Within a year, the school would be rebuilt, on the same site and of almost identical construction, spacious classrooms resplendent with beaded wainscoting and archways, divided stairways and patterned tin ceilings, and a splendid third-floor auditorium; down the hill toward the Mississippi River was a football field and amphitheater used for graduation exercises. Today’s members of the ROMEO Club (Retired Old Men Eating Out, the socthe monthly gathering of Julius Freyhan graduates, whose numbers decrease yearly) are too young to remember school benefactor Julius Freyhan himself, but some of them vividly recall the outdoor privys and later the unheated lean-to restrooms where the water froze in the toilets in winter. They also remember the row of horse stalls behind the school for youngsters who rode in from the surrounding countryside; during rainy weather students were let out early, as some had many miles to ride home, and when the creeks were up and fords impassable, some of these country students had to spend the night in town with relatives or friends. Other country students boarded in town during the week and went home to their families only for weekends. One garrulous Cajun actually rowed across the Mississippi River every day to attend Julius Freyhan School and survived the experience to graduate with the Class of 1907.

 

Used until the fifties, Freyhan School has fallen into disrepair, but a move is afoot to restore it as a community center and museum of early education and early Jewish community involvement. The granddaughter of Julius Freyhan, Pauline Freidman of California, left a sizable bequest to assist with the project, and the Freyhan Foundation is attempting to save the school and make it once again a viable center of community life and activity. Architectural studies are being conducted and donations requested; contact the Freyhan Foundation at P. O Box 338, St. Francisville, LA 70775, or telephone 225-635-6330.