Baton Rouge High School

A Gothic Revival brick pile rises four stories on Government Street—terra cotta details, the kind of institutional presence that commands Mid City. Baton Rouge High, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, was designed by Wogan and Bernard, one of Louisiana's most prominent early 20th-century firms. The present campus was put into use in 1925, though some sources cite 1927 or 1928. It is the oldest continuously operating public high school in Baton Rouge. The school opened in an era when Baton Rouge was consolidating its role as Louisiana's capital—no longer just a river port, but the seat of a state apparatus that had survived Reconstruction, built levees against the Mississippi, and was navigating the political turbulence of the early 20th century. Alumni include Bobby Jindal, who served as governor from 2008 to 2016, and Jay Dardenne, former lieutenant governor and Louisiana secretary of state. Federal judge John Victor Parker, who sat on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana from 1979 to 2014, graduated in 1945. The roster also includes NBA Hall of Famer Bob Pettit, NFL Hall of Famer Jim Taylor, and Grammy-winning songwriter Wayne Kirkpatrick. In 1976, the school converted to a magnet program. Football, basketball, and baseball were discontinued that year. The Class of 1980 became the first to attend all four years under the magnet curriculum. Since then, the school has won state championships in gymnastics, track and field, and cross country. The men's cross country team won nine consecutive state titles from 1980 to 1988. It operates the only student-run AM and FM radio stations in the country—WBRH, the original FM station, and KBRH, added in 1993—both community-supported and broadcasting jazz and local music. A two-year renovation starting in 2010 added two new wings to the main building. Students returned in 2012. The exterior is best viewed from Government Street, where the building still anchors Mid City as it has for nearly a century.