Public Meeting: Fate of Curtis & Davis School

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced a public meeting scheduled for Wednesday 23 September from 6:00-8:30 pm at C.J. Peete Community Center (2514 Washington Street) to discuss the proposed demolition and replacement of Curtis and Davis's Thomy Lafon Elementary School.

FEMA is requesting that participants be prepared to speak out either in support of preservation or demolition. Parties supporting preservation should be able to present a related proposal; parties supporting demolition should present a proposal for the school's commemoration.

To read more about Thomy Lafon (1810-1893), consult the following resources available through Tulane University Libraries:

Joseph, James A. "Thomy Lafon: Black Aristocracy and Benevolent Wealth," chapter in Remaking America: How the Benevolent Traditions of Many Cultures are Transforming our National Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Rankin, David C. "The Origins of Black Leadership in New Orleans during Reconstruction." The Journal of Southern History 40:3 (Aug 1974): 417-440 & other articles available through JSTOR.

To read more about Curtis and Davis's architecture, see:

Curtis, Nathaniel. Nathaniel Curtis, FAIA: My Life in Modern Architecture. New Orleans: University of New Orleans, 2002.

Davis, Arthur. It Happened by Design: The Life and Work of Arthur Q. Davis. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2009.

"School on Stilts." Architectural Forum 101 (November 1954): 148-151.

Image above: Detail from presentation board: Thomy Lafon School: Small Site in a Congested Neighborhood.Curtis & Davis Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries.