Facilities

Shropshire Park lies just a few blocks south of Festus Main Street on S Fourth between S Adams and S Mill Streets. This facility offers an adult basketball court. The Sherman Barnes Pavilion and bathrooms were torn down midsummer 2023.

Arthur Cortez Shropshire was the founder of the Douglas School which was opened on this site in 1929. After becoming accredited by the Dept. of Education, Douglas Cooperative High School began its first year in 1939 with 65 black students from Festus, Crystal City, Herculaneum, De Soto, Bonne Terre, Farmington, and Potosi. The DCHS was integrated into Festus High School in 1955 with 7th and 8th grade following in 1956. The Douglas Cooperative High School closed in 1959.No talk of Douglas Cooperative High School is complete without the story of Mr. and Mrs. McCullough. In 1954, Willa Haney was a teacher at DCHS and was asked to teach typing at nearby Festus High School. There were no protests, boycotts or news stories when Haney accepted an invitation from Festus R-6 Superintendent Ralph Tynes to commute from her teaching job at the all-black Douglass High School to all-white Festus High for that one class every day. She had no car, so Tynes served as her chauffeur. It was the first crack in the wall of local school segregation. Despite the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, African-Americans in Jefferson County and across the country could not attend the same schools as white people, or use the same restrooms or sit at the same lunch counter. Not long after Miss Haney wed Mr. Adam McCullough - another DCHS teacher - in 1955 she became the first black educator to work full time in an all white public school in Jefferson County. In 1950, "Coach" McCullough became the first black man to coach and officiate in Jefferson County. In 1987, Adam McCullough was elected as a Councilman for Ward 1 to the Festus City Council and served in that capacity until 2003.Coach led the way into retirement in 1993 and Mrs. McCullough followed him in 1994.Mr. McCullough passed in March 2019 and Mrs. McCullough in October 2020.This information was compiled from various online sources including obituaries published in the Leader paper as well as a story written by Gordon Bess on May 11, 2018