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15th
& Wolfe streets
School no longer in operation
Building no longer exists
Thomas Harding, a Little Rock architect, designed Centennial
Elementary School in 1894; it was demolished in 1971. The block
where the school once stood now is known as Centennial Park; all
that remains of the school today is the staircase and
archway/front entrance that now stands at the entrance to the
park.
Centennial Park. Photo: Central High
Neighborhood, Inc., website.
The following "History of Centennial School" was written
by James Reed Eison and was found in a file of historical
documents in the LRSD Administration Building. It evidently was
written to commemorate the close of the school. It is reproduced
here exactly as written.
For years children drank water from the cool spring that ran
there, and for years local children met and played there. But, in
this year of 1893 this was not long to be for at the regular
meeting of the school board of the City of Little Rock in the
spring of 1893 it was decided that there would be the
"erection of a school building on Block 22 Centennial
Addition to the City of Little Rock with a view to completion in
September 1893." Today the site is bounded by Wolfe,
Fifteenth, Battery, and Sixteenth Streets.
Thomas Harding, architect, was chosen and paid $450.00 for his
services. Many of Harding's houses still stand in Little Rock and
many have the towers of which he was so fond. The contract for the
erection of an eight-room building was given to Noah Hamlet for
the sum of $12,940,00. The school was not completed in 1893 and it
was not ready for occupancy until September 17, 1894. At that time
250 pupils in five rooms with six grades were enrolled. The total
enrollment of the city schools at that time was 4,015 both white
and colored. The school was so named because of the Centennial
Exposition held in St. Louis in 1892.
Vintage postcard depicting "Centennial Public School."
Photo: LRSD Archives.
Many well-known and prominent men were involved with the school's
erection. J.R. Rightsell was the school superintendent in 1893.
Also in that year Frederick Kramer presided as chairman of the
Little Rock School Board. Mr. Kramer served on the board from 1866
to 1894, and from 1870 to 1894 was its chairman meaning he served
his community in this capacity longer than any man or woman before
or since. Others on the school board at the time were Albert Cohn,
R.A. Edgerton, James E. Rector, Daniel G. Fones, James Mitchell,
W.T. Wilson, George H. Sanders, Louis Cohen, and Henry L.
Fletcher. Professor W.J. Galbraith was Centennial's first
principal.
In a 1958 newspaper article a pupil who had attended there in 1895
was interviewed. It was remembered that on May Day of 1895 the
girls of the school gave him a bouquet of flowers in a tin
container. After the flowers had died, he kept the container to
collect gum from the many gum chewers which infested the school.
He was to threaten many times to send the tin of discarded gum to
the factory to have it made over for his gum chewers. Another well
remembered principal was Dr. William Taylor Somervell. He served
from 1896 to 1905 and struck fear in many a boy when he
threatened, or did "larrup" them. Because he would roll
up his sleeves before a larruping and because he wore red flannel
underwear the boys would whisper that "the red flag is
out" and that someone was in bad trouble. Dr. Somervell would
often bring his small son Brehon Burke to school with him and
place him on the desk to recite the 23rd Psalm. Brehon in later
life became General Brehon Somervell, commanding general of the
Army Service Forces in World War II.
Staff members at Centennial Elementary, 1939.
Photo courtesy of Kathleen Dewey.
And so the years went by and the boys and girls grew to adulthood
and moved on. On Thursday, July 22, 1971 a local newspaper
reported that with the desegregation plan approved by federal
District Judge J. Smith Henley, the school would be subjected to
be closed. On Wednesday, September 1, 1971 Judge Henley issued an
order allowing the Little Rock School District to close
Centennial. The school board then contracted with Henry Hay, Sr.
of North Little Rock to tear down the building for the value of
the material that could be gotten from it. This work was done at
no cost to the District.
Also about this time the city Board of Directors approved a plan
to buy the land for a park and suggested that the old school's
bell tower be saved as a "focal point and historical marker
for the entire park." According to Julius Breckling, Director
of Parks and Recreation for the City of Little Rock, this park
will be Little Rock's 22nd in the past 10 years. The cost of
restoring the tower, landscaping and buying the land was $80,000.
It will be called Centennial Park.
Mrs. Euleta Bowden, the last principal of the school had this to
say during an interview, "It was a priviledge to be the last
principal of Centennial because over the years it left such a rich
heritage not only to the people of Little Rock, but to the State
of Arkansas as well."
Class photo on the steps of Centennial
Elementary, early 1940s. Some of the students are identified on
the back of the photo: 1. Delma Manuel; 2. Joe Blaylock; 4.
Margaret Chote; 5. Ben Piazza; 13. Bobby Chapman; 21. Harry
Gladden; 22. William Schmidt; 24. Jimmy Black; 26. John Bennett.
Student Ben Piazza became an actor on Broadway and in movies; he
appeared in The Bad News Bears, I Never Promised You
a Rose Garden, Mask, The Blues Brothers, Apocalypse
Now and Rocky V. Photo courtesy of Cliff Manuel.
Centennial Elementary Safety Patrol,
1967. Principal Euleta Bowden is shown at the far right, and
Safety Patrol sponsor and 6th grade teacher Francis Hembey is at
the left. Front--Joey Ward; 2nd row--Sam Holloman, Bobby
Campbell, David DeArmand, Robert Hall; 3rd row--Mrs. Hembey,
Mike Thompson, Larry Green, Mrs. Bowden; 4th row--Randy
McClellan, Mike Farley, Taylor Pinkerton. Photo courtesy of
Bobby Campbell.
Sources:
LRSD archives.
Central High Neighborhood, Inc., website; Centennial Elementary
page: http://www.lrcentralhigh.org/CHNI.htm
"Old School Days," Arkansas Gazette article written by
Jennie M. Garrett, 12 Jan 1958, page 3F.
Sources:
LRSD archives.
Central High Neighborhood, Inc., website; Centennial Elementary
page: http://www.lrcentralhigh.org/CHNI.htm
"Old School Days," Arkansas Gazette article written by
Jennie M. Garrett, 12 Jan 1958, page 3F.
If you have information about a Little Rock school or
photographs that you would like to contribute to this project
(we will return photographs if requested), please contact
us!
Updated June 2007
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