was not having a significant impact on the district’s dropout rate, the Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education voted to close the school.
A Resurrection, Now Thriving, for Dropout Recovery Education
In June 2001, the Cincinnati Board of Education agreed to sell the building to the Board of Trustees of the Dohn Community High School, for the purposes of opening a charter high school for at-risk students. The school was housed in the annex building for 3 years while the Board of Trustees and Superintendent Kate Bower raised the necessary funds to renovate the building. Renovation of the first floor was completed in the fall of 2005. Students and staff moved into the “new” facility on November 12, 2005. The building was dedicated on April 18, 2005. Hope Taft, wife of Ohio Governor Robert Taft, was the dedication speaker.
In 2017, Dohn Community High School enjoys five locations throughout Greater Cincinnati. Our Main Campus, steeped in historical educational use, remains the central hub of our extraordinary educational, athletic and extra-curricular success.