|
|
|
|
A sturdy three-story brick structure with magnificent woodwork and an elegant top-floor auditorium, the school overlooks the river in close proximity to the late 19th-century Temple Sinai. The non-profit Freyhan Foundation is presently making plans to restore the school building as a community cultural and civic center. There currently being no such facility in either East or West Feliciana Parish, the foundation envisions its use for plays, art exhibits, lectures, concerts and other cultural affairs and community gatherings.
Once properly preserved and brought up to code standards to ensure the safety of the structure and its visitors, Freyhan School will also serve as a museum commemorating the early years of education in the area as well as the importance of the influential Jewish residents whose mercantile establishments in Bayou Sara and St. Francisville served as the all-important supply merchants and often the sources of credit for the plantation economy through much of the 19th century. The granddaughter of Julius Freyhan has recently left, in her will, a seed grant to begin the restoration project, and the West Feliciana Historical Society has over the years compiled a fascinating collection of related artifacts and records to enlighten observers on an aspect of antebellum culture too often overlooked. Future plans include the possibility of tying the Freyhan School site to the original Temple Sinai, built in 1902 to house a congregation that had been meeting in a hotel and opera house; it was constructed on a site overlooking the Mississippi River, with beautiful stained glass windows and broad entrance steps between graceful side turrets. The Museum of Southern Jewish Experience is hoping to include these sites in their tours of Cultural Corridors Along the Mississippi. The Freyhan Foundation welcomes support, both financial and physical, in its attempt to preserve these significant structures. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|