Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Fair Park Medical Careers Magnet High School

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Architectural style
  
Classical Revival

Area
  
2 ha

Year built
  
1928

Added to NRHP
  
11 January 2001

NRHP Reference #
  
00001630

Phone
  
+1 318-635-8181

District
  
Caddo Public Schools

Architect
  
Edward F. Neild

Fair Park Medical Careers Magnet High School

Location
  
3222 Greenwood Road, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Address
  
3222 Greenwood Rd, Shreveport, LA 71109, USA

Similar
  
CE Byrd High School, Huntington High School, Southwood High School, Captain Shreve High Sch, Woodlawn High School

Fair Park College Preparatory High School, also known as Fair Park College Prep. Academy, and Fair Park Medical Careers Magnet High School is a high school located at 3222 Greenwood Road in Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.A. When it opened as Fair Park High School in 1928, it was the second high school in the city. C.E. Byrd High School had opened three years earlier in 1925.

Contents

From the middle 1950s until 1967, the historian Hubert D. Humphreys taught at Fair Park.

History

The school was built during the local oil-driven boom of the 1920s. The population of Shreveport had a nearly five-fold increase from 1900 to 1930, causing chronic school overcrowding. It has a three-story main section built of red brick trimmed with limestone. A wing was added in 1931. The entrance features a large pediment resting on colossal pilasters. The building was originally crowned by a three-stage tower, however, the third stage and most of the second were replaced with a small dome-like top in the 1980s. Otherwise, though the building as been further expanded, the bricks sandblasted, and the windows replaced, it would be easily recognizable to its earliest students.

Fair Park High School was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

In January 2017, Fair Park suddenly changed its principal after six consecutive years of "failed" ratings and continuing disciplinary problems. Three other high schools under the operation of the Caddo Parish School Board are also rated "failed". Reports have even persisted that the school will close or be downgraded to a middle school with the upperclassmen assigned to the historically black Booker T. Washington High School, which carries a "D" academic rating. Fair Park alumni are seeking to keep the school functioning.

Notable alumni

  • Tim Brando (Class of 1974) CBS Sports announcer
  • Roy L. Brun (Class of 1971), state district court judge and former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives
  • C.L. Bryant (Class of 1974), African-American Baptist minister and radio talk show host on KEEL; a Shreveport native
  • Jerry Byrd (Class of 1953, 1935-2016), sportswriter for the defunct Shreveport Journal and the Bossier Press-Tribune; Shreveport native
  • Cecil K. Carter, Jr. (1929-1987), member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1972 to 1976
  • Morris Claiborne (Class of 2009) Dallas Cowboys cornerback
  • Wendell Davis (Class of 1984), Louisiana State University athletics 1984-1987; consensus and SEC All American 1987, Chicago Bears 1988-1993 and Indianapolis Colts 1995 football wide receiver
  • Rick Edmonds (Class of 1974), Republican member since 2016 of the Louisiana House of Representatives for East Baton Rouge Parish
  • Lee Hedges, American football coach
  • Chuck McMichael (Class of 1975), commander-in-chief, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 2008 to 2010
  • Jimmy G. Shoalmire (Class of 1958, 1940-1982), American historian
  • Pat Tilley (Class of 1971), St. Louis Cardinals football player, 1975-1986; leader of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes
  • Stanley R. Tiner (Class of 1960), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
  • Lorenz James "Lo" Walker, Mayor of Bossier City
  • Tome Walters, Jr. (Class of 1965), Lieutenant General, United States Air Force, 1970-2004
  • Sam "Charlie" Wilkinson (Class of 1960), Houston Astros 1967 to 1977, Louisiana Tech University Athletics 1977-2005. Wilkinson is the only Fair Park graduate to have played professional baseball.
  • A. L. Williams (Class of 1953), Fair Park and Woodlawn high school football coach; Northwestern State University and Louisiana Tech football coach
  • Faron Young (Class of 1951, 1932-1996), American country music singer and songwriter from the early 1950s through the mid-1970s.
  • Lyndon B. Johnson (Class of 1986), Caddo Parish Commission president, 2015
  • References

    Fair Park Medical Careers Magnet High School Wikipedia