West Monroe, Louisiana
Ouachita Parish
Prior to 1916 the only public school in the city of West Monroe was a two-room wooden structure known as
Haynes School in Old Trenton. Most of the West Monroe children attended the city and parish schools across
the river in Monroe.
In 1913, a bond issue was passed for $28,000 to build the first brick school building in west Ouachita Parish.
The site for the school was donated in 1914 by E.S. and Stella Crosley Eby and J.T. and Clayton Crosley Austin.
The Ebys and Austins donated the site, facing Natchitoches Street, extending back to Pine Street, to the city of West
Monroe and to the Ouachita Parish School Board, with the stipulation that the property be used for school
purposes only. It was also stipulated that if the time came that it would not be used for such, the property
would revert back to the Crosley heirs.
In 1916 the school was opened as West Monroe Grammer School. Due to increasing population of the area, ten
additional classrooms were added in 1923. The name was changed in 1929 to Crosley Elementary School in memory
of Joseph Perry Crosley and his son Charles Clayton Crosley.
Disaster struck the school in 1971 when a fire destroyed the 1916 section. A new wing containing four classrooms
and a library was completed in 1974. In 1988 the 1923 building was razed to make way for a new wing.
Crosley School has managed to save the original auditorium and stage with its magnificent arabesque molding and
plaster work.
Mr. J. A. Rainbolt served as principal of the school from
1918 until 1931.
"1921 Crosley Elementary School Bus in front of Crosley School, 700 Natchitoches Street in West Monroe,La. (Ouachita Parish) This Ford is seen playing an important part in education, assembling children from the rural areas to the centrally located Crosley School. The one-ton truck, know as a wagonette was operated by Tom Hicks from Lenwill to West Monroe in 1921. W.T. (Billy) Eyre was the bus driver." |
This was my school for grades 1-6. Of course, we did have the big, yellow fancy buses by then!
OLD PICTURES and a LITTLE HISTORY of MONROE, WEST MONROE, LA: MY HOMETOWN!
Mrs. Phinetta Brown Hasley and the Hasley Baptist Church
Old Pictures of Monroe, West Monroe, LA: My Home Town
HOOTER, LUTRICK, LOWREY/LOWERY, STEWART, BUTLER FAMILY