Last school year, Interior Design students within the Gibbs College of Architecture helped the L’Ouverture Historical Committee (LHC) in the City of McAlester with their plans to preserve the historic L’Ouverture High School. L’Ouverture School first opened in 1908 and served African American students until McAlester schools were integrated in 1968. A group of L’Ouverture graduates purchased the historic building from McAlester Public Schools in 2014 and have been working on preserving the building, with the intent to bring life and activity back to its halls.

Just this past Friday, the LHC held a “Storywalk” Ceremony, where they announced the creation of a Digital Flipbook to be used for fundraising for L’Ouverture High School. Congratulations to the stellar McAlester community for all their progress on this amazing project!! We love seeing communities continue to build on the ideas that come out of IQC projects!