Walnut Room this way

Walnut Room this way
Rio.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

A Mystery Solved: P J Krouse, architect for Bobo Senior High School in Clarksdale

Back in the summer, I posted about a school in Clarksdale.  I could not find a sign on the building to determine what school it was.  While getting ready to start a new scavenger hunt on the Mississippi education buildings identified by Preservation in Mississippi, I had the epiphany this morning.  Could the Krouse designed high school in Clarksdale be my unidentified building?

This building was located at the corner of School and Riverside.  Bobo Senior High School as designed by Krouse was located at 131 School Street, on the corner of Riverside Boulevard.  Check.




The Historic Places Database indicated the property included a cemetery.  Family name on headstones: Bobo. Check.
HP also refers to the building as Gothic Revial in architecture style.  Here is where my lack of knowledge about architecture styles emerges.  Is this building Gothic Revival?  I looked up images of Gothic Revival, and it resembles some pictures that were identified as this style, but did not look like others.  Is there a variety of design variation permitted in this style?


The Bobo Senior High Building was listed on the national register of historic places in 2008 according to the Clarksdale school district newsletter, and they were discussing what to do with the building.  I have to assume this must be one and the same building.  At least as of last summer, nothing else had been done with the building.  So, has the mystery been solved, or not?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. As I'm sure you know by now, since your blog entry was dated in 2008, that is definitely the Bobo building from the old Clarksdale High School. It's sad to see the building vacant and in such a state of disrepair. I graduated from CHS in 1989.

Suzassippi said...

I agree with you--very sad to see such a beautiful building sitting empty, the damage multiplying over time. Thanks for stopping by, and the confirmation!