NEW ORLEANS DISTRICT

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers involvement in Louisiana dates back to

 1803 when an Army engineer was sent to the newly acquired city of New

 Orleans to study its defenses. The Corps early work in the area was of a

military nature, but soon expanded to include navigation and flood control.

Today, New Orleans District builds upon these longstanding responsibilities with its

commitment to environmental engineering.

New Orleans Districts jurisdiction covers 30,000 square miles of south central and coastal Louisiana. The district plans, designs, constructs and operates

navigation, flood control, hurricane protection, and coastal restoration

projects. It maintains more than 2,800 miles of navigable waterways and

operates twelve navigation locks, helping to make the ports of south Louisiana

number one in the nation in total tonnage (number one in grain exports.) The Corps

has built 950 miles of levees and floodwalls, and six major flood control structures to

make it possible to live and work along the lower Mississippi River.

The Corps cares for the environment by regulating dredge and fill in all navigable waters and wetlands, and by designing projects to reduce the rate of

coastal land loss. Besides constructing major Mississippi River freshwater

diversion structures, the District regularly creates new wetlands and restore

barrier islands with material dredged from navigation channels. The District also chairs the multi-agency Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and

Restoration Task Force, which is planning and constructing a variety of projects

to restore and protect the states coastal marshes. In addition, the District manages the clean up of hazardous waste sites for the Environmental Protection

Agency.

One important aspect of the New Orleans District program is its historic

preservation and cultural resources management program. The Corps protects a

great variety of prehistoric and historic sites to meet the requirements of the

National Historic Preservation Act. The New Orleans District recognizes its

responsibilities to communicate the results of its numerous studies to the public,

and this booklet inaugurates our series of popular publications. The booklet was

prepared in connection with the Districts 45-foot-deep, Baton Rouge-to-the-Gulf,

Deep Draft Navigation Channel Project.

Serving Louisiana New Orleans District
By Ralph Draughon, Jr.

R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates, Inc.

 1998

DOWN BY THE RIVER

Preserving Louisianas Heritage v One

New Orleans District
2

Busy scene in a photograph of the Edward J. Gay lying at berth in Baton Rouge, ca. 1895

3

THE RED MAYPOLE

Most Americans recognize March

17 as St. Patricks Day. But, for

the city of Baton Rouge, the date

has greater significance. On March

17, 1699, the founder of the French

colony of Louisiana, the Sieur d

Iberville, first beheld an object, 30

feet tall, that he described as ... a

maypole with no limbs, painted

red, several fish heads and bear

bones being tied to it as a sacrifice.

The maypole thereafter provided a landmark for Frenchmen

travelling upriver; early map makers noted that the bluffs on the east

bank of the Mississippi began at

le Bâton [stick] Rouge[red].

For thousands of years before

Iberville discovered the red stick,

Native Americans had lived at the

site of the present city of Baton

Rouge. Mounds for burial and

ceremonial purposes provide the

most visible surviving evidence of

the early inhabitants of the

waterfront. Many archeologists

now are persuaded that the

mounds date from a much earlier

period than previously supposed.

Overlooking the eastern edge of

the Mississippi River floodplain,

two burial mounds lie on the

campus of Louisiana State

University. Recent archeological

investigations estimate the age of

the LSU mounds at 5,000 years.

Although other mounds within the
4

Barracks, about where Boyd

Avenue or Spanish Town Road

intersects Lafayette Street.

Soon after the construction

of the fort, a Spanish army

from New Orleans besieged it.

Led by Don Bernardo de

Gálvez, the Spaniards advanced

towards the British stronghold

along the slope between the bluff

and the river. Gálvez placed six

cannon on an Indian mound

about one thousand yards south

of the fort, near the present

intersection of North Boulevard

and Lafayette Street. After the

Spanish bombarded the fort for

three hours on September 22,

1779, the British surrendered.

The treaty that concluded

the war in 1783 confirmed

Spains title to Baton Rouge and

its fortification. Governing the

multi-ethnic citizenry of Baton

Rouge, particularly new emigrants from the United States,

proved to be a challenge for the

Spanish. By 1788, the populacity were destroyed by the white

settlers, a ceremonial platform

mound also survives on the

grounds of the Louisiana State

Capitol.

FIVE FLAGS

Despite Ibervilles declaration that

the location was extremely fine,

early French settlement proved

sporadic and impermanent. Continuous occupation of the locale

by Europeans dates from 1763-

1779, when the British ruled Baton

Rouge.

From 1763 to 1812, not quite

half a century, no less than five

flags flew over Baton Rouge. The

site passed from France to Britain

in 1763, from Britain to Spain in

1779, and from Spain to the West

Florida Republic in September

1810. After 74 days, the United

States annexed the West Florida

Republic in December 1810.

In 1779, during the American

Revolution, the British built on

the bluff at Baton Rouge a dirt

stronghold named Fort New

Richmond. They surrounded it

with three acres of sharp pointed

cypress stakes, called cheval de frise

or palisades, to deter attacks.

Overlooking the waterfront, the

earthen fort stood just south of

the present day Pentagon

The Mounds on the LSU Campus
5

tion of Baton Rouge numbered

682; the village contained an

uneasy mixture of Americans,

English, Scots, Irish, German,

Spanish, French, Acadians, Native Americans, and both free

and enslaved Africans. The population expanded further under

Spanish rule. By the beginning of

the nineteenth century, the inhabitants of Baton Rouge included

doctors, lawyers, an interpreter,

merchants, surveyors, tailors, carpenters, masons, tanners,

butchers, blacksmiths, bakers,

gunsmiths, and a lone priest. Public worship by non-Catholics

was forbidden. Teachers had a

particularly difficult time in the

village; one schoolmaster had his

property seized when he didnt

pay his board bill. Another

teacher was murdered by an

irate parent who then fled to the

United States to escape prosecution.

Although the United States

acquired New Orleans and vast

territory west of the Mississippi River

by the Louisiana Purchase (1803),

Baton Rouge remained in Spanish

hands. Nevertheless, as barge traffic

increased on the river, more

Americans began visiting the town.

One such visitor from the United

States, Fortescue Cuming, described

Baton Rouge in 1809. Although a few

frame structures of tolerable

construction stood on the bluff, he

observed a dirty little town of 60

cabins crouded [sic] together in a

narrow street on the river bank,

penned in between the Mississippi and

a low steep hill.... Cuming

complimented the food that he got

at his Baton Rouge auberge or

boarding house, but he complained

about the difficulty of eating a dish

called gumbo. The gumbo contained

boiled okra:

so ropy and slimy as to make it

difficult with either knife, spoon or fork,

to carry it to the mouth, without the

plate and mouth being connected by a

Sketch ca. 1796 by General Victor Collot

of the Spanish attack on the Fort at Baton Rouge
6

long string, so that it is a most

awkward dish to a stranger. ....[I]t

is a standing dish among the

French Creol(es)

(Cuming 1904:340).

Cumings French landlady

provided him with a bed on her

front gallery or piazza, where she

claimed he would be more cool

and comfortable. Nevertheless,

mosquitoes annoyed him so

much that he rejoiced to rise at

dawn and put on his clothes.

Although still manned by

Spanish soldiers, the towns fort,

like the Spanish empire it

represented, had fallen into decay.

Recognizing the weakness of the

Spanish defenses, Americanborn rebels within the province

schemed to seize Baton Rouge

for the United States. Before

dawn on September 23, 1810,

approximately 75 American

conspirators approached the fort

on horseback from the river; in

dense fog they rode single file up

a cow path through a gap in the

cypress palisades. The cow path

leading up from the river can be

seen in a Spanish plan of the

fort. Only a herd of milk cows

guarded the stronghold. At

daybreak, the horsemen slipped

into the fort undetected,

assembled in military formation

on the parade ground, and

surprised the Spaniards. When a

few Spanish guards fired at the

Americans from the blockhouse,

the invaders struck the building

with a fusillade of musket fire.

A Spanish lieutenant and a private

were killed; four other Spaniards

were wounded. The Americans

seized the fort with no casualties

to themselves. They then lowered

the Spanish banner and replaced

it with the fourth flag to fly over

Baton Rouge, a single white star

on a field of blue.

Calling themselves the West

Florida Republic, the rebels

promptly asked for annexation

to the United States. The

American government quickly

passed enabling legislation, and

on December 7, 1810, the

insurgents raised the Stars and

Stripes, the fifth banner over

Baton Rouge.

 Fort San Carlos, ca. 1784
7

At the conclusion of the

conflict, in 1816, Congress

established a U.S. Army post and

arsenal at Baton Rouge. Dirt from

the ramparts of the abandoned

fort of 1779 served as fill for the

ravines on the newly established

military grounds. Construction of

the five-sided Pentagon Barracks,

one of the citys most important

surviving landmarks, began in

1819. Only four buildings remain.

The poorly constructed fifth

structure partially collapsed in

1821 and was demolished in 1828.

The military complex included

a federal arsenal. Most of the

arsenal buildings have been razed,

but a former powder magazine,

built in 1838, today serves as the

 James Gadsdens plan for the pentagonal barracks at Baton Rouge, 1819

THE WATERFRONT

IN THE EARLY

NINETEENTH

CENTURY

The village of Baton Rouge

nevertheless remained near the

location of armed conflict. In 1812,

the United States declared war on

Great Britain. Situated on the largely

unprotected southwestern frontier,

citizens of Baton Rouge were

suspicious of each other and

concerned about slave uprisings,

attacks by hostile Native American

tribes, and invasion by European

powers. The town escaped

unharmed, but the war indicated the

need for a strong American military

presence in Louisiana.
8

Arsenal Museum. The army

levelled one Native American

mound on the arsenal grounds and

used the surviving mound as an

officers cemetery.

The state legislature

incorporated the town of Baton

Rouge in 1817. By April 1820, a

ferry had begun operations across

the Mississippi. Called the Flying

Bridge, it utilized a long chain

attached in the middle of the river

to a buoy. Perhaps because of the

clumsy mechanism, the ferry

operated for only two years. Tolls

for the ferry included: $1.25 for a

man on horseback; $3.00 for a

two-wheel carriage, horse, and

driver; $0.25 for a pedestrian (or

two pigs); and $0.75 for a horse

or a cow.

The crowded and frequently

flooded waterfront provided the

towns initial livelihood. The first

steamboat to stop in Baton

Rouge, the Orleans, had chugged

into port in 1812. Ten years later,

during 1822, 83 steamboats, 174

barges, and 441 flatboats docked

at local wharves.

The Marquis de Lafayette, the

French nobleman who had fought

for the American cause during the

Revolution, returned to the United

States almost half a century later

for a tour. On April 16, 1825, the

steamboat Natchez (one of many

vessels by that name) docked at the

foot of Laurel Street, and the aging

Hero of Two Worlds disembarked at Baton Rouge for the day.

His visit helped strengthen the sometimes uneasy relationship between

French-speaking Louisianans and the

United States in the early period of

American rule. Lafayettes former

aide-de-camp, Joseph Duplantier,

lived in Baton Rouge. During

Lafayettes brief visit, his crowded

schedule included numerous

speeches, a review of troops at the

Pentagon, an inspection of the garrison, a visit to a Masonic lodge, a

banquet, and a ball, in which the probably weary hero danced with

Duplantiers six-year-old granddaughter.. To commemorate his visit,

the city fathers changed the name of

Second Street to Lafayette.

Zachary Taylor, his beloved horse Whitey,

and the old Spanish Commandants quarters

in Baton Rouge
9

Beginning in 1821, Zachary

Taylor was stationed at Baton

Rouge intermittently during his

long career in the American army.

His early duties included supervising construction of the

Pentagon Barracks. For his own

quarters on the military base, his

wife chose a dilapidated eighteenth century frame building

known as the Spanish

Commandants House, built by

the British at Fort New Richmond and subsequently

occupied by the Spanish governor, Don Bernardo de Gálvez.

Shaded by porches on all sides,

the house formerly stood at 727

Lafayette Street. Margaret

Peggy Taylor lived there

while her husband won military

glory for his generalship in the

Mexican War. On his return in

late 1847, he conducted his successful campaign for the

Presidency from the four-room

structure that overlooked the

waterfront. On January 23,

1849, as the townspeople gathered at his cottage, he bade

farewell to his neighbors in a

simple, heartfelt speech and

boarded a steamboat that carried him away to assume his

duties as chief executive of the

United States. He died in office

the following year. Taylors quarters in Baton Rouge, the Spanish

Commandants House, was

damaged by a storm and demolished in 1858. During the

Civil War, a racetrack operated

at the site.

The legislature established a

penitentiary on the outskirts of

Baton Rouge in 1834. The first

state facility located in the

village, the prison remained in

operation until 1917. Only one

building, the Wardens House

(ca. 1835-1840), at 703 Laurel

Street, survives.

A convict lease system

developed in Baton Rouge

whereby both black and white

prisoners from the penitentiary

worked in nearby fields and

factories. White mechanics,

free persons of color, and

owners of slaves for hire

Riverfront view of Baton Rouge in the Civil War era
1 0

resented the competition, but

the lease of convicts remained

in effect until Federal troops

freed the prisoners during the

Civil War.

BATON ROUGE

BECOMES THE

CAPITAL

Although the population of Baton

Rouge stood at only 2,269 persons

in 1840, the legislature in 1846

selected the town as the new capital

of Louisiana. The architect of the

new capitol building, James H.

Dakin, convinced a legislative

committee to build in the

Castellated Gothic Style rather

than the repetitive and unoriginal

Grecian or Roman design

favored by other states. Dakin

promoted his design on the basis

of its economy; he convincingly

argued that a brick and cement

structure with cast iron details

would cost considerably less than

a marble edifice. On completion

of the new capitol in 1850, Baton

Rouge officially became the seat

of government.

In Life on the Mississippi, an

American classic, Mark Twain

derided the capitol as a sham

castle inspired by his pet peeve,

Sir Walter Scott. Twain claimed Sir

Walter had run the [southern]

people mad with his novels of

chivalry and caused the American

Civil War. Despite Twains ridicule,

the old capitol remains a treasured

landmark; through many crises,

including a serious interior fire

during the Civil War, it still stands

watch above the waterfront of

Baton Rouge.

New Orleanians made fun of

the new capital of Louisiana; Crescent City critics insisted that the

View of Baton Rouge, Louisiana from

Ballous Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, 1855
1 1

penitentiary provided the best accommodations in Baton Rouge.

Nevertheless, the Harney House

hotel was constructed in the late

1840s at the corner of Lafayette

and Main streets. It survived bombardment by Federal warships in

the Civil War and continued operation well into the twentieth

century. Several coffee houses

opened on Front Street in the

1850s. The architecturally significant building that housed the

former Florence Coffee House,

ca. 1850, still survives at 132 Main

Street. After Baton Rouge officially

became the seat of government in

1850, the Florida Street Wharf

served as the chief landing of the

community. Rather than a conventional pier, the city utilized a

dismantled steamboat as a floating dock. Known locally as the

wharf-boat, the vessels mooring could be adjusted to the level

of the river. In 1859, the wharfboat served as a temporary

hospital after the steamboat Princess exploded downriver from

Baton Rouge. During the Civil

War, several photographs depict

the wharf-boat, yet another

vessel named the Natchez, during

the Federal occupation of Baton

Rouge.

During the late antebellum

period, the waterfront was

crowded with commercial

activities. The Gill map of Baton

Rouge in 1855 depicts the Baton

Rouge Foundry of John Hill, a

leading planter and citizen, on the

northeast corner of North and

Front streets on the waterfront.

Providing further evidence that

slaves performed many diverse

tasks in the antebellum economy,

Hill was utilizing 19 bondsmen

in his foundry on the eve of the

Civil War.

Cohens Directory of 1856

listed an extensive operation

that Samuel M. Hart, another

affluent citizen, conducted at

Laurel on the corner of Front.

The Hart firm served as cotton

The Louisiana Institute for the Deaf and Dumb
1 2

cluded of necessity in the

slaveholders ranks. Harsh laws

regulated the activities of slaves

in Baton Rouge, but these severe

measures were enforced inconsistently. In spite of curfews and

laws forbidding sale of alcohol

to slaves, the bondsmen often got

whisky and stayed out past 9 p.m.

The city permitted some social

activities. Slaves were allowed to

have dances or frolics provided

a responsible white person applied for the permit. Beginning

in 1857, slaves were allowed to

have their own church with a

Methodist free person of color

as their preacher.

After the election of

Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860, an ill-assorted

collection of state troops forced

the surrender, on January 10,

1861, of the Federal Arsenal at

Baton Rouge. The arsenal yielded

a vast supply of arms for the

budding rebels. On January 26,

1861, Louisianas Secession Convention met in the old State

Capitol; the delegates voted 113

to 17 to declare Louisiana an independent power. In spite of

the cold, bleak day, a cheering

procession of politicians and

townspeople then raised a new

emblem, a white Pelican flag with

one red star, on the flagpole before the riverfront of the

Capitol. After the seceded states

factors, commission and forwarding merchants, grocers, and

specialists in western produce.

The Missouri Mill, between Europe and Asia Streets, was the

largest economic enterprise recorded on the lower waterfront,

which was subject to annual

flooding in the antebellum era.

In 1858, the state of Louisiana

sponsored another building in the

Castellated Gothic style, the

Louisiana Institute for the Deaf

and Dumb, which formerly stood

adjacent to South Boulevard

several blocks from the river.

Reputed to be the largest building

in Louisiana, it served as a Federal

hospital in the Civil War.

TOWARD CIVIL WAR

In 1860, on the eve of the national conflict, Baton Rouge had

a population of 3,693 free

whites, 488 free people of

color, and 1,247 slaves. The

bondsmen comprised 23 percent of the 5,428 total

inhabitants. According to the

Census of 1860, about a third

of the heads of households in

Baton Rouge owned slaves.

Since the Louisiana legislature

forbade emancipation after

1857, a few free persons of

color purchased members of

their own family and were in-
1 3

organized a provisional government for the Confederacy in

early February, yet another national emblem, the Stars and Bars,

fluttered over Baton Rouge.

Tradition says that a new

tavern opened on the corner of

Third and Main streets in Baton

Rouge the day after the Civil War

began. Known as the Fort

Sumter Saloon (for the first

military engagement of the war),

it eventually moved to Third and

Laurel, where it remained a

popular local institution until

National Prohibition (of

alcoholic beverages) began in

1918. An historic cannon,

supposedly a relic from the old

Spanish fort, was buried in front

of the tavern; according to one

account, the City Fathers placed

the cannon there to keep vehicles

off one of the few adequate

sidewalks in the town. In 1969,

street repairs required the

reburying of the cannon, muzzle

down, at the same corner.

When New Orleans fell to the

Union in April 1862, Baton Rouge

prepared for Federal invasion. The

state government evacuated the

city. To prevent capture of cotton

and liquor, cotton bales along the

waterfront were drenched with

alcohol and set afire with blazing

pine knots. With mixed emotions,

local planters and bartenders

watched their commodities go up

in smoke along the levee.

A detachment from the

Federal fleet arrived on May 7; on

May 9, 1862 a Federal landing party

seized control of the arsenal and

the barracks. The Confederates

offered no resistance. To add to

local troubles, on May 18, 1862, a

crevasse or serious break in the levee

occurred two miles downstream

from Baton Rouge. Just as panicky

refugees discovered all the

 Federal officers at ease in their Baton Rouge encampment
1 4

southbound roads from town

were flooded, Admiral David

Farragut and the main Federal

fleet, with troop transports

carrying 1500 soldiers, dropped

anchor off the waterfront.

On May 28, 1862 several

Federal sailors set out in a

rowboat to make contact with a

washwoman to clean their dirty

laundry. When some zealous

Confederate guerrillas fired

buckshot from a group of

shanties along the wharves,

injuring three sailors, Admiral

Farragut was incensed. He raked

the waterfront with a devastating

cannon barrage that resulted in the

death of a few women who were

fleeing through the streets. The

cannon fire damaged the Capitol,

the Harney House Hotel, and St.

Josephs Roman Catholic Church,

the towns largest house of

worship. Further strife was

averted when several prominent

local citizens rowed out to the

Admirals flagship and convinced

him to end the shelling.

The next day, May 29, the city

of Baton Rouge formally

surrendered to the Admiral. Sarah

Morgans diary, a classic of Civil

War literature, depicts the Federal

occupation of the town. An

attractive and talented young girl,

 Sketch of the Battle of Baton Rouge by a participant, Private James J. Kelly,

Company F, 6th Michigan Regiment
1 5

a third of them barefoot,

forced the Federals to

relinquish most of the city

and retreat to the river, where

the fleet protected them. A

signalman in the tower of the

state capitol directed the fire of

the ships guns, which raked the

Confederate lines. Unfortunately

for the Confederates, the ram

Arkansas developed engine

trouble four miles above Baton

Rouge and had to be scuttled by

its crew. Without naval support,

the Confederates had to

abandon Baton Rouge and

retreat eastward out of range of

the Federal gunboats.

The Battle of Baton

Rouge ended by 10 a.m. In

the battle and its aftermath,

however, a third of the town

was burned or torn down.

The gunboats proved

particularly destructive of

property. Preparing for

another attack, Federal troops

razed houses, other structures,

and groves of trees so that

gunboats could sweep the

community with fire. In the

meantime, most of the citys

civilian population had fled

southward down the flooded

roads.

she lived on the east side of

Church Street (now Fourth Street)

between Florida and Laurel

streets. Young Federal soldiers

attempted to flirt with her

unsuccessfully; she remained an

intensely loyal Confederate.

THE BATTLE OF

BATON ROUGE

A Confederate effort to

recapture the city kindled the

Battle of Baton Rouge, which

began at dawn on August 5,

1862. Even though the battle

took place on the eastern

outskirts of town and at some

distance from the river, the

waterfront had considerable

significance in the fighting.

Confederate success ultimately

depended on eliminating the

gunboats that protected the

Federal position with their

firepower. The Confederates

hoped to entrap Federal forces

with a two-pronged attack;

Rebel troops would advance

on the city from the east,

while the almost impregnable

ram Arkansas would come

down from Vicksburg and

assault the Federal fleet that

lay along the Baton Rouge

waterfront.

Although decimated by

illness, Confederate soldiers,
1 6

WAR AND

DEVASTATION

After their withdrawal, the Confederates moved to occupy Port

Hudson, a more important strategic position on the Mississippi River.

Since Baton Rouge had political but

not strategic importance, the

Federals also evacuated the city on

August 21, 1862. Because the community contained asylums for

orphans and the handicapped, the

Federals countermanded their original order to burn the city to the

ground. Instead, they sacked the

community before their departure.

Sarah Morgans diary gives a detailed description of the wholesale

destruction visited on her familys

house. Portraits were slashed, bureaus and desks were rifled,

furniture overturned, dishes shattered, and smaller objects were

looted.

The Federals re-took Baton

Rouge with 8,000 troops on

December 17, 1862. On the night

of December 28, U.S. soldiers

quartered in the state capitol

carelessly but unintentionally set

the building on fire. As the sham

castle burned, its flames

illuminated the Baton Rouge

waterfront. In the morning, the

blackened walls of the proud

structure were still standing, but

the interior had been gutted.

Federal troops occupied

Baton Rouge throughout the

remainder of the conflict.

African-American troops served

proudly in the forces of the

United States and participated in

the occupation of the city.

Begun with cheering and the

hoisting of the Pelican flag, the Civil

War ended in Baton Rouge with the

African-American squatters along the riverfront in the later years of the Civil War
1 7

Stars and Stripes flying before a

blackened capitol. The conflict devastated the community. A local

newspaper estimated Baton

Rouges total damage during the

Civil War at $10,600,000.00, an

immense sum for that era. The cost

included 100 burned buildings,

20,000 cotton bales burned or stolen, considerable property looted

or destroyed, and the loss to slaveholders of their substantial

investment in human bondage.

While many Confederate

refugees stayed away from

Baton Rouge until the wars end,

the town filled up with so-called

contrabands, former slaves

freed by advancing Union

armies. In 1860, blacks made up

less than a fourth of the

population; by 1865, they

outnumbered whites. Housing

these black refugees presented

a problem. They built shantys

along the waterfront and lived

beside the river during the latter

years of the Civil War. AfricanAmericans remained in the

majority in Baton Rouge until

1920.

RECONSTRUCTION

Baton Rouge did not serve

as seat of state government during

Reconstruction. Of immense

significance for the future, however,

in 1869 the Louisiana Seminary of

Learning relocated to Baton Rouge

from Pineville, where its main

building had burned. In the following year the legislature appropriated

$60,000 for the seminary and

renamed it the Louisiana State

University; the Reconstruction

legislature thereafter refused to fund

the college adequately because it

forbade blacks to enroll. At

the end of Reconstruction, in 1877,

financing for the college was

enhanced, when L.S.U. absorbed the

State Agricultural and Mechanical

College, then located in New Orleans.

Nevertheless, Louisianas Constitution

of 1879 limited L.S.U.s annual

appropriations to no more than

$10,000.00.

In spite of the enfranchisement

of large numbers of black voters

and the disfranchisement of some

former Confederates, Baton Rouge

remained in the hands of traditional

white leadership after the Civil War.

Native whites did not hesitate to use

force to insure their control; after the A view of the Old State Capital soon after

its reconstruction
1 8

national and state elections of 1870,

a small riot occurred in Baton

Rouge. Two blacks were killed, and

Federal authorities arrested 40

prominent white citizens.

With the withdrawal of Federal

troops at the end of Reconstruction,

native white control of the community was assured. When the U.S.

Army departed, it closed its military

installations in Baton Rouge. Consequently, the state in 1886 obtained

a lease on the old U.S. Arsenal and

the surrounding 52 acres as a new

home for L.S.U. Thereafter, college cadets replaced U.S. soldiers

in the Pentagon Barracks. In the

negotiations for the property, the

college obtained the help of an unlikely ally, General William

Tecumseh Sherman. He had

served as military superintendent

of the old Louisiana Seminary in

Pineville before the Civil War, and

held special affection for the institution.

A CAPITAL AGAIN

The Louisiana Constitutional

Convention of 1879 determined to

relocate the state capital from New

Orleans to Baton Rouge. In spite

of Mark Twains suggestion that the

state should let dynamite finish

what a charitable fire began... the

state decided to repair the burned

capitol. New embellishments to the

structure included an additional

story and ornate cast-iron turrets on

the roof. Baton Rouge rejoiced to

be the seat of state government

again. According to a nineteenth

century local account, the town

languished without hope or

enterprise until the state offices

returned in 1882.

Steamboats remained vital to

the local economy in the

postbellum era. In 1881, the

Anchor Lines launched a trim,

gleaming-white, wooden hull

steamboat, The City of Baton Rouge,

The steamboat Baton Rouge, ca. 1885
1 9

that plied the river between St.

Louis and New Orleans. The ship

was built in Indiana  a

commentary on the state of

southern industry at the time. A

special favorite of local citizens, the

steamboat made regular stops at

the Baton Rouge waterfront.

Mark Twain travelled as a

passenger on the vessel while

writing Life on the Mississippi.

After almost a decade in service,

the steamboat sank downriver in

December 1890.

The railroad heralded the

arrival of a new chapter in

economic development at Baton

Rouge. The city did not establish

direct rail connections with any other

municipality until December 15,

1883, when the first train of the

New Orleans & Mississippi Valley

Railroad arrived in the capital on

newly laid tracks from the Crescent

City. After innumerable name

changes, the line today is known as

the Illinois Central Gulf. The arrival

of the railroad on the waterfront

in the 1880s had a profound

influence on the industrial and

commercial development of Baton

Rouge. In laying the tracks,

construction crews added a landfill

along the waterfront. Railroad

construction and development

altered the waterfront in other ways.

The passenger station, built in 1925

and now the Louisiana Arts and

Science Center Riverside Museum,

is situated on the site targeted by

Admiral Farragut when his ships

fired on the waterfront in 1862.

Industry developed particularly

along the lower waterfront.

Beginning in May 1885, a group of

prominent citizens organized the

Burton Lumber Company, one of

the pioneer manufacturing concerns

of the city. By 1898, the Burton

operation extended from France

 Industrial development along the lower waterfront in the mid-nineteenth century
2 0

Street downstream to South

Boulevard. The lumber company

provided wood products to

numerous urban centers of the

United States and to Germany. In

the nineteenth century, the

lumbering operation on the

waterfront was flooded annually,

but the high water only facilitated

removal of logs from the river.

By 1890, Baton Rouge could

boast of two banks; a waterworks that

stood adjacent to the river on Front

Street; an electric light system; an ice

factory, also on Front Street; the state

penitentiary; the Deaf and Dumb and

Blind Asylum; and the state university

combined with its agricultural and

mechanical college. Several commercial

enterprises flourished on Natchez

Street. The Baton Rouge Brick Yard

shipped bricks by barge to planters

along the Mississippi and its tributaries.

Nearby, at 932 Natchez Street, stood

the Capital City Oil Mill, which local

promoters hoped would bring

measureless prosperity to the city. Their

forecast proved overly optimistic. The

mill processed cottonseed oil rather

than petroleum-related products. A

promotional pamphlet for Baton

Rouge commercial enterprises boasted:

What has been accomplished in the

development of our resources has been done

without outside aid..., but has been the

legitimate use of the meagre capital left

among us after an exhausting war and the

no less exhausting processes of

reconstruction.

During the last half of the

nineteenth century, at least five

outbreaks of yellow fever caused

deaths in Baton Rouge. The last

such threat occurred in 1905, when

a quarantine was put into effect.

Anyone entering the city was

required to have a health certificate,

signed by a physician. Epidemics

underscored the need for

municipal public health

requirements. At the turn of the

century, sewage lines were being

laid below the streets along the

waterfront, and public health

officials finally convinced Baton

Rouge to enforce hygienic

regulation of milk, meat, bread,

markets, and laundries.

 A panoramic view of Baton Rouge, near flood stage, photographed from

the U.S.S. Nebraska by Jasper G. Ewing, 1912
2 1

eluded the community since the

Civil War.

THE HUEY LONG ERA

The city patriotically took part

in the First World War, and

welcomed the Armistice with a

celebration that continued for

two nights and included bunnyhopping up Third Street to the

tune of Toot Johnsons Jazz

Band. At the wars end, Huey Long

arrived in the state capital. As the

newly elected member of the state

railroad commission (later the

public utilities commission), he

soon left his mark on the

community and on an entire era

in Louisiana politics. He quickly

established his reputation as the

inveterate enemy of certain

interests that the business

community of Baton Rouge held

dear: the utilities companies, the

railroads, and, above all, Standard

Oil.

Longs election as Governor

in 1928 altered the landscape of

Baton Rouge. He constructed not

only a new governors mansion

but also a new state capitol, a

skyscraper in the Art Deco

tradition. The tallest building in the

south at the time, the new capitol

dominated an historic site once

occupied by prehistoric Native

Americans, antebellum and Civil

TWENTIETH CENTURY

BATON ROUGE

The decision of Standard Oil of

New Jersey to construct an oil

refinery in the city has been called

by historian Mark Carleton, The

most historically significant event

that occurred in Baton Rouge

during the early twentieth century

 perhaps ever.... Legal attacks

on Standard Oil in Texas had raised

the possibility of John D.

Rockefellers company being

evicted from the Lone Star State.

As a result, Standard Oil sought a

central location to process the

immense crude production of the

middle of the continent and the

Mississippi Valley. After prolonged

study, the company decided to

locate a major refinery at Baton

Rouge; Standard Oil received a

charter from East Baton Rouge

Parish in 1909.

With its own docking facilities

to handle ocean-going vessels, the

new refinery had a profound

effect on the shipping industry

along the river. In 1910, the

United States Congress enacted

legislation to make Baton Rouge

a port of entry for foreign

commerce with the needed

customs officers and other

officials. Together, the refinery

and the port transformed Baton

Rouge into an industrial center and

promoted the wealth that had
2 2

War soldiers, and students of

Louisiana State University, who

recently had moved to a new

campus beside the Mississippi

River below the city.

Huey Long exercised a strong

and not altogether benign influence

on many local institutions. His

affection for L.S.U. and its athletic

program resulted in the addition

of numerous buildings to the

campus, including the Huey P.

Long Field House and its adjacent

swimming pool. When Long

found out the swimming hole

wouldnt be the largest in the

country, he insisted on adding

another ten feet to its length. Longs

influence touched many areas of

Baton Rouge life, sometimes in

unexpected ways. For example,

one morning in 1932 the Governor

grew angry when he had to wait

30 minutes for the ferry across the

river. By threatening to install a free

ferry, he forced the owners of the

franchise (the Baton Rouge

Transportation Company) to agree

to more frequent trips.

Various ferries had operated

sporadically and usually unprofitably

during the antebellum era and the

Civil War. Not until 1870 did a ferry

prove lucrative. From at least 1881,

the ferry landing was situated on the

batture at the foot of Main Street.

In 1915, a hurricane struck the

waterfront and sunk one ferrying

vessel and severely damaged the

other. In the following year a new

The new state capitol and its grounds under snow, 1940
2 3

vessel, The City of Baton Rouge, began

ferrying passengers across the river.

A sister ship, the Louisiana, joined the

operation in 1924. She originally had

a capacity of 1,000 people and 70

automobiles, but the larger vehicles

of later years reduced the number

of cars that the ferry could carry.

By 1926, the city of Baton

Rouge had built a municipal dock

that operated at the lower city limits.

The facility handled traffic from ocean

going vessels, as well as the river trade.

Nevertheless, the economic depression of 1929 affected trade at the

municipal facility adversely; in 1936,

the city leased the dock to Federal

Barge Lines for 12 years. Eventually,

shallow water at the site hampered

operations; in 1948, even the barge

line gave up the facility.

In spite of levees along Front

Street, in 1897 the river flooded the

first block of Main Street. In 1912,

the levees had to be strengthened

along the waterfront to withstand

the high water. In the 1920s, a local

newspaper insisted that the ferry and

steamboat landings were easily

protected when the river reached

its highest level. And according to

the Chamber of Commerce,

during the great Mississippi River

flood of 1927, ...Baton Rouge was

entirely safe and no danger was in

any way experienced. In August

1932, the U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers completed the Baton

Rouge [United States Senator

Edward James] Gay Levee

Enlargement for the area just below

the Municipal Pier. Two years later,

the Corps had finished an even

more far-reaching Baton Rouge

Levee Enlargement project, which

extended from the area of the

Municipal Pier up to North Street.

Beginning in 1929, Baton Rouge

was engulfed in an international

economic depression that continued

for a decade. Nevertheless, the

presence of the Standard Oil refinery,

the state bureaucracy, and the

Louisiana State University helped the

community weather the crisis. Oil

production in the vicinity aided the

citys economy, particularly in the late

1930s.

Perhaps the most visible of

the numerous New Deal measures

and programs that affected the

waterfront was a combined

railroad and highway bridge across

the Mississippi just above Baton

Rouge. The bridge was named for

Huey Long, who was assassinated

in the state capitol and buried on

its grounds in 1935. Funding for

the bridge was provided by a grant

from the Public Works

Administration (a New Deal

agency) and a state bond issue.

Eight men died during the bridgebuilding, which began in 1937 and

was completed in 1940, just as

world war swept through Europe.
2 4

The first vehicles to cross the

bridge carried National Guard

troops en route to the U.S. Armys

Louisiana maneuvers of 1940, a

large-scale training measure

designed to prepare American

troops for world conflict.

WORLD WAR II

AND ITS AFTERMATH

When the United States entered the

war in 1941, the people of Baton

Rouge joined wholeheartedly in the

struggle. American participation in

the war strongly bolstered the local

economy. Within one year, the Baton

Rouge refinery was producing 76

percent of the nations output of

aviation fuel, a crucial commodity.

Furthermore, the citys petrochemical

industry was born; it created

substitutes for unobtainable materials

vital to the war effort. To replace

supplies of rubber from Southeast

Asia, for example, a plant in Baton

Rouge pioneered in the production

of synthetic rubber from petroleum.

The infant petrochemical industry

grew into a giant after 1945. Its

facilities towered over the vicinity and

transformed Baton Rouge into the

leading petrochemical center of the

United States.

Meanwhile, the port of Baton

Rouge languished until 1952, when

the state legislature created the

Greater Baton Rouge Port

Commission. In 1954, construction

began on the first general cargo

dock and a grain elevator. The

molasses terminal was completed

in 1956, and the barge terminal

opened in 1959.

The completion of the new

bridge across the Mississippi in

1968 had a significant effect on

the waterfront. Although

officially named for Horace

Wilkinson, a developer of

Baton Rouge, the span has

taken the name the I-10

Bridge in popular usage. The

new bridge made the old ferry

unnecessary.

Changes on the waterfront

include recreational activities such

as cruises on the river provided

by the Samuel Clemens, a replica

steamboat that first docked on

the waterfront in 1981. If he

were still around, Mr. Clemens,

better known by his pen name

of Mark Twain, might supply

pithy comments about the

architecture of the new state

capitol and the present Baton

Ships anchored off the modern port of

Baton Rouge
2 5

Ice on the Mississippi with the new state

capitol in the background, 1940

Rouge skyline. In 1982, the

U.S.S. Kidd, a destroyer built

during the Second World, joined

the Clemens on the waterfront. The

destroyer rests in a unique cradle

that allows the ship to sit in dry

dock most of the year, but to

float in the spring when the

Mississippi rises.

The port of Baton Rouge

expanded rapidly with the

expansion of the petrochemical

industry. In the 1980s, however,

declining profits in the oil

industry affected the ports

commerce. In 1996, forest

products comprised the chief

commodity shipped through Baton

Rouge.

At present, the Port of

Greater Baton Rouge can boast

of general cargo facilities; grain

facilities; liquid bulk terminals; a

barge terminal on the Mississippi

river; and, to be completed early

in 1997, an inland rivers terminal

near the junction of the Gulf

Intracoastal Waterway with the

river.

In 1994, according to figures

supplied by the U.S. Army Corps

of Engineers, Baton Rouge

ranked fourth among ports in the

United States in terms of

tonnage handled. Furthermore,

the capital city outranked

seventh-place New Orleans,

which had dominated oceangoing

commerce in the Mississippi

Valley since the eighteenth century.

When Iberville discovered

the red stick in 1699, he could

not have envisioned a deep water

port 230 miles from the Gulf of

Mexico. Nevertheless, the port of

Baton Rouge today provides the

healthy, safe, centrally located

shipping point for international

commerce that Iberville and the

founders of Louisiana were

seeking. The stone that the

builders rejected has become

the cornerstone of the arch.
2 6

BIBLIOGRAPHY

With characteristic generosity, the late Mark Carleton permitted us to

repeat, in our own words, a few of the local anecdotes recorded in his fine book, Baton

Rouge, River Capital.

Arthur, Stanley Clisby

1935 The Story of the West Florida Rebellion. Office of the Democrat.

St. Francisville, Louisiana.

Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce

[1928] Baton Rouge, Louisiana: The Greatest of Fresh Water Harbors.

Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. Baton Rouge,

Louisiana.

Baton Rouge Sunday News

[1921?] Pictorial Review of Baton Rouge. With contributions from D.

W. Thomas and St. Clair Favrot. Baton Rouge Sunday News.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Carleton, Mark T.

1981 River Capital: An Illustrated History of Baton Rouge. Windsor

Publications. Woodland Hills, California.

Casey, Powell A.

1983 Encyclopedia of Forts, Posts, Named Camps, and Other Military

Installations in Louisiana. Claitors Publishing Division.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Chambers, Henry E.

1925 A History of Louisiana. The American Historical Society.

Chicago and New York.

Cohen, B. W., compiler

1856 Cohens New Orleans and Southern Directory for 1856 [including

a directory of Baton Rouge]. Daily Delta Print Shop. New

Orleans, Louisiana.

Cuming, Fortescue

1904 Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country: through the States of

Ohio and Kentucky; A Voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi

Rivers and a Trip through the Mississippi Territory and part of

West Florida, vol 4, Early Western Travels,1748-1846. Edited
2 7

by Reuben Gold Thwaites. Arthur H. Clark Company.

Cleveland, Ohio. Originally published 1810.

Cunningham, Edward

197? Battle of Baton Rouge, 1862. Committee for the Preservation of

the Port Hudson Battlefield. [Baton Rouge, Louisiana]

dAnville, Jean Baptiste Bourgignon

1752 Carte de la Louisiane. Map Division, Library of Congress.

Washington, D.C.

Davis, Edwin Adams

1971 Louisiana: A Narrative History. Third Edition. Claitors Publishing Division. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Dawson, Sarah Morgan

1991 The Civil War Diary of Sarah Morgan. Edited by Charles East.

University of Georgia Press. Athens, Georgia.

Dorr, Donald, editor

1982 Baton Rouge in Crisis: A Letter of Cowles Mead to Col. F. L.

Claiborne, Sept. 30, 1813. Baton Rouge Newsletter 2:1:4-5.

Edwards, Jay D.

1994 The Origins of Creole Architecture, in Winterthur Portfolio

29:2-3:155-189.

Famighetti, Robert, editor

1993 World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1994. Funk & Wagnalls.

Mahway, New Jersey.

Fortier, Alcée

1910 Louisiana. Century Historical Association. New York, New

York.

Gabel, Christopher R.

1991 The U.S. Army GHQ Manueuvers of 1941. Center of Military

History. Washington, D.C.

Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission

1992 A Brief History of the Port, in Deep Water 25:4.

Hahn, Thurston H.G. III and Susan Wurtzburg

1991 Hard Labor: History and Archaeology at the Old

Louisiana State Penitentiary, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

General Services Administration, Fort Worth, Texas.
2 8

Hansen, Harry, editor

1971 Louisiana: A Guide to the State. Originally compiled by the

Federal Writers Program, W.P.A. New Revised Edition. Hastings House. New York, New York.

Heck, Robert W.

1970 Historic Baton Rouge: An Urban Planning Perspective for the Preservation of Its Heritage. Community Renewal Program. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Hinks, Stephen, Susan Barrett Smith, and Jennifer Cohen

1992 Archeological Monitoring at the Old State Capitol of Louisiana.

R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates. New Orleans, Louisiana.

Holland, Claudia C., Principal Investigator

1988 Preliminary Archaeological Testing on the Grounds of the Old

State Capitol (16EBR8), Baton Rouge, Louisana. Berger, Barnard

& Thomas Engineering, Inc. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Jones, Dennis, and Malcolm Shuman

1986 Atlas and Report on Prehistoric Aboriginal Mound Sites in

East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, and West Feliciana Parishes, vol 1 of Atlas and Report of Prehistoric Indian Mounds in

Louisiana. Museum of Geoscience, Louisiana State University. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Kellough, Elizabeth, and Leona Mayeux

1979 Chronicles of West Baton Rouge. Kennedy Print Shop. Baton

Rouge, Louisiana.

Kruse, Horst H.

1981 Mark Twain and Life on the Mississippi University of Massachusetts Press. Amherst, Massachusetts.

LeMoyne dIberville, Pierre

1981 Ibervilles Gulf Journals. Richebourg Gaillard McWilliams,

translator. University of Alabama Press. Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Manheim, Mary H., and Ann M. Whitner

1991 Investigations of the [New] State Capitol Grounds (16EBR79 and

16 EBR25). Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
2 9

Mantrop, Stanley

1967 The Port of Baton Rouge: From Rags to Riches. Louisiana 1:3:28-32.

Mattice, Jacqueline Rodriquez

1982 Treasures on the Baton Rouge Levee. Alpha Group. Baton

Rouge, Louisiana.

Meyers, Rose

1976 A History of Baton Rouge, 1699-1812. Published for Baton

Rouge Bicentennial Commission by L.S.U. Press. Baton

Rouge, Louisiana.

Morgan, James Morris

1917 Recollections of a Rebel Reefer. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, Massachusetts.

Morris, John

1969 I-10 Bridge Changes Missississipi River Scene at Capital. Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate, April 27, 1969. Clipping Mid-City

Branch Library, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Muse, E. M., editor

ca. 1902 Elks Souvenir of Baton Rouge.... Published by E. M. Muse.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

New Orleans Picayune

1859 Further Particulars of the Explosion. New Orleans Picayune, March 4, 1859:p.1, c.5.

Platte, Frankie

1994 Baton Rouge - - 1930something. In le Baton Rouge:14:3:85-

92.

Police Jury, East Baton Rouge Parish, and City Council, Baton Rouge

ca. 1889 East Baton Rouge: Its Resources and Attractions; also, a Sketch of

the City of Baton Rouge.... Brandao and Gill. New Orleans,

Louisiana.

Round Table Club

1980 Historic Markers of East Baton Rouge Parish Louisiana. Louisiana Federation of Womens Clubs. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Spedale, William A.

1985 The Battle of Baton Rouge. Land and Land. Baton Rouge,

Louisiana.
3 0

Survey of Federal Archives, Baton Rouge

1939 Court Records of East Baton Rouge Parish. Typescript. Works

Projects Administration of Louisiana. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Copy in Louisiana Collection, Howard-Tilton Library, Tulane University).

Thom, Evelyn Martindale

1967 Baton Rouge Story: An Historical Sketch of Louisianas Capital

City. Foundation for Historical Louisiana. Baton Rouge,

Louisiana.

Turk, Jerry

1965 This Is Baton Rouge. Sponsored by WIBR Radio. Printing

Incorporated. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Twain, Mark

1883 Life on the Mississippi. James R. Osgood and Company.

Boston, Massachusetts.

Williams, T. Harry

1969 Huey Long: A Biography. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New

York.

Wilson, Harry D.

1938 Louisiana the Finest, 1937-1938. Department of

Agriculture and Immigration. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
3 1

List of Figures

Busy scene in a photograph of the Edward J. Gay lying at berth in

Baton Rouge, ca. 1895, in O. B. Steele/Andrew D. Lytle Album Photograph

Collection, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU

Libraries, Louisiana State University.

Inside illustrations:

The Mounds on the L.S.U. Campus (16EBR6). Courtesy of Dr. Robert

W. Neuman and the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science.

The Spanish attack on the Fort at Baton Rouge in 1779. A sketch made

by Victor Collot, ca. 1796, courtesy of the Robert G. Pollack Collection,

Special Collections, Tulane University, #231.

Fort San Carlos, ca. 1784, a copy of the original manuscript in the Archivo

del Servicio Historico Militar (Madrid, Spain), as found in Jack D. L. Holmes,

Portfolio of Louisiana Maps in the Spanish Archives, Louisiana and

Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Louisiana State

University.

James Gadsdens plan for the pentagonal barracks at Baton Rouge,

1819. National Archives, Drawer 133, Sheet 15.

Sketch crudely depicting Zachary Taylor, his beloved warhorse

Whitey and the old Spanish Commandants quarters Taylor occupied

in Baton Rouge, from Harpers New Monthly Magazine, November, 1853.

Riverfront view of Baton Rouge in the Civil War era. Andrew D. Lytle

Collection, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU

Libraries, Louisiana State University.

View of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, p. 304, from Ballous Pictorial

Drawing Room Companion, May 12 1855.

The Louisiana Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. Andrew D. Lytle

Collection, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU

Libraries, Louisiana State University.

Cover and page 2:
3 2

Federal officers at ease in their Baton Rouge encampment. Andrew

D. Lytle Collection, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections,

LSU Libraries, Louisiana State University.

The Battle of Baton Rouge by a participant. Merritt M. Shilg Memorial

Collection, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU

Libraries, Louisiana State University.

African-American squatters along the riverfront in the latter years of

the Civil War. Andrew D. Lytle Collection, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi

Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Louisiana State University.

A view of the Old State Capitol soon after its reconstruction. Andrew

D. Lytle Collection, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections,

LSU Libraries, Louisiana State University.

. The steamboat Baton Rouge, ca. 1885. Andrew D. Lytle Collection,

Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries,

Louisiana State University.

Industrial development along the lower waterfront in the middle of

the nineteenth century. Andrew D. Lytle Collection, Louisiana and Lower

Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Louisiana State University.

A panoramic view of Baton Rouge, near flood stage, photographed

from the U.S.S. Nebraska by Jasper G. Ewing, 1912. Aerial Photographic

Collection, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU

Libraries, Louisiana State University.

The new state capitol and its grounds under snow. Aerial photograph

by Fonville Winans, 1940. Richard W. Leche Papers, LSU Libraries,

Louisiana State University.

Ice on the Missis sippi River with the new state capital in the

background. Fonville Winans image, 1940, Richard W. Leche Papers,

LSU Libraries, Louisiana State University.

Ships anchored off the modern port of Baton Rouge, Courtesy, Port

of Greater Baton Rouge and Entergy Corporation. Image provided by

Hal Leonard, Gulf States Utilities.
1. New State Capitol

2. Old Arsenal Museum

3. Pentagon Barracks

4. Site of Fort Baton Rouge

5. Site of Zachary Taylor House

6. Harney House Site

7. St. Josephs Cathedral

8. Florence Coffee House

9. Fort Sumter Saloon Site

10. Wardens House

11. Sarah Morgan House Site

12. Florida Street Wharf

13. Water Works

14. Old State Capitol

15. Old Governors Mansion

16. Riverside Museum

17. U.S.S. Kidd

18. Baton Rouge Lumber Company

Places of Interest