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.

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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.

I will work to discredit anyone who continues to make a racial event out of this….

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

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

 

God rest their souls!

Alex

 

 

A head scratcher on city law enforcement.

I watch an officer stand at a four way stop sign and give random tickets for no seat belts. He pulls two over and five drive by him laughing. That fact is pointed out and he just shrugs his sholders.

I watch as speeders weave in and out of traffic on Jackson Street with no regard for human life.

A city police car  just cruses by ignoring the action.

I watch as cars run red lights left and right and other drivers slam on their brakes to keep from getting killed.

A city police car parked on a food store see’s it, no action

I ask for an officer to write tickets on a street that children and adults speed on within a block of a high school and nothing happens.

What is wrong with this scenario other than easy money?

Lazy “selective”  law enforcement to get their quota.

But they are just doing their job.  ???

Alex

1835 in Alexandria, La. (A short story of Ralph Smith Smith.)

 

Ralph Smith Smith

This is just a short condensed story about a young man from Pennsylvania.  His study was engineering. He journeyed to the Alexandria area sometime between 1832 and 1834. A short time there after he made history in more ways than one and is little recognised today for his accomplishments.

In just a few year’s, Ralph Smith Smith bought and imported a steam engine on wheels that ran on a iron track.

Purchased 15 miles of right-a-way between the Red River and Lacompte , following Bayou Boeuf   in the middle of many sprawling prosperous cotton plantations.

Around 1835 or a little later, the first railroad west of the Mississippi began operation.

It was probably the second railroad operating commercially in the United States.

It carried produce and passengers between the docks at Alexandria and Lecompte with stop’s  along the way for cotton.

All this cotton was transported by the small steam engine to the docks on the Red River at Alexandria. Loaded aboard steam boats, which Smith Smith ended up owning at least three of and carried down river to New Orleans.

Smith continued his prosperous ways till near the end of the Civil war, when the Union Army was reported to have destroyed the engine for fill on Baileys Dam or just pushed the locomotive into the river.

 (Also reports have it pushed into the bayou.)

He is reported to have used his steam ships to furnish supplies to the Confederate army during the war.

After the war till his death he operated at least two plantations.

A 1877 map of Alexandria at the Louisiana History Museum in Alexandria, shows two parcels of land on Cassion Street as belonging to him at that time.

Ralph Smith Smith was born in 1806 and died in Alexandria in 1883.

Rapides Parish Court  records show his estate at the time of his death was estimated at about $25,000.00.

We should make use in tourisum of the fact that Alexandria is the site of the second railroad in the United States and the first  railroad west of the Mississippi river.

Alex

Human interest. The Nazi Youth member that became an asset to the U.S.

This is one of those story’s you either believe or see as a complete fabrication. A Nazi Youth member that became an asset to the United States.

A number of years ago I attended a trade show in Huntsville, Alabama.I had time to tour the Huntsville Space Center. If you have the chance, it is well worth it.

On the last day of the trade show, I noticed an elderly gentleman walking around viewing the exhibits.

I thought nothing of it until he stopped at my booth. I engaged him in conversation and noticed he spoke with a german accent.

I asked him his country of origin and he replied Germany. We talked for a while about that country and I mentioned I had collected some artifacts of the WW-2 Period. 

He questioned me for a few minutes and got my feelings on that time period. He realized I was not bitter or foolish so he began a story.

Its a tale that amazed me.

It was not about war or cruelty, it was about a 14 year old boy, growing up in Nazi Germany during the 1930’s and 40’s.

He joined the Hitler youth to survive. He received special privileges for membership. Extra rations and education.

He did not glorify that period of his life, he was thankful to be alive. We talked for a while longer and he left saying he would be back.

When he returned , he spoke more in detail.

His story was simple. He joined a glider club because aviation clubs were popular in Germany .

 A group known as the NSFK or national socialist flying club in English.

He graduated to flying real gliders. Spent all of his waking hours studying and flying them.

He was a child with the gift and feel for soaring.  He showed me his glider manual with entries in a young mans scrawl.

I mentioned I had become a pilot at 15 years of age and shared my experience with him.

He reached into the brief case he was carrying with him and said to me. I was not going to tell you this, but now I think I can.

In it was the Junker’s manual for the first WW-2 jet fighter, along with his original papers in German.

He was one of the first young men chosen to fly the original jet plane.

A aviation pioneer from the wrong side. A number of young German boys were chosen from the glider program to test the first jet.

Their experience in heavy  “G” force in flying gliders was useful to fly a jet with such power.

He had gone through the jet program and was captured at the end of the war by U.S. forces.

He knew Warner Von Braun the  German rocket scientist.  He enlisted in the U.S. airforce during the Korean war and became a Officer in the Air Force.

His friendship with Von Braun landed him a job in the rocket  & space program at Huntsville and he had retired from the program to live the rest of his life there.

I am sure he has long passed away, but it’s a chance meeting I will never forget.

 He showed me a well worn photo of a young boy standing beside a long winged glider, with a smile on his face.

I don’t remember his name but I will always remember his story and that photograph..

Alex

Lets say something good about Alexandria next week, not fight each other!.

Here is a challenge to all the Central Louisiana  Blog’s…

(I have said some of this before, I know, why I am saying it again confounds me.)

You find it easy to criticise each other and rehash the same old issues over and over.

Calling each other names and outing those who wish to remain anonymous is easy to do.

Copy and paste from other sources is at best a kinder-garden level project.

In that …someone else is doing the work for you. You just are assuming the role of an echo.

Sometimes I admit it can serve a useful way to spread important news and events.

But lets do something different.

Lets find something good to say about our hometown or area.

It’s up to you.  Pick a positive subject and report in depth on it.

Don’t call each other names or try to cause a scene.

Just do something good for all of us.

You know people from all over the world read our  ramblings.

From reports I get, they think we are a bunch of back woods yahoo’s.

We are doing nothing but reinforcing their opinions.

I am sure a few of you will laugh and call me more childish names,  so be it.

Can we call a truce and not continue to make fool’s of our selves, step up to the plate and hit a few home runs for our area that has so much potential?

If I were a betting man, well, chances are slim I would take out my wallet.

(Our track record at best is dismal, to put it bluntly.)

Do not block out other bloggers or remove their links from your Blog.

I will not do that.

I will NOT call out any of you by name.  Everyone thinks their cause is right.

Check your  ego’s at the door.

Prove it!

 

Alex

Random views , the Town Talk and other comments.

I have been quiet as of late, not feeling the urge to moan or bellow about the day to day hic-up’s of city government or read the mostly absurd rantings of some of my fellow bloggers.

I normally bite my tongue  when one of these pseudo journalists makes a big deal  about some insignificant event in their make believe life.

The Town Talk still serves a purpose in Central Louisiana, although a quite diminished one from their past presence.

As to Awards they have earned in the past, there have been many. Some of their reporters have been diligent and aggressive in uncovering real news that some times go’s un-noticed by the  day to day hum-drum events in our fair town.

I remember fondly the gridiron shows every year with all the media working together to make fun of the politicians and day to day amusing news events. Those days are gone.

There actually are a few good reporters working for the Town Talk. They probably will not be around long as they climb  the ladder to sometimes better jobs in the media. The days of staying in one place and making a name for yourself are long gone.

In today’s world the newspaper is understaffed and hard pressed to fill up three pages of local news. What you normally get is canned feed from their parent newspaper and  AP or stringer news bits. The Gannett  group will carry a story from one town in several of its clones. The bottom line is advertising revenue, nothing more.

They are desperate to stay a viable entity in our community. They have a formula in their publishing that they must adhere to.

Newspapers just may be the dinosaur of our time.

 When they attack another fellow blogger for telling it as he see’s it,  that smacks of desperation.

Although I may not agree with Lamar’s comments all the time, in general he says it like he see’s it.

Three cheers for him!

As to  the bloging world around here, I see some very narrow minded people expressing their frustration’s through this form of media.

Some of them need to get into the real world and see how it operates.  Their bellowing about their favorite phobias is not news or even worth commenting about.

I like to climb on a soap box to express myself, but it is normally for a sound reason..

Sometimes you have to look at a story from both sides. That is a practice seldom seen in the journalism of today.

I write for the enjoyment of it. I do not cut and paste news just to increase my hits or get a bigger following. I am who I am and people who know me,  know one fact, I am devoted to my day to day work.

I do not use racism or phobias  about one religion or another or sexual preferences for a blog base.

 I just rattle on about what ever truly rubs me the wrong way.

There are a few true bloggers out there..My hat is off to you! Keep the Town Talk and others on their toes! And try to be creative….

Alex

 

Interesting postscript

After writing this story, I was attacked in a blog as a  “self-righteous  prick.”  

After re-reading my item several times, I found no mention of any one person or Blog , just a true generalization.

That is sort of like a moebus loop, going back to what I wrote about in the first place.  

And, the person who wrote the above comment has blocked me from commenting on their blog.

That was not necessary, your action speaks for itself. 

My hat is tipped to you also. You made the comment, not me.

Oh, I did mention one blogger’s name in a good way.

Alex