Archives Closed Schools K-M: Monsarrat School

Other Name: Fifth Ward School; Seventh Ward School; Monsarrat Departmental School; Monsarrat Junior High School

Last Address: East side of Fifth Street, south of Broadway, at York Street

Year Opened: 1900

Year Closed: 1943

The Seventh Ward School was renamed for Laura Lucas Monsarrat, the first female teacher at the Female High School and principal at the Seventh Ward School (formerly Fifth Ward School) at the time of her death.  The school educated first through eighth grades until 1915 when it was converted to a departmental school for higher grades.  During most of the rest of its history, the school provided seventh and eighth grades, although in 1936 its name was changed to Monsarrat Junior High School.  The building was later converted to a museum of science and history (predecessor of the Louisville Science Center) and later became a storage facility for the public library system.  In 1981 the building was sold for conversion to condominiums.