Abandoned school in Louisiana

Tweet

The Beauregard Parish Training School was the only place in the parish where African-Americans could receive education at the secondary level and, very importantly, teacher training.

The Beauregard Parish Training School provided teacher training until the mid-1930s. It remained the large rural parish's only African-American high school into the post-World War II era.

The concept of the county or parish training school was created in 1911 through the efforts of three philanthropic foundations interested in the education of African-American youth. These foundations; the General Education Board, the John F. Slater Fund, and the Anna T. Jeanes Fund, convinced state education officials throughout the South to work with them to improve educational opportunities for blacks. The training school movement had several goals. The first was to provide each parish with a central public school for blacks. With its good physical facilities and carefully chosen curriculum, this school would serve as a model for other black schools in the area. Another goal was to provide a more thorough education by offering more courses. Thus, students could attend a training school two or three years longer than they could one of their smaller rural cousins. Early in the movement training schools offered at least eight grades; later they offered ten or eleven. A third goal was to provide industrial and manual training for African-American children, " … laying particular emphasis upon subjects pertaining to home and farm." The final goal of the parish training school movement was to prepare teachers who would then serve in the region's rural black elementary schools. The first training school in the nation opened in Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish in 1911.

One of the reasons the training school concept worked was because the General Education Board placed agents within the state education departments and, in some cases, within the counties and parishes themselves. In order to obtain a training school, counties had to own the property where the building would be erected, recognize the school as part of the public school system, and commit at least $750 from public funds toward its maintenance each year. Beauregard Parish met the first requirement when the Longbell Lumber Company conveyed a tract of land to the School Board on February 6^th, 1917. However, the parish did not receive its first "Supervisory Agent for Negroes" until July 3^rd, 1919. This person's primary tasks were to assist teachers in writing lesson plans and to create support for black schools. The Beauregard Parish Training School opened in 1920 with a physical plant consisting of two buildings. A large two-story structure served as a high school while a smaller one-story building held the elementary level classes.

Schools for African-American students had existed in the Beauregard Parish towns of Merryville, Ludington, Bon Ami, Carson, Longville, Center Hill, Bancroft, and DeRidder at least as early as the 1917-1918 term. Although attendance figures for each year are not available, those for the 1923-1924 nine-month term suggest that the better physical facilities and more complete curriculum offered by the training school's eight teachers were highly valued by the black citizens of Beauregard Parish. For example, in that year an average of 420 students attended the school, with as many as 450 having attended at one time. Average daily attendance was around 318 children. State Board of Education records indicate that nineteen of the Training School's students boarded within the DeRidder community during that school year. This number substantiates the memories of Maxie Hubbard Blanchard, who attended the school from 1923 to 1929. Mrs. Blanchard states that the school was attended by children from nearby sawmill towns as well as from the immediate DeRidder area. Fifty of the students attending in 1923-1924 were of high school level, and four would graduate at the end of the school year. According to Mrs. Hubbard, the school's curriculum included regular courses such as math, science, and English, as well as instruction in how to teach.

Teacher preparation was an important goal of the Beauregard Parish Training School from its founding until the mid-1930s, when the program was discontinued. According to a 1929-1930 report published by the state Board of Education, teacher training courses were offered during the students' last two years in school. During the first year of education courses the classes emphasized principles of teaching, while the last year focused on school management. It was during this second year that student teaching, or practice teaching, occurred. This took place in the elementary classes which were a part of the school. The school graduated 5 teachers in the 1929-1930 session and three during the 1931-1932 academic year. Ten took teacher training courses during the 1932-1933 year, with nine registered in the courses (but apparently not yet ready to graduate) during the 1933/1934 term. Although each student completing the program was awarded a certificate stating that he or she was qualified to teach at the elementary level in black schools, it was necessary for each to also pass a test given by the State Department of Education before that certification was considered valid. After the teaching program was discontinued in the mid-1930s, students were required to attend one or two years at a normal school in order to obtain a teaching certificate.

The Beauregard Parish Training School's original elementary and high school buildings were destroyed by a fire of unknown origin in 1929. Bids for replacement buildings were opened on July 23^rd, 1929, with the contract awarded to P. Olivier & Son for $20,300. This amount underwrote the construction of twin, one-story, hollow tile buildings with stuccoed exterior surfaces. The State Board of Education annual report for 1930-1931 shows that each of these buildings contained five classrooms. Attendance figures for that school year show a total of 628 children enrolled. Of this number, 55 were of high school age, while 573 were listed as elementary school level. The school taught an average of 157 days. Henri Lee Bryant attended the school both before and after the new buildings were constructed (1927-1937). According to her, the following topics were part of the curriculum at that time: reading, writing, and math (Grades 2-3); history and geography (Grade 4); English, history and literature (Grade 7); and algebra and geometry (the high school grades). Courses in teacher education had been dropped from the curriculum by the time of her 1937 graduation.

Unfortunately, one of the twin classroom buildings constructed in 1929 was destroyed by another fire during the mid-1930s. Instead of replacing it with a similar building, the school board elected to construct a combination classroom building/ gymnasium on the site. It was completed in 1938. Both the 1929 and 1938 buildings continued to be used as educational facilities well into the post-World War II period, as the Beauregard Parish Training School until c. 1941 and as a regular public school after that date. And it should be emphasized that during the historic period (1929-1945), and into the postwar era, the school represented the only opportunity in the parish for blacks to receive a high school education. To place this in context, the large rural parish had a population of 14, 847 in 1940, one-fifth of which was black. The parish seat of DeRidder was the only town of any size. A 1948 government document notes that there were in that year eight high schools and eight elementary schools for whites and one high school and two elementary schools for blacks. There were no private schools in the parish at that time, according to the same document.

A new high school (George Washington Carver High) was built for blacks in 1954, but the gym of the school continued to be used for high school sports and social activities. (A 1959 update to the above referenced government document noted that this "new modern Negro high school serves the entire parish.") A new elementary school was built in 1962. The 1929 Beauregard Parish Training School building apparently stood vacant until 1971, when the Head Start program moved in. Head Start remained in the older structure until 1986, when it moved to the classroom/gymnasium building. The 1929 building is now vacant, while Head Start continues to occupy the 1938 gym/classroom building.

Building Description

The Beauregard Parish Training School consists of two buildings that stand on a moderately busy street located on the east side of the Beauregard Parish seat of DeRidder. Built in 1929, the older of the two is a one-story hollow tile structure with a smooth stucco covering. The other building, constructed in 1938, is also one story in height but is constructed of brick rather than stucco. Because the buildings are very simply articulated, the term "no style" is being used.

The 1929 building's massing is that of a rectangle beneath a low, slightly overhanging hipped roof. This roof is broken by a low pediment-like gable on the facade, by gablets on each end, and by three tall chimneys. The smooth walls are pierced by bands of windows on the front and rear. These windows have concrete sills but otherwise lack traditional surrounds. The eastern elevation is windowless. The building is encircled by a watertable. The entrance, which features sidelights, is located at the rear of a small vestibule whose doorless opening is distinguished by a bracketed cornice. The vestibule and entrance are located in the center of the facade within a bay that projects from the rest of the building by about four inches. A small wing, which appears to be original, is attached to the northwest corner of the structure. The interior originally consisted of five classrooms organized around an "L" shaped hallway. Each room had a high ceiling, plaster walls, and a door with a six-light transom above.

Alterations to the 1929 building since its construction include the following:

The 1938 one-story brick building has a T shape footprint. Two large classrooms with a lobby in between take up the front portion of the building, while a gymnasium is provided for in the rear wing. The very plain building features a series of paired windows on both the classroom and gym sections. The gym has an unusual open truss ceiling. The presence of a curtained stage at the gym's far end allows the gym to double as an auditorium. Alterations to this building include the blocking (on the interior) of the facade windows and the connection of the building to the system of covered walkways mentioned above.

Northeast 1929 building (1995)

Southeast 1929 building (1995)

Southwest 1929 building (1995)

Northwest 1929 building (1995)

North entrance 1929 building (1995)

North 1938 classroom and gym building (1995)

Interior 1929 building (1995)

Interior of 1938 gym building (1995)