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 | |
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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.
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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.