Schools, Crosley Elementary, Ouachita, LA  

The following article was copied, with permission from information
in a calendar for 1996 entitled "West Monroe, Louisiana-Bridging 
the Gap" published by The West Monroe Heritage Preservation 
Commission Writing and photo research done by Ron Downing and 
Roseann Marks 
Submitted by: Dot Golliher



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Crosley Elementary School West Monroe, Louisiana

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 cityand
parish schools across the river in West 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.

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