| Algiers Has Top-Notch School System by O. K. LeBlanc Published by LP&L in 1940 Safety Service is grateful to Miss Alice M. Harte, principal of Behrman High School for her cooperation in preparing the material for the below article. The colorful history of the public school system in Algiers dates back to the reconstruction days, more than seven decades ago, when Miss Louise Blount conducted the first class in a little one-room school where today stands the Fifth District courthouse on Morgan Street. During these seventy-five years, this system has grown from a one-room school into a system embracing eight schools with a combined enrollment of approximately 3,596 students. Although Miss Blount is accredited with having established the first school in this community, it remained for the late John McDonogh and later the late Martin Behrman to lend their support and interest in giving to Algiers one of the finest and most up-to-date educational systems to be found anywhere in the state. It was the McDonogh fund that gave Algiers its first public school building, McDonogh No. 4, at a time when the continuation of the public school system was seriously threatened owing to the lack of financial support. Later, McDonogh No. 5 was established as a colored school and continued to serve this group until a few years later when it was necessary to turn it into a school for the white. This change led to the construction of McDonogh No. 32, which was to take care of the colored children turned out of McDonogh No. 5. As the enrollment of the two schools, No. 4 & no. 5, increased, the erection of another school building was found necessary. In answer to this need, the Belleville School was erected in 1896 with Miss Alice M. Harte as its first principal. Not long after the Belleville school was completed, the residents of the Fifth District were again faced with the problem of additional educational facilities. Following the construction of the Adolph C. Meyer school, serving the suburban section beyond the Southern Pacific Railroad shops, the Lawton school was built to accommodate a small group of children on the Lower Coast. Then came the Schwarz school built for a newly developed section near the upper parish line. By 1921, the New Orleans public schools, of which Algiers is a part, consisted of primary, grammar, high, normal and vocational schools with primary grades taking care of children from kindergarten through the fourth grade; the grammar grades, the fifth through the eight year; the secondary schools, the ninth through the eleventh year. Courses in commercial training, academic study and home economics were to be found in the secondary schools. All work beyond the eighth was done in buildings far from Algiers to be reached only by crossing the river. This involved loss of time, energy and expenditure. With the construction of the beautiful and modernistic Martin Behrman school in 1931, the boys and girls from McDonogh No. 5 and the girls from Belleville, were brought together. In 1933, when the enrollment of the Behrman school reached 1,600, 600 primary pupils were transferred to the renovated Belleville school building, which had been unoccupied since the opening of the new Behrman school. The Martin Behrman school stands today as one of the finest in the city with its laboratories, library, auditorium and equipment for home economics, industrial arts and athletics reaching well above the standard requirements. It has a present enrollment of 250 elementary students and 750 high school boys and girls. Today the school is accredited by the state and by the Southern Association of Colleges, with a faculty of 42 workers - 38 full time and 4 part time - offering commercial, academic, home economic and industrial art courses. The present public school system in Algiers, in addition to the Behrman school, includes the Belleville school for primary students; the Adolph Meyer school and Schwarz school for elementary students; and the McDonogh No. 32 school, Landry and Rosenwal schools for colored children. |
| Louis F. Schwarz School, ca. 1926 |
| 1940 Article: History of Algiers Public School System |
| Photos of most of the schools mentioned in this article can be found here: Old Algiers Algiers Historical Society The link to this page is: http://old-new-orleans.com/NO_Algiers_Schools.html Back to Old New Orleans Whispers - Home |
| This article was contributed by Donald Costello, President of the Algiers Historical Society. It's much appreciated! |