Some time, old, is better than new… A look over Alexandria’s shoulder into the past.

One of the things I care most about is Historic Preservation.

Anyone who knows Alex’s alter ego,    (his true identity with out the mask and cape)

know that, if you bring up historic preservation, you will be engaged in conversation for hours.

 Alex’s alter ego is a fanatic about history.  

 If he can teach one person a little bit about Central Louisiana, he feels his day has been worth getting up for.

We have lost better than 90% of our historic buildings to progress,  greed, stupidity, and misguided… I can make it better, reasoning.

What little we have left of Alexandria’s past should be protected at all cost’s.

I fully realise that is easier said, than done.

I care about Alexandria out of love. 

 I am not a politician. Not a Realtor.  Not a Lawyer. Not a downtown property owner.

 As a matter of fact I do not derive any of my income from anything connected with or in Alexandria.

I can not gain a thing from promoting Alexandria, other than soul satisfaction.

I was born here and I will die here.   Alexandria is my home.

That being said, let’s look over Alexandria’s shoulder and see what was left behind.

I am going to do this in a series of post’s beginning with this one.

I hope it moves you and gives you more insight into our wonderful town.

Number One…….The uglest building in town.

The Ugliest Building in Alexandria. (The City Hall.)

Not much to say about the current structure. It is just a rather plain, lackluster box. A Catholic Priest friend of mine shocks every one when he talks about this building.

His comment: “I wish I had a stick of dynamite. It needs to be blown up.”  I fully understand his feelings.

Now lets look over Alexandria’s shoulder and view probably the first   formal City Hall that was built on the same block as the  above ugly building.

I would imagine this structure was built in the 1850’s or earlier.

Viewing the above, we would be standing in the  middle of Main or 2nd street in front of the City bus stop that was constructed from the old railroad station. 

This building was torn down around 1910 or 1912.

It housed: Fire Station #1, The Alexandria City Hall, a sign shop and a meat market.

During the Civil War it was used as a prison for captured soldiers of both sides.

 In 1909 just a year or so after the Bentley Hotel was finished, this beautiful building was constructed.

 Built in the center of the block, it was destroyed to build the existing

monster of today.

I can remember as a small child standing  near the Confederate Soldier memorial watching parades move down 3rd street.

Circus parades, rodeo parades and Christmas parades.

When you trade the old for the new, sometimes you realize, it was not such a good deal after all.

 

I hope you enjoyed this little mini look over Alexandria’s shoulder.

In the next few weeks I will show you much more of what we have lost..

 

For more on Alexandria, Louisiana

I reccomend the web site’s below :

 

http://alexandria-louisiana.com/

 

http://louisianahistorymuseum.org/

 

 

 

There is more to follow…

If you enjoy what you read in this blog.

Please tell or pass it along to your friends.

 

Alex

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some days can be depressing.

Sometimes…… I just sit at my desk and read news coverage on assorted items that interest me and then again, I have no interest in.

People even tell me things , that make me wonder, in this case aloud.

Some of the things I read, to me,  make no intelligent sense what-so-ever.

We have a economic stemulus plan in effect that is absurd.

90% of the elected officials who voted for it.. have yet to read it.

Their only admitted interest is the pork that is headed for their respective state.

Unemployment is near 10%

Those that have hourly wage jobs are working less hours.

Even the union’s are working less hour’s in the construction trade.

There are many more ominous signs, yet the plan is working.

All the experts say it is….So what do we know?

We lower our education standards in Louisiana. But even with that we will  continue to have one of the higest drop out average’s around.

Large companys steer clear of areas with a less than 10th grade education  level.

Al Sharpton says M.Jackson was one of the ground breaking  first black singers..

What happened to Little Richard , Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Nat King Cole, etc, etc, etc.?

All of them much better singers and performers in their own way.

Yet we idolize a suspected child molester.

A group of neighborhood property owners in Alexandria ,complain about a home being used as a motel for workers with the men sleeping on air mattresses

in the home. (nothing happens)

They  sign a petition and even write their complaints down on paper. The zoning commission is contacted. The residents email all the information to the commission… It is ignored.

Yet the agent for the home is one of … if not the largest realtor company in town.

The list is endless. And mind numbing…

How do you maintain a positive position when you see and know about these things happening.

Yet life go’s on. Reminds me of the old Beatles song about life going on.

Oh well, I have rambled on about nothing new.

Alex

What if????? M. Jackson & E. Presley spotted in diner in Nevada.

I know.. I am sick.. But what if he faked his death like Elvis????????????????

Its a slow day.

An it’s like the one year anniversary of   Alexcenla’s  Blog…So Happy Birthday to me.

WOW!

Alex

I am with the Mayor on this one…Read and decide yourself.

I am with the Mayor on this issue, I believe it to be important for Alexandria..

But it’s up to you to decide.

Alex

Message from Mayor Roy:

 

Dear All:
 
Our City is at an important policy juncture.  Attached are two items I humbly ask you to read.  The executive summary should be read first—and is the shorter read of the two. 
 
Tomorrow night at 5:00 p.m., the Council will consider the zoning of a critical catalytic project in S.P.A.R.C., again, and any support you may give, or dialogue on the subject matter, is appreciated.  I was asked to veto the ordinance by council members who originally voted for the more restrictive zoning.  Of the handful of people who spoke against the project, several contacted me to express support and that they felt they did not have the accurate picture of this project. 
 
The reasons attached compel a serious read and discussion for our community if we are to move forward together.
 
It is my sincere wish, and I believe it possible, that the Council President will offer another amendment to allow the original ordinance to move forward and negate any need for a veto.  In exchange, we will ensure, as was always the plan, that the commercial development drives this car.
 
Please respond to my economic development office at moed@cityofalex.com, if you wish to…

 
Thank you for caring about Alexandria.
 
 

Jacques M. Roy
Mayor, City of Alexandria
Post Office Box 71
Alexandria, Louisiana 71309-0071
(318) 449-5000

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=1222f1c8faa92a1a&mt=application%2Fpdf

 

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.2&thid=1222f1c8faa92a1a&mt=application%2Fpdf

Elvis, Janis, Jim and Michael…Lets move on…..

Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Michael Jackson are dead. 

I could list many more as gifted  and as self destructive..

They were  each talented human beings, no more, no less.

 Similar circumstances of death…

(Now there will be a lot of vultures coming out to make money and pick his carcass..”I was molested by”, etc……………But that’s show biz, baby!)

Lets move on.

There is real news in the world. 

They are where ever you go… when you lead a life as they each did.

 OK?

Alex

The Bentley Hotel. Some facts and photos.

Hotel Bentley 1908

In keeping with my effort to talk about constructive and important things in Alexandria , my mind focused on the Hotel Bentley.

Over and over everyone interested in historic preservation mentions the Bentley Hotel .

If you know any history of Alexandria at all, most of you are familiar with the story of old “Joe Bentley”

How after being refused service at one of the local hotel dining rooms, because he was in his shirtsleeves, he proclaimed that he would build the best damn hotel in the south.

He did.. That building stands today as a monument to his spirit.  Empty—looted of many of its original interior furnishings.

One way you could look at it , is that.. it is in a way being held for ransom by its current owner.

After studying its past, I thought it would be nice  to show what this grand hotel looked like when it was built in 1908.

I am in favor of this building becoming a multi-use monument to Joseph A. Bentley’s memory.

If it can ever become untangled in its political and greedy undercurrent.

 It will futher fall into the pit of no return… if not.
 

Let’s look at it’s beginning in 1908.  Taking a brief tour with pictures from the Buddy Tudor collection. 

No cost was spared by Joe Bentley in building this building. Only the best was used from all over the United States.

 

From 1908 opening day folder.

 Only the best marble and granite was used. Decorative construction was done by known artist of the time period.

 

The inside of the hotel was breathtaking.

The front desk. 1908

The main staircase was more impressive then… than today.

The main staircase 1908

  This was just a regular bedroom suite.

1908 bedroom. Hotel Bentley.

Remember these photographs were taken from the 1908 opening  of this grand hotel.

Barber shop. Bentley Hotel 1908.

Do you want to see more? I have even more fantastic photographs that I will publish if you are interested.

The Bridal or honeymoon suite, the writing or what would be know today as media room, etc.

Bridal Suite Bedroom. 1908

                                 Joseph A. Bentley

The original beauty of the Bentley was beyond description.

 

We are going to lose it if, as my dear ole dad use to say, “we dont quit assing around!”

Its up to you and everyone else reading this.

Put pressure on anyone connected with the Bentley, let them know how you feel!

It is a prime multi-use building!

Visit

 historicbentley.com

for more information.

That is a site put up by the Louisiana History Museum and the Alexandria-retrospective web site.

What more can I do???

Alex

 

 

Sneak peak at the “Red River” display at Louisiana History Museum.

I received a press release from the Louisiana History Museum,  Monday about a scale model of a river steamer that once plied the rivers between here and New Orleans. It was built by a man from Pineville by the name of Richard  Guidroz. I was fortunate enough to take several exclusive advance pictures of it.

Steamer "Red River"

The pictures do not come close to capturing the detail. The boat model goes on display Tuesday June 9th. 

It is 44 inches long, 12 inches wide and 16 inches tall.

All I can say is “WOW.”

Back view "Red River"

Front view "Red River"

And people say there is nothing to see in Alexandria. To coin a phrase,   “Everyone is missing the boat!”

You can spend two hours in there and not see it all.

The Louisiana History Museum

503 Washington Street

Across 5th Street from the Rapides Parish Library.

FREE ADMISSION.

They are open Tuesday -Saturday  10 am to 3:30 pm.

Alexandria’s history is there as well as the state… I  am impressed, you will be to!

Visit their web site….   louisianahistorymuseum.org

Alex

Part Two. 1920 on. Progression of growth of Alexandria, La.

 1920 to 1940 were slow growth years. The town progressed into the areas around  and up to Texas Avenue.

The street car line ended at just about where Texas Avenue is today, close to Jackson Street.

There was a large public park and natatorium located in the area to the right of Jackson and Texas Avenue.

To the south side of town homes grew up around the lumber mills that once were outside the city but now were in what you could term industrial areas.

For example the Sonia quarters grew around the Sonia cotton gin.

It was here the employees of the mill built their homes near work. As did other Cotton Gin’s and Lumber Mills workers.

Enterprise addition was the results  of the Enterprise Lumber Company on the North side of Alexandria. These area’s were absorbed into the town area..

Basically the towns industries that had built outside the central area became part of the complex.

A pattern of development  toward the  Western end of Alexandria began because of the Red River and  probably   industrial growth on the south side.

That pattern continues into today.

1940 came round and Alexandria suffered tremendous culture shock.

From a small farming  and timber town, the placing of Army training bases to the South and North of Alexandria caused an influx of  thousands of

soldiers to converge on the town and turn it up side down, so to speak.

From Texas Avenue the limit stretched just a bit to McArthur Drive.

In the 1940’s homes were built up to Bayou Roberts. Across that bayou were cotton fields.

The City Park residential area grew up.   Ave A, B, and C and Crawford addition became popular area’s.

We based our economy on what we had in the past plus the benefit of business with the many Army Camps surrounding us.

A lot of Alexandria residents became millionaires because of trade with  the Camps during the 1940’s.

Late 1950's Third Street.

The 1950’s brought the end of the war and a stagnation of our community.

I have long ago said that the lack of  foresight at the end of the war caused Alexandria to wither and almost fall off the vine so to speak.

Up untill the late 1940’s Downtown Alexandria was alive and busy.

In the early 1950’s business began to migrate down to Bolton Avenue.

The beautiful homes were torn down on Bolton Avenue to build Sears and other stores.

Our past began to slowly disappear up into the 1960’s as  commerce slowly moved toward McArthur Drive.

Jackson Street had become the main life artery of the city.

The 1970’s till today show slow movement to the west and little movement South or any other direction.

We have obtained some industry and plants, but the promise Alexandria showed in the 1950 was not taken advantage of.

Down town  Alexandria died in the 1960’s as did Bolton Avenue.

Our commercial area is around McArthur Drive and down Jackson Street , Masonic Drive and out Highway 28 West…

I49 skirts through town but is of little benifit other than to keep travlers from seeing  some of our wonderful city as they could by our old highway system’s.

We still base a lot of our income from agriculture as we did in the past.So from 1805 till now we have evolved quite a bit, if  the rest will be like the past is up to you and your family’s to decide.

This is just a thumbnail sketch. Much more happened that can be discussed, but lets leave it short and sweet.

Alex

A progression on the growth of Alexandria, La. 1805 to now. Part One.

 For those of you who might be interested in how Alexandria became the sprawling area it is today,

I thought a very brief outline of the progression of growth in city area transpired from 1805 till now might be interesting.

All dates are approximate and in some cases may be within a five to ten year span.

One of the other blogger”s has started a story on “smart growth”  and I thought it would be interesting to get a brief view of how Alexandria has grown over the years from 1805 till today..

In 1805 Alexander  Fulton and his partner purchased a block of land from the Native American tribe that held title to this area.

From 1805 till about 1880 Alexandria was a square of  land that was defined by the Red River on the top side. 

The Railroad tracks of today on the Bottom side. The left side was the Rapides Bayou. 

The right side  was  about where Second and Third streets become one way as you enter from Marksville, perhaps a bit closer in. 

  The Center or Town Square was  the block of land between Washington and Lee Streets and 5th and 6th Streets. 

If you want to pinpoint where Alexandria originated, stand in front of the Alexandria Museum of Art, looking toward the Red River.

From what historians can gather that spot is probably where the original Trading Post was established.

I will not delve into what contributed to the growth of the area in depth.  Lets just say river traffic, agriculture and commerce in general.

……………………………..

The burning and destruction of Alexandria at the end of the Civil War just served to rebuild the original  town only.

No expansion was done because of this.

……………………………..

Lets look at 1880 onward to 1905. Because of Alexandria’s central location in  the State  and due to its size at the time it was a magnet for the railroads.

Also river traffic had increased. Alexandria became a hub city. From before the Civil War till this time period cotton was like the oil of today.

The vast plantations of the area made Alexandria prosper.

In order to grow the area beyound the railroad tracks from 10th street on became populated. Homes were built. Roads sprang up.

Gould Avenue ran alongside  the Rapides Bayou. A wide dirt road became the outside boundary of what was known as West Alexandria.

That wide dirt road became Bolton Avenue.

This was the point in time that there were two Alexandria’s.

Alexandria proper and what was known as West Alexandria. Both city’s had separate  city governments, mayor’s, etc… till they consolidated around 1907.

West Alexandria tornado 1907-Cook house shown middle left edge.

Sometime around 1905 an economic boom started because of the timber business.

A number of people who had moved to Alexandria and started lumber mills became quite rich.

Alexandria had its first real infusion of progress from 1905 to about 1910.

Mansions were built. Large ornate public buildings. The City Halll. The Bentley Hotel, The Alexandria Library, the Jewish Temple, and many more.

Bolton Avenue became mansion row. Homes like the Cook , Lisso and Albert , were built and many other.  Very few survive today. We will deal with that when we talk about the 1950’s.

Lumber became king with cotton taking a  second seat.

1918 and World War One.  The area of growth during that time became across the river with the onset of  “The war to end all wars.”

Alexandria  continued to prosper with growth going down Lee Street and settlement of the area going out  as far as Chester Street.

A photograph I have seen at the Louisiana History Museum, shows a Army encampment during World War One , in the area where Menard High School once stood.

So far we are up to 1920. The dates I have given are approximate and I have been as brief as possible. I will continue with part two from 1920 till now, later in a second installment.

As I have said, I am doing this to give you a thumb nail picture of the growth of Alexandria in area only.  

There are many details and dates that have been left out due to space and time.

I hope I have taught you something about our town.

Alex

Lee Street Riot. (Let’s set the record straight.) What really happened. With update.

 

Taken in the 1940's on Lee St.,Alexandria.

I am sick and tired of the myth’s and outright lies being perpetrated on the Lee Street occurrence.

Of course I will be ignored or called a liar because,  I will not martyr racism in this event.

But guess what gang?  I got the story straight from people who were there and were involved in the event.

It did not occur as 90% of you want to make believe it did.

How can I make this simple and easy to understand?

Lee Street during World War Two was a Bar and Night Club district.

Before and during World War Two,  Lee Street was the busiest street other than 2 nd and 3 rd Streets in Alexandria..

 Picture hundreds of soldiers, both white and black roaming the street after sundown.

True , there were black and white entrances to some of the buildings, but that’s about as far as it went.

Picture a small local police force.

I was told probably five officers working at night. Two working the busy Lee Street area.

Also there were four or five Military Police on duty in the area.

When soldiers came to town they were interested in two  thing’s  drinking  and women.

There were both on  Lee Street and a few other locations in Alexandria during that time.

More drinking than anything else.

At this point I will make it even more simple.

Soldiers drink. Soldiers get drunk. Soldiers fight each other when they get drunk. Soldiers destroy property when they fight and get drunk.

(are you with me so far?)

At one of the bars a fight was started.

That was the beginning.

The fight got out of control. Damage was done to property. The soldiers became a croud fighting amoung themselves and the Military Police and Alexandria City Police.

Eight or ten police cannot control a riot involving 50 or more drunk soldiers.

The City police could not control the soldiers.

The Military Police could not contain the drunk soldiers.

(are you still following the progression?)

Back up Military Police were called from  the nearest military camp.

By the time  back up MP’s arrived ,the whole thing was out of control.

It was a full scale riot of  both WHITE AND BLACK SOLDIERS.  (notice I said both.)

The Alexandria Police relinquished their control to the Military Police.

(Once the civil police step back, then the Military takes complete control…)

The Military Police set up a control line at 10th and Lee Streets.

They set up machine guns on the railroad track. (reportedly)

Shots were fired over the rioters heads. (reportedly)

The Alexandria Police had no involvement in the action.

The above  statements from an Alexandria Police officer who witnessed the event.

The Military Police handled the clean up. There were wounded. BOTH RACES.

The injured were taken to Army Camp hospitals.

There were a few wounded who crawled under near by houses and died of their wounds under the houses. Police answered several of those calls in the week that followed.

The Military destroyed all records of the event.

So if you want to place the blame  ON ANYONE AT ALL.

Two words.

Drunk Soldiers.

Period!

Let’s quit trying to make a mountain out of a pot hole.

P.S.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I have been contacted by several people who want to write a book on the subject.  My opinion is there is not enough there to merit any more than I have said.  It was just one of many events that happened in many town’s near Army post’s during WW-2. Nothing more. I will not cooperate with anyone in trying to agrandise  a unfortunate event caused by lonely and homesick soldiers who drank too much and broke the law and disturbed the peace..

I have consulted with historians in the area well versed on this matter and they also agree with me.

If it were worthy of delving into farther, I would have done so years ago.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

God rest their souls!

Alex