Call for Plaquemines Parish & Braithwaite Preservationists: Woodlawn School Proposed for Demolition

Woodlawn High School, located at 7163 LA Highway 39, Braithwaite, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana (map) is being reviewed for demolition. The Art Deco school has a rich history, as illustrated in the National Register of Historic Places Determination of Eligibility below. If you would like to participate in the review process for the proposed demolition of this property, email PRC staff HERE and we will put you in contact with the appropriate authorities.

National Register of Historic Places Determination of Eligibility (Courtesy of FEMA)

Constructed in 1950, the Woodlawn High School is a two-story, brick masonry building with a flat roof and a concrete slab foundation.  It is ten bays wide with a three-bay section that projects roughly in the center of the west façade.  The projecting section is accentuated with a centrally-located Art Deco-style concrete facing that extends above the roofline and is inscribed with two quotes in relief which surround a similarly-treated allegorical figure.  On the first floor, the concrete facing surrounds the three entry portals which lead into a recessed entry vestibule.   A flat awning wraps the three sides of the projecting bays and shelters a set of concrete steps and a ramp (which appears to be a recent addition) which lead up from grade to the entrance.  Strips of six-pane vertical casement windows dominate the first and second stories of the west façade. The building is roughly rectangular in plan, with the long side oriented along LA Highway 39, supplemented on the north and east elevations by a series of sections varying in size and height but with similar materials, fenestration and style to the main block. It is roughly bounded by a circular driveway which encompasses the school site and provides two entry access points from LA Highway 39.

The property has played a significant role in the local governmental and educational history of the community. Until a 1966 court order from U.S. District Judge Herbert W. Christenberry to desegregate public schools, Plaquemines Parish was known to have “Rainbow Schools” – separate school for blacks, whites and mulattos. Woodlawn High School was originally constructed as an all-white public high school which eventually became a 12-grade consolidated school. As a result of the 1966 court order, Woodlawn High School became the site of a boycott, and the epitome of integration strife in Plaquemines Parish, on Wednesday, August 31, 1966 when five black students with their parents arrived to enroll. Not a single enrolled white pupil out of 250 showed up to school and approximately 20 parents held up white picket signs with the single word “Don’t” in big red letters. Taking judicial note of the boycott, Judge Christenberry threatened Plaquemines officials, including Judge Leander Perez, with an FBI investigation if pressure was brought to have white parents remove their children from public schools. The district attorney, Leander Perez Jr., announced he would not enforce the state compulsory attendance law because the children would have the opportunity to attend private schools under construction. All of the 250 white pupils and staff, with exception of the principal, subsequently moved over to a newly opened private school established in a hastily converted mansion, Promised Land, owned by Judge Leander Perez’s daughter. The black students were then withdrawn and under court order returned to their former all-black schools and the court permitted closing of Woodlawn High School by December of 1966. Since that time, the building has served as an office building for the Parish government until it was closed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

FEMA has determined that the Woodlawn High School is eligible for inclusion in the NRHP under Criteria A and C at the local level with a period of significance from 1950 to 1966. The building is eligible under Criterion A as a physical embodiment of the community’s educational system during the 1950s and 1960s amidst controversial political desegregation efforts. The building is also eligible under Criterion C as an excellent local and rare example of Art Deco architecture typical of the early to mid-20th century. The structure possesses significant architectural integrity despite its damaged state, and possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.

Again, if you would like to participate in the review process for the proposed demolition of this property, email PRC staff HERE and we will put you in contact with the appropriate authorities.

View PRC & FEMA photos of the school HERE.

View photos from New Orleans Lady on Flickr HERE.