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Benjamin Franklin High School (New Orleans)

1957 establishments in LouisianaCharter schools in New OrleansEducational institutions established in 1957Magnet schools in LouisianaPublic high schools in New Orleans
Use mdy dates from January 2020
BenFranklinSchoolNOLA28May07B
BenFranklinSchoolNOLA28May07B

Benjamin Franklin High School is a charter high school and a magnet high school in New Orleans, Louisiana. Commonly nicknamed "Franklin" or "Ben Franklin", the school was founded in 1957 as a school for gifted children. Ben Franklin is consistently named the No.1 school in the state of Louisiana and has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as No. 15 charter school in the nation. In 1990, it moved to its current location on the campus of the University of New Orleans (UNO) in the Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks neighborhood of Orleans Parish, near Lake Pontchartrain. The school was damaged by several feet of flood water due to Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, and efforts to reopen the school were covered by nationwide news agencies. The school is part of the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), yet it operates as a charter school and is not administered directly by the agency. Ben Franklin has a selective admissions process, and according to CBS News is a "magnet for the city's smart and motivated students." Andrew Vanacore, of The Times Picayune, wrote in 2013 that Franklin was "top-notch". It has been named a Blue Ribbon School five times by the U.S. Department of Education, and was ranked 16 on the 2009 "America's Best High Schools" list by U.S. News & World Report. The class of 2008 produced 17 National Achievement Semifinalists, the most of any school in the United States. In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked the school as the best public high school in Louisiana and the 64th best in the United States.Ben Franklin is a member of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and offers a variety of sports programs. Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs. Notable alumni of the school include Wynton Marsalis, a Pulitzer Prize winning trumpeter, actor Wendell Pierce, and Cedric Richmond, former congressman and Senior Advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Benjamin Franklin High School (New Orleans) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Benjamin Franklin High School (New Orleans)
Frankfort Street, New Orleans Spanish Fort

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N 30.024629 ° E -90.0650362 °
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University of New Orleans

Frankfort Street
70122 New Orleans, Spanish Fort
Louisiana, United States
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BenFranklinSchoolNOLA28May07B
BenFranklinSchoolNOLA28May07B
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Pontchartrain Beach
Pontchartrain Beach

Pontchartrain Beach was an amusement park located in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It was founded by Harry J. Batt Sr. (grandfather of American actor Bryan Batt) and later managed and owned by his sons, Harry J. Batt Jr. and John A. Batt. It opened on Saturday, June 30, 1928, across Bayou St. John from an existing amusement resort at Old Spanish Fort. Pontchartrain Beach's original location is the present-day lakefront neighborhood of Lake Terrace. In the early 1930s, subsequent to the construction of a seawall extending from West End to the Industrial Canal which created a new shoreline for Lake Pontchartrain, Pontchartrain Beach was moved to a new location at the lake end of Elysian Fields Avenue, a location formerly offshore of Milneburg. Pontchartrain Beach included a beach with a large art deco style bathhouse and swimming pools, amusement rides (including a wooden roller coaster called the Zephyr), and concession stands. The park featured live music concerts, including many local musicians and touring national acts such as Elvis Presley. Other rides and amusements included the Zephyr Junior, Smoky Mary, the Wild Maus, Musik Express, Log Ride, the Ragin' Cajun (a modern, looping steel coaster), the Bug, Paratrooper, Scrambler, Calypso, the "airplanes", Haunted House, Ghost Train, bumper cars, carousel, Ferris wheel, the Monster, Trabant, Sky Ride, Hard Rock, Galaxy, Laff in the Dark, Magic Rainbow, Red Baron, and Kiddieland. As with other amusement or theme parks, over time certain older rides were changed out for new ones. In addition to rides, there were also the summertime shows which changed every few years (Skipper & Dolly dolphin show, Great American High Dive Show, Merlin's Magic Rainbow Show). For a few years there was also a fairly large petting zoo with many farm animals and a huge red barn house. A miniature golf course was added, when this pastime became popular. Just outside the entrance gates was the Bali Hai Tiki-style restaurant. Another popular restaurant was the Ship Ahoy, which featured hamburgers and seafood. Pontchartrain Beach was sold on September 23, 1983. The main reason it closed down was due to declining attendance.In 1943, Corporal Douglas O'Brien, a World War II serviceman from Springfield, Massachusetts, fell 75 feet (23 m) to his death from the top of the Zephyr roller coaster. He was 32 years old.