1910/1933 - Douglass High School - Oklahoma City, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 35° 28.412 W 097° 29.629
14S E 636650 N 3926600
This large school facility has had many names and many faces over the years.
Waymark Code: WMKM0D
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 04/29/2014
Views: 3
The original construction on this building was in 1910, when it was constructed to be Lowell Elementary School. This date is engraved in cast stone above an entrance on the west side. In 1919 and again in 1933, the school was added onto, with two east-west extensions at either end of the main school. Classrooms and a pool/gym were added to the north end and classrooms and a theater to the south. At this time, the school became Frederick Douglass High School, an all-black school in the height of segregation. It is significant today as it is the oldest school still in existence in Oklahoma City, used for the purpose of segregating African American students from white students from the period of 1933 to 1955. In 1955, the school was renamed F. D. Moon Middle School, and renamed again in 1960 Woodson School. In 1975, the school was renamed Page Woodson and operated as a community and educational center. The building closed in 1993 and has remained vacant ever since.
This is a large two-story red brick building with exposed basement, built in the Classical Revival style. Old Douglas High School was placed on the National Register in 2007. The original architect was Solomon Layton, of Layton, Smith and Hawk. The building has horizontal stone belt courses, with stone surrounded windows units, and bas relief medallions on the spandrels. There are six double-door entrances, two on the north and west elevations, and one on the south and east sides.
A large two-sided cornerstone at the entrance on the west side, for the 1933 addition reads:
(west side)
Let there be light
Laid by
The Most Worshipful
St. John Grand Lodge
of the State of Oklahoma
The south side of the cornerstone reads:
Inman E. Page
Principal of the Separate Schools
Advisory Committee
to the Board of Education
George R. Ragland Chairman
W.L. Vaughn / E.W. Perry
J.J. Dawson / L.C. Cleaves
J.J. Josephs / E. W. Caruthers
E.R. Richards / J.D. Nelson
A.D. 1933 / W.L. HaywoodVisit Instructions:
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