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VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — The former Carr Central High School in Vicksburg has been designated a Mississippi historical landmark.
The state marker was put in place over the weekend with about 100 alumni on hand.
The Vicksburg Post reports (http://bit.ly/1t18dFv ) the designation was the result of a two-year effort by George Cronier, class of 1944, and David Speyerer, class of 1948.
It all began with a public hearing in 2012.
"I read in the paper there was going to be a public hearing on the Carr Central apartment complex," Cronier said. "During the hearing, they said they were going to call it the Oak Village Apartments."
He said he talked with Houston-based Brownstone vice president Jeremy Mears about the name, and was told "they had to keep that name until the application (for tax credits) was approved or disapproved."
When the low-income apartment project was approved, Cronier said Mears told him the complex would retain the Carr Central name.
Cronier and Speyerer talked to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and filled out the application for landmark status. The $2,500 for the plaque was paid through contributions from the school's alumni.
Speyerer said attending Carr in the late 40s "was like (the 70s television show) 'Happy Days,' but it was a different time then."
He pointed to a second floor window on the building's south side.
"The superintendent of schools had his office right there," he said. "He ran the Warren County School System from that little office with two secretaries. Now they have that whole complex of buildings."
"We had the best school system in the State of Mississippi," Cronier said. "We had great teachers and good leadership. The principal was C. B. Wilson and he used a firm hand. He ran the school."
Built in 1924 and named for John P. Carr, the superintendent of Vicksburg schools at the time, Carr Central was a high school from 1932 to 1959, when it became a junior high school. The school was closed in 1979, and the building went through several owners before Brownstone bought it.
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Information from: The Vicksburg Post, http://www.vicksburgpost.com
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