LOOKING BACK is a Leader online feature that highlights historic photos. Readers are invited to submit their historic Jefferson County photos for online publication.
Visitors to Charles A Brown Memorial Park in Crystal City pass by a stone dedicated to Star School, and likely don’t take much note of it, or the history behind the stone.
Back when public schools were segregated, Star School was the elementary school for Crystal City’s black students.
The two-room schoolhouse was finished on Nov. 30, 1888, and was named Star School by the students.
By 1936, the school, apparently expanded, had at least 10 students.
When integration began in local schools in 1956-1957, Star School students were absorbed into the Crystal City School District two grades at a time. Star School closed its doors in 1960.
A total of 3,000 students attended Star.
While the building no longer stands, a stone at the park is evidence of its existence. The stone was dedicated in September 1994 by the Crystal City Park Board.
The large photo is of the Star School students in 1947. Below that can be found a sketch of the schoolhouse, a diploma awarded in May 1944 to Hope Atkins Casey and a photo of the longtime principal, Ralph Spencer, who started working at the school in 1936. The woman in the photo is not identified.
– Steve Taylor
Send submissions (or if you have any information on this photo) to LOOKING BACK to nvrweakly@aol.com or bring or mail them to the Leader office, 503 N. Second St., Festus (P.O. Box 159, 63028). Please include your name, phone number, a brief description of what’s in the photo and tell us how you came by it. Please also include when it was taken, where and by whom (if known). A new LOOKING BACK photo will be posted each week.
