Vacant School Building in LA is now owned by Pointe Coupee Historical Society

Poydras High School, New Roads Louisiana

Date added: July 06, 2024 Categories:

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Poydras High is the descendant of a succession of schools made possible by the philanthropy of Julien Poydras, a local planter and public benefactor. Poydras died in 1824. His will contained a clause bequeathing the sum of $20,000 for an educational fund, the interest from which was to be used for the erection of a school. Established in 1829 near New Roads, Poydras College operated until the outbreak of the Civil War. A "Poydras School of New Roads" operated for a few years in the 1880s, and in 1889, the immediate predecessor of the building was established on the present site. It was called Poydras Academy. By 1912, the school had outgrown the resources of the Poydras Fund, and it was taken over by the Pointe Coupee School Board, which operated the school as Poydras Academy until 1923. In that year, a school district was formed, a $100,000 bond issue was passed, and the school board purchased the property in question. (It was still owned by the Pointe Coupee Police Jury, the custodian of the Poydras Fund.)

It is clear that the new building represented a considerable improvement in the physical plant, which translated into a considerable improvement in the quality of public education provided in New Roads. The main building at Poydras Academy was a relatively small one-story frame structure. A 1935 history of the school states that it had one large central room with three adjacent rooms separated by high folding doors. Other sources reveal that there was another relatively small one-story frame building and a frame dormitory. Apparently, one building was for the primary grades and the other for more advanced children. (Both Poydras Academy and its successor, Poydras High, taught grades 1-12.) Proceedings of the Pointe Coupee School Board from 1923 indicate that the Poydras Academy buildings were "badly in need of repairs … and if said buildings are not repaired immediately, they will soon be totally unfit and unsafe for habitation."

This transition from frame school buildings to "modern" brick facilities is a recognizable chapter in the history of public education in the state, with the latter universally by their very nature considered to be better. The Annual Report of the State Department of Education in Louisiana for 1924-25 bragged that the number of brick school buildings in the state had grown from 40 in 1900 to 388 in 1925. By way of explanation, the report noted: "In the earlier years the custom was to erect cheap frame buildings. The custom now is to use permanent materials … "

Building materials aside, New Roads' "modern brick high school," as it was referred to at the time, brought a greatly expanded physical plant. This large, three-story building made it possible to separate students by grade and expand the curriculum. It had a large auditorium, a library, a chemistry lab, a suite of rooms for the home economics department, a music lesson studio and a so-called "commercial" department (per a 1935 history of the school). The commercial department provided for instruction in typing, shorthand, etc. The 1935 school history noted that the commercial course was open to anyone in the parish and had an enrollment of 88 at that time.

With this "magnificent new high school," as it was termed on the front page of the local paper, New Roads entered a new era in public education. "We were all amazed at such wonderful facilities for education in Pointe Coupee," notes William Mumford Haile, Jr., a graduate of Poydras High's predecessor.

Building Description

Poydras High School is a three-story building built in 1924 on the edge of downtown New Roads, the parish seat of Pointe Coupee. The school is of beige and brown brick with off-white cast concrete decorative elements. It is set back about two hundred feet from the small community's major traffic artery, Main Street. Representing the eclecticism of the period, the well-detailed building borrows loosely from various sources and is hard to pigeonhole into a particular stylistic category. The high school has received only very minimal alterations since construction.

Poydras High has the five-part articulation common to school buildings of the period. The walls advance and recede to mark projecting end pavilions and a slightly projecting entrance pavilion. The central entrance pavilion is highlighted by a decoratively shaped parapet containing a shield with a lamp of knowledge bas relief design. Immediately below the shield is a plaque proclaiming the name of the school. The school's handsome entrance porch features three fluted columns on each side and matching pilasters. The capitals are ornamented with what appear to be stylized papyrus leaves. The entablature features a dentil band and rosettes at the corners. The entrance porch balcony has bulbous balusters and paneled piers. At the third floor level, there is a diminutive curving balcony, the bottom of which is formed of elongated acanthus leaves.

The school's various types of windows are an important element in its overall architectural character. The most visually dominant windows are those located on the second and third floors between each end pavilion and the central entrance section. Grouped in pairs, they feature a prominent panel with engaged balusters resembling a balustrade. They have twelve over two panes, as do most of the other windows. The windows on the first story are accented with shallow arches and a cast concrete keystone. The doors on the second and third stories of the entrance section (opening onto balconies) feature transoms and multiple panes of glass. To each side is a small nine over two window with a shallow arch brick accent. Finally, on the front and rear of the end pavilions at the second and third story levels are small six-pane windows grouped in pairs (one pair on each story).

Poydras High is particularly noteworthy for the quality of its brickwork. The first story is of brown brick accented with projecting horizontal brick bands. The second and third stories are beige brick with the horizontal bands done in brown brick. On each end pavilion is a large rectangular panel set off by a brown brick band. Within the composition is a striking beige and brown brick design featuring diamond patterns. The side elevations feature a continuation of the previously mentioned horizontal brick banding, while the rear, is of plain brick, as would be expected.

Other exterior features of note include an owl located within a niche crowning each end pavilion, patera designs marking the corners of the decorative brick panels on the end pavilions, a cast concrete water table, a cast concrete belt course marking the division between the first and second stories, cast concrete coping defining the parapet, and a cast concrete quoin-like design around the doors on the entrance pavilion (second and third stories).

The building's floor plan is typical for a school building of the period. Extending off the back, at the center, is an auditorium wing. Hallways on each floor provide access to large classrooms with adjacent cloakrooms. In one of the end pavilions at the third-floor level is a pair of chemistry classrooms with a chemical storage area between them which retains its original wooden, glass door cabinets. Doors feature movable transoms with their accompanying hardware. Much of the flooring on the first floor is concrete scored to resemble tile. Wooden floors survive in the remainder of the building. A functional wooden staircase is located on each end of the building just before the end pavilion.