Baton Rouge Junior High School - Baton Rouge, LA
N 30° 27.034 W 091° 10.717
15R E 674884 N 3370121
Late Gothic Revival building, located on Laurel St. just to East of Interstate I-110 underpass. Also known as Old Baton Rouge Junior High School & City Court Building. Now houses local government offices.
Waymark Code: WM5EK1
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 12/28/2008
Views: 4
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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