New Life Planned for Neglected Old Fourth Ward School

A long-vacant, circa-1924 school building in the Old Fourth Ward where Martin Luther King Jr., Walt Frazier and other notable Atlantans once attended classes could undergo a $30-million-plus renovation and reopen as a middle school in an effort to ease severe overcrowding. APS Superintendent Meria Carstarphen is expected to present her final proposal for Howard High School at a Thursday meeting, and as the AJC reports, it's possible that Howard could be used for middle school students, while trailer-heavy and over-capacity Inman Middle School would switch to an elementary — a move that won't be without controversy. The Howard school was shuttered to students in 1976 and hasn't been used at all since 2008. As part of a photo-driven exploration of Atlanta's forgotten schools, Creative Loafing chronicled the weatherworn (but hardly crumbling) condition of Howard earlier this year.