EDUCATIONAL BUILDINGS
There are a number of extant 50 year old educational buildings in the Twin Cities which are excellent examples of the various prevailing architectural styles. The Mediterranean style is evident in such elementary schools as Georgia Tucker, Lida Benton, and Barksdale Faulk. Jacobean Revival may be seen in the old Ouachita Parish High School building on South Grand; Art Deco is represented in Neville High School on Forsythe Avenue, Monroe. It is very fortunate that these buildings remain and are either still being utilized as educational facilities or are being converted for contemporary adaptive reuse, the latter being the case in the South Grand building mentioned.
Georgia Tucker School, [figure 63], was built in 1919 and named for Mrs. Georgia Tucker Stubbs, a member of a pioneer Ouachita Parish family. Its Mediterranean style features include monumentality, solidity, use of low arches and imaginative towers. It also employs a unique treatment of terracotta in cast panels and columns capitals. One might note the use of free standing decorative nonfunctional columns on the front. The separate entrances for grades one through three and grades four through six are clearly defined.
Fig. 63. Georgia Tucker School, 1919 (Bldg. 162).
The Jacobean Revival style was used for the Ouachita Parish High School building depicted in [figure 64]. Built in the late 1920’s, this three story remnant of the high school complex displays monumentality and elaborate detailing at the South Grand Street entrance to the classroom building. Quoins were used at masonry corners. The roof parapet wall contains decorative penetrations and projections as an expression of the method in which the building relates to the skyline.
Fig. 64. The Jacobean Revival Ouachita Parish High School building, 1920’s (Bldg. 161).