Ouachita Parish High School was established by the school board in 1894 and first operated in a frame building with twenty high school students, fifty elementary students, and a staff of four. With funds donated by the police jury and private citizens, the school board hastily built the first brick building on property that had been donated to Fort Miro by Don Juan Filhiol, housing both elementary and secondary students there, and the school had two graduates in 1895. Later this building became the Ouachita Parish Grammar School. By 1903, under the administration of T.O. Brown, enrollment had increased enough that the school had to be expanded. In 1908 Brown resigned as principal of the high school to devote his full time to his duties as Parish Superintendent, and Henry Elmo Jack Hayes became principal. During Hayes's forty-one year tenure from 1908 to 1949, the school passed through a period of rapid development. The building was enlarged in 1919, and when the facilities again became inadequate by 1924, the high school was built in stages from 1924 to 1931 on South Grand and Telemaque streets, where it remained until 1958. The completed complex included forty-two classrooms, four laboratories, a modern cafeteria, a commodious auditorium, and a well-equipped library, with later additions including the gymnasium, the music building, and the annex. Under Hayes's leadership, the student body grew to more than 2,000 students, and the curriculum and high academic standards he established led students to achieve and excel in academics, music, speech and drama, athletics, and other extracurricular activities.