Baton Rouge Junior High School - Baton Rouge, LA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Looks like it has just had a fresh restoration. Still some signs of construction, but easy to locate and photograph. Street was not busy on my visit.
*Note: building is located in a high crime area of Baton Rouge, so be cautious.*
I used to drive this street daily, and never noticed this facade. Awesome structure, large and ornate. I could not find much information online, but I found good history from the Register application here.
The school is also significant as an example of the work of Edward F. Neild, one of Louisiana's leading architects of the twentieth century. In fact, his stature as an architect later went beyond the boundaries of the state.* Neild was born in Shreveport in 1884. He rose to prominence in the 1920’s, '30's, and '40's designing many of Shreveport's most important buildings. These include the nine-story Henry C. Beck Building, the Municipal Building, the Caddo Parish Courthouse, the massive exhibit center at the Shreveport fairgrounds, the Veterans Administration Hospital in Shreveport, and many of the Caddo Parish school buildings. Neild’s rise to national prominence began in 1928 when Judge Harry Truman visited Neild’s recently completed Caddo Parish Courthouse. Truman was impressed and engaged Neild to design the Jackson County Courthouse in Missouri. This formed a lasting friendship between Truman and Neild which led to other commissions. Neild died in 1955 while working with a Kansas City colleague on the design for the Truman Memorial Library in that city. He also designed courthouses in Phoenix, Arizona; Ruston, Louisiana; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Stylistically Neild was an eclectic architect mainly rooted in the axial Beaux Arts tradition who gradually turned to modernism in the late-1920's. The Old Baton Rouge Junior High School was built in 1922 and represents the early eclectic phase of his work. This is significant because by far the greater portion of his extant buildings represent the later modernist phase of his work.

Street address: 1100 Laurel St. Baton Rouge, LA USA 70802 County / Borough / Parish: East Baton Rouge Year listed: 1984 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering (Late Gothic Revival) Periods of significance: 1900-1924 Historic function: Education. Sub - School Current function: Education. Sub - School Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Privately owned?: Not Listed Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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