Professor Louis Rothenberg (1845–1915)

Artist unknown
Oil on canvas, ca. 1913 
Cincinnati Skirball Museum, gift of Jo Anne Travis 

Professor Rothenberg was born at Arholzen, Hanover, Germany in 1845 and came to Cincinnati in 1869. Soon after, he was appointed German instructor at the Fifteenth District School. He taught there until 1883, when he became principal of the school. During his tenure, he was instrumental in passing the first law establishing teachers’ pensions and he founded the Teachers’ Pension Fund. Rothenberg retired from active service in 1913. When a new structure designed by the renowned architectural firm of Garber & Woodward was erected on the site of the building where he had served for twenty years as principal, it was named Rothenberg School in his honor. Rothenberg died in 1915 after a brief illness and is buried in Judah Touro Cemetery in Price Hill.   

Years later, after a debate about the school’s future, it was saved in 2009 and opened for use in 2013 as a neighborhood school and community learning center. Over-the-Rhine residents and other stakeholders discussed how to proceed, and a working group was assembled with assistance from the Community Building Institute to bring together “neighborhood and community council representatives, school staff, Rothenberg partners, parents and students to decide what types of programs should be offered in a renovated facility”. 

The historic brick building at Main Street and Clifton Avenue known locally as “Bird’s Eye” was scheduled for demolition and replacement, but Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) reconsidered after finding that the increased cost of saving and renovating the building would be minimal.  Today, the building serves the community as Rothenberg Preparatory Academy, a neighborhood school and community learning center serving students grades preschool–6.