FEMA – GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER SCHOOL COLLECTION
(Mss
363)
Inventory
Earl
K. Long Library
June
2011
Contents
Summary
Historical Note
Container List
Index Terms
Procedures
for Requesting Special Collections Materials
Summary
Size: 0.25
linear foot
Geographic
locations: New
Orleans, Louisiana
Inclusive dates: June
7-8, 2010
Summary: Photographs
by Rob Tucher from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) documenting George
Washington Carver School (3059 Higgins Boulevard, New Orleans, La. 70126), which
is scheduled for demolition. The
Recovery School District plans to clear the entire campus and construct new buildings
on the site.
Related
collections: Orleans
Parish School Board Archives (Mss 147); FEMA – Duncan Plaza Collection (Mss
351); FEMA – Xavier Cabrini Church Collection (Mss 352); FEMA – Jackson
Barracks Collection (Mss 360); FEMA – Andrew H. Wilson Elementary School
Collection (Mss 361); FEMA – Charles J. Colton School Collection (Mss 362)
Source: Gift,
2010
Access: No
restrictions on use in the library’s reading room
Copyright: Physical
rights are retained by the Earl K. Long Library,
Citation: FEMA
– George Washington Carver School Collection, Earl K. Long Library,
Historical
Note
In
1952 the Orleans Parish School Board introduced to Louisiana a new concept in
public school design: the school village.
Designed to save money by maximizing use of space and facilities, the model
created large facilities shared by multiple schools and the surrounding
neighborhood. This permitted students to
complete their public school education on a single campus while fostering a
sense of community spirit among students, faculty, parents, and neighbors. One such school village was the George
Washington Carver Complex, which provided elementary through high-school grades
on an eighty-eight-acre campus.
Designed
by award-winning New Orleans architects Curtis & Davis, Carver
Junior-Senior High School and Helen Sylvania Edwards Elementary School were
dedicated on December 7, 1958. According
to Recordation of Certain Buildings at
the George Washington Carver School Campus, New Orleans, Louisiana by
Elizabeth G. Heavrin, “buildings [were] symmetrically grouped on the south end
of the campus with playing fields to the north.
The auditorium, cafeteria, and gymnasium buildings, utilized by both
junior and senior high students, were arranged down the center spine of the
campus. The classroom buildings, one for
junior high students and one for the senior high, ran perpendicular to the
center line and were connected by the administrative offices and libraries at
their center. The music and industrial
arts classrooms, two noisy instructional spaces, were contained in wings at the
far ends of the classroom buildings. The
elevated classroom wings and covered walkways throughout the campus provided
relief from the hot New Orleans sun and offered informal areas for students to
gather” (p. 3).
The
Carver Complex was located in the Desire Area, a predominantly African American
neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Developed during the first half of the twentieth
century, the area encouraged home ownership by African Americans. The construction in the early 1950s of the
Desire Housing Project brought more than nine thousand residents and
contributed to the need for schools.
Damage
sustained by the school complex as a result of Hurricane Katrina (August 29,
2005) and the subsequent flooding led the School Board to request funds to
demolish the damaged buildings.
Sources: Heavrin, Elizabeth G. Recordation
of Certain Buildings at the George Washington Carver School Campus, New
Orleans, Louisiana (New Orleans: Federal Emergency Management Agency; New
Orleans: Trigon Associates; Lexington, Ky.: Cultural Resource Analysis, June
28, 2010); “New Education Facilities Open,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 8, 1958.
Container List
Series I. Exterior photographs
Box 1, Folder 1
Black-and-white,
4-by-5-inch glossy photographs of the exterior of Carver High School, 3059
Higgins Boulevard, Orleans Parish, Louisiana.
Exterior photographs were taken by Rob Tucher on June 8, 2010.
363-1 Overview
of campus including auditorium.
Photographed facing north.
Includes negative.
363-2 Overview
of campus including cafeteria.
Photographed facing southwest.
Photographed facing north.
Includes negative.
363-3 North
and west elevations of auditorium.
Photographed facing southeast.
Photographed facing north.
Includes negative.
363-4 North
elevation of auditorium. Photographed
facing south. Photographed facing
north. Includes negative.
363-5 East
elevation of auditorium. Photographed
facing west. Photographed facing
north. Includes negative.
363-6 South
elevation of auditorium. Photographed
facing north. Photographed facing
north. Includes negative.
363-7 Detail
of buttresses, west elevation. Photographed
facing south-southeast. Photographed
facing north. Includes negative.
363-8 Detail
of buttresses, east elevation.
Photographed facing north.
Photographed facing north.
Includes negative.
363-9 Detail
of floating stair case, east elevation.
Photographed facing northwest.
363-10 Detail
of hinged expansion joint. Photographed
facing north. Photographed facing
north. Includes negative.
363-11 South
elevation of cafeteria. Photographed
facing north. Photographed facing
north. Includes negative.
363-12 North
and west elevations of cafeteria.
Photographed facing south-southeast.
Photographed facing north.
Includes negative.
Series II. Interior photographs
Box 1, Folder 2
Black-and-white,
4-by-5-inch glossy photographs of the exterior of Carver High School, 3059
Higgins Boulevard, Orleans Parish, Louisiana.
Interior photographs were taken by Rob Tucher on June 7, 2010.
363-13 Overview
of auditorium interior taken from the second story. Photographed facing south.
363-14 Overview
of auditorium interior taken from the stage.
Photographed facing north.
363-15 Details
of colored panels in auditorium.
Photographed facing northwest.
363-16 Detail
of auditorium stage. Photographed facing
east.
363-17 Detail
of auditorium seat. Photographed facing
northwest
363-18 Overview
of the Edwards Elementary cafeteria in the auditorium building. Photographed facing southeast.
363-19 Detail
of windows in the Edwards Elementary cafeteria in the auditorium building. Photographed facing west.
363-20 Overview
of the cafeteria building interior showing metal ceiling trusses. Photographed facing northwest.
363-21 Detail
of the cafeteria building windows.
Photographed facing southwest.
Series III. Other visual materials
Box 2
363-22 –
363-34 Curtis
& Davis, Architects. Construction
plans for Carver School, 1955. 13
sheets.
Box 1, Folder 3
363-35 Compact
disc containing color images of 363-1 – 363-21 and black-and-white images of 363-22
– 363-34.
Series IV. Textual materials
Box 1, Folder 4
363-36 Heavrin,
Elizabeth G. Recordation of Certain Buildings at the George Washington Carver School
Campus, New Orleans, Louisiana. New
Orleans: Federal Emergency Management Agency; New Orleans: Trigon Associates;
Lexington, Ky.: Cultural Resource Analysis, June 28, 2010.
Photo
log.
Index Terms
Carver School (New Orleans, La.)
Edwards School (New Orleans, La.)
Federal Emergency Management Agency
George Washington Carver School (New
Orleans, La.)
Hurricane Katrina, 2005
Schools—Louisiana—New Orleans
Helen Sylvania Edwards School (New
Orleans, La.)
Tucher, Rob