Sam Taylor Elementary

The Sam Taylor Elementary School is a part of our series The City Left Behind. Above you will find a trailer for the series. This location can be found in Episode Two The City Left Behind: Disappearing Children of Pine Bluff’s Abandoned Schools. Click here to view the playlists and subscribe to keep up with each episode!

Sam Taylor Elementary also known as Sam Taylor School is what I like to call a puzzle school. It is a culmination of different additions throughout the decades all formed together to make one school but almost an obvious timeline of how architecture has changed over the years.

In the 1920s it was approved and decided that the Sam Taylor Elementary would be enlarged. This was due to overcrowding and congestion within the schools at the time. When Sam Taylor School was originally built in 1911 it was thought that it would provide ample space for the district children. but now a decade later it is clear they have outgrown it. Plans for the construction of Gabe Meyer School were also approved.

Work on the addition was to cost around $10,000 and consisted of adding another story to the main building with brick veneer  adding four new classrooms to the building. Contract work was done by E.C. Royce.

A rather interesting court fight came out in 1986 involving a large oak tree that was to be removed from the school grounds. Supporters quickly rallied and petitioned for the tree to stay going as far as suing to make it happen.

Unfortunately, after a half-day testimony and two hours of deliberation, the jury decided in favor of the PBSD that they had not acted arbitrarily or capriciously in deciding to take the tree down to make way for a $300,000 eight-room addition.

The following day workers showed up to lop branches and a backhoe began digging around the base of the tree cutting roots to enable the tree to be pulled over. And just like that the tree was gone.

Sam Taylor Computer Technology Magnet School

In 1992 the Sam Taylor School became the Sam Taylor Computer Technology Magnet School. A magnet school is a public school that offer specialized learning opportunities and are open to all students, regardless of zip code. Was this in an effort to increase enrollment numbers at the school? Or perhaps try to enhance the education that was being offered within Pine Bluff.

But this didn’t last long and the school was shuttered in 2007 after a continued decline in enrollment through the Pine Bluff School District. It now sits abandoned and deteriorating quickly.

Gallery Below of Sam Taylor Elementary School

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