A visual history of McDonogh 11

By Preservation Resource Center
June 25, 2021

Built circa 1879, McDonogh 11 School building was demolished in June 2021 despite years of effort to save it.

Explore the building’s history below.

Designed by: William A. Freret, Jr., architect of numerous buildings now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Size: Approximately 23,000 square feet as built. The first floor was removed as the building was transported from its original location to make way for a new state and federal medical campus in Mid-City. The remaining two floors totaled 15,840 square feet.

Location: Original location was 2009 Palmyra St. The building was moved for the hospital project and eventually placed at 201 S. Claiborne Ave. (at Cleveland Avenue) on a temporary foundation.

Image courtesy New Orleans Public Library

Over the years

Photos by Infrogmation of New Orleans, December 2010.

Uses: McDonogh 11 was a public school. It was integrated in 1961. From the 1980s to 2005, it was renamed and served as the New Orleans Center for Health Careers. Then, from 2007 to 2010, it was home to the Priestly School of Architecture and Construction.

Rehabilitation (Post Katrina): After the storm, the building received a $3 million FEMA-funded renovation. Before it was moved during the demolition of the lower Mid-City neighborhood, a building inspection by Gurtler Brothers, dated Oct. 14, 2011, said, “The property generally is in serviceable condition overall.”

Lower Mid-City razed

State and federal plans to build a new medical campus in Mid-City after Hurricane Katrina resulted in the demolition of many homes and other buildings in the lower Mid-City neighborhood.

“The twin hospitals would consume nearly 70 acres of a national historic district, obliterating the Deutsches Haus, a German cultural center; the former McDonogh No. 11 school, a landmark that dates to 1879; and scores of classic shotgun- and sidehall-style homes, including four that were renovated after Katrina with $45,000 in historic preservation grants from the state,” reporter Kate Moran wrote in a February 2008 article in The Times-Picayune.

This neighborhood’s fate was tragic on many levels. Residents who had rebuilt their homes and lives post-Katrina had their houses seized by the state and destroyed to make way for the medical complex. As a concession to angry citizens, the City of New Orleans attempted to save a few of the neighborhood’s homes; most were improperly relocated, and fell apart.

McDonogh 11 is moved

The preservation of McDonogh 11 school building was one of the few concessions the state was asked to make in exchange for being allowed to destroy historic Lower Mid-City. Since assuming control of the site from the State Division of Administration, LSU’s board did nothing to protect or preserve it. The promise wasn’t kept. The building was moved to its final place in 2013.

Photos by Chris Granger, courtesy of The Times-Picayune.

Relocation: Beginning in late 2011, the building was moved three times within the hospital footprint; the initial move reportedly cost $320,000, but total costs may have been higher. According to an April 2012 article in The Atlantic by Anne Gisleson, the school is the “largest building ever to be moved in the state of Louisiana and one of the largest ever moved in the country.”

Decaying for a decade

“Not only is the McDonogh No. 11 campus historically and architecturally significant to New Orleans, but it was restored before Katrina and then underwent $3 million in renovations afterward. … it would be a waste of taxpayer money to demolish it.” — Times-Picayune Editorial, Feb. 19, 2011.

The Preservation Resource Center and other preservation organizations worked hard to save McDonogh 11 from demolition. PRC met with the city’s best developers, exploring possible reuses, relocation sites and funding mechanisms. Several developers had visions for this building’s future, and wanted to help. But the order was tall. Federal historic rehabilitation tax credit financing, which is a critical tool for the costly renovations of historic structures like this, likely would be difficult to attain for McDonogh 11, since it had been moved from its original site and the building’s entire ground floor was removed.

LSU demanded that the building be removed from its property. So, PRC also flew in some of the country’s best building-movers, who confirmed that the school could withstand a relocation. With the interstate overpass boxing in the enormous structure, the only way to move was east. Identifying an open lot for sale within a distance that the building could safely travel was difficult, and the cost added a significant amount to the overall restoration price tag.

At the PRC, we work every day to help people see the inherent value in New Orleans’ historic buildings. They are an integral part of our city’s wealth, along with our culture, cuisine, music and people. Few projects have been more inspiring in recent years than Leona Tate’s renovation, for example, of McDonogh 19, the school she helped integrate as a child. She is transforming it into a civil rights center. Another great example is the reawakening of the Pythian Temple downtown. Such depth of achievement can scarcely be found in new construction projects.

The city’s historic buildings are a finite resource. Bulldozing them in the name of progress ignores the fact that Louisiana has been a national leader in recent years for revitalizing its historic structures for modern uses. We should celebrate being on the top of a positive national list for once.

McDonogh 11 may be lost, but there are still many buildings we can save, if there’s the will to save them.

Demolished

June 2021

Photos by Liz Jurey

On June 23, 2021, demolition began on McDonogh 11, the 142-year-old school building that has sat vacant on the side of Interstate 10 for nearly a decade, despite years of effort by the PRC and other preservation organizations to save it.