REIBEL, David (1855-1935), a talented architect active in Lambton County, Ontario from c. 1878 to 1888. He was born in Blenheim, Ont. on 7 August 1855. Register books now held at the Ontario Archives in Toronto record his marriage in Bosanquet Township, near the town of Forest, on 3 November 1875 where he was listed as “carpenter”, so it can be presumed that he learned the building trades and later developed his skill at both designing and building structures in Lambton County. His first significant commission was the Town Hall at Forest, Ont. (1883-84), and he is also credited with the elaborate Second Empire style mansion in that town for Dr. James Hutton (1887; demol. 1935).
In February 1888 Reibel decided to leave Canada and he moved south to Columbus, Ohio where he opened a new office as a professional architect. He was particularly knowledgeable about the design of educational buildings, and in 1893 he was appointed as the first official Architect of the Columbus School Board. He held this position until 1922, and is credited with the design of over forty elementary and high school buildings in the Columbus area. Many of his early schools were designed in a bold Richardsonian Romanesque style, but after 1900 he adopted a Classical Revival style, drawing on Greek and Roman precedents. Many of these schools still stand, and are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States. In 1906 or 1907 he was joined in his architectural practise by his sons Elroy C. Reibel and Frederick E. Reibel, and they continued to operate as Reibel & Sons, Architects until after 1920. Reibel died in Columbus on 29 July 1935 (inf. from Columbus Landmarks Foundation)
(works in Ontario)
FOREST, ONT., Town Hall, Main Street North at Jefferson Street West, 1883-84; demol. 1982 (OA, Minute Book for the Council of the Village of Forest, Meeting dated 19 February 1884)
FOREST, ONT., a mansion for Dr. James Hutton, Main Street at Jefferson Street, 1887; demol. 1935 (Forest Free Press, 18 Feb. 1937, illus. & descrip.; inf. Ian Mason)
(works in Ohio)
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Livingston Elementary School, 1890
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Medary Elementary School, 1892
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Ohio Avenue Elementary School, 1893
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Hubbard Elementary School, 1894
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Southwood Elementary School, 1894
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Avondale Elementary School, 1894
WORTHINGTON, OHIO, public school, 1896 (The School Journal [New York & Chicago], lii, 13 June 1896, 708)
COLUMBUS, OHIO, a school house for Rev. Joseph Jessing, Ninth Avenue, 1896 (The School Journal [New York & Chicago], lii, 13 June 1896, 708)
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Barrett Middle School, 1894
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Bellows Avenue Elementary School, 1905
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Indianola Junior High School, 1894
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Champion Elementary School, 1909
COLUMBUS, OHIO, Heyl Elementary School, 1910
LANCASTER, OHIO, a large rectory and residence for St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, High Street at Chestnut Street, 1910 (Lancaster Eagle-Gazette [Lancaster, Ohio], 16 Dec. 1950, 6, historical article)
LANCASTER, OHIO, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, East Wheeling Street, 1921 (Lancaster Eagle, 16 April 1921, 7)
CROOKSVILLE, OHIO, public school, 1923 (Times Recorder [Zanesville], 6 Sept. 1923, 14)