[5] In keeping with the historical significance of the surrounding area, the school was named after Phillis Wheatley, the first black, female, slave poet in the United States.

[4] Colbert's design incorporated glass windows instead of exterior walls and elevated classrooms, which spared the building from being flooded during Hurricane Katrina.

[3] Updated fire codes also prohibited upper floor classrooms from being used by younger students, requiring the installation of portable buildings on the school grounds for kindergarten and first-grade classes.

[3] The building received a national school design award in 1954 and was profiled in a three-page article in the July 1956 issue of Architectural Forum.

"[7] The Fund placed the building on its World Monument Watch list in 2009, along with the ruins at Machu Picchu and Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona.