This story has been updated with the results of the planning commission vote.
The Cleveland Heights Planning Commission rejected a proposal Wednesday night by Beaumont School to demolish a roughly 114-year-old mansion on campus.
Kara Hamley O鈥橠onnell, a Cleveland Heights city planner, said in an email that the commission鈥檚 vote was unanimous.
Beaumont President Wendy Hoke said in an email to ideastream that the school could reapply to demolish the property and is 鈥渄etermining what actions we need to take to strengthen our case for demolition.鈥�
Built around 1905, the house belonged to banker Kenyon Painter. The Ursuline Sisters purchased the building in 1942, using it as a school and later as a residence, to the planning commission. The sisters submitted the home to become a city landmark in 1979, according to the school.
Speaking by phone before the meeting Wednesday, Hoke said the building is in poor condition, and upkeep is expensive.
鈥淎t this point, we don鈥檛 have any use for it, we don鈥檛 have any educational use for it,鈥� Hoke said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not suitable for academic use. We tried to use it for office space, but it requires so much work.鈥�
The school is considering building an athletic facility there, but Hoke said she won鈥檛 commit money to planning that until Beaumont knows it can move forward with demolition.
Michael Fleenor of the Cleveland Restoration Society said Beaumont should consider all of its options first.
鈥淭hat building shouldn鈥檛 be lost without a lot of thought and lot of effort into whether that鈥檚 the best decision to make or not,鈥� he said.
Cleveland Heights鈥� landmarks commission voted unanimously against demolition last month.
