Benjamin Franklin Senior High School: Dedication Ceremony

By Adrienne Luck & Mary Wegmann

Benjamin Franklin Senior High School was dedicated on November 10, 1957. The dedication was sponsored by the Orleans Parish School Board, and it included the formal presentation of the building by a school board member to William Kutz, President of the Student Council.

If not for the efforts of the late Charles Meynier, the building may not have survived as a public school. Owner of a hardware store on Maple Street and a leader of the Maple Street merchants, Meynier had attended McDonogh 23 School. He questioned the School Board's plans for the property in the 1950s as the building sat empty. Many believed that the building might give way to an A&P grocery store.

Meynier circulated a petition in Carrollton and generated 2200 signatures in support of the Carrollton Courthouse. The School Board had declared that the building was unfit for a school but eventually decided to locate Ben Franklin School there.

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719 South Carrollton Avenue, New Orleans LA

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Adrienne Luck and Mary Wegmann, “Benjamin Franklin Senior High School: Dedication Ceremony,” New Orleans Historical, accessed May 14, 2024, https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/431.

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Published on Nov 13, 2012. Last updated on Sep 15, 2023.