Author: Lora Diane Peppers

  • Hotel Monroe Annex

    I got very excited one day when I was browsing Ebay  and saw the above postcard for sale.  It is a rare one.  It shows the old Hotel Monroe Annex,…

  • Grammont Street at the Turn of the Century

    I was fascinated when I first saw this old postcard.  You are looking straight up Grammont Street around 1907 or so.  The little church in the center of the photo…

  • Interior of the Ouachita National Bank

    The above is a beautiful interior shot of the ONB building, now known as the Vantage ONB Building.  It was built in 1921 as an Italian Renaissance style skyscraper.  It…

  • Interesting Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

    If you have ancestors who were here in 1858 or just want to see who lived where back then, this is a great map from the library of Congress: 1858…

  • Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

    The Library of Congress has digitized several sheets of the old Sanborn Fire Insurance maps from cities all over the country.  To read about the collection, go here:  Sanborn Fire Insurance…

  • Breard Mercantile

    What you are looking at is the Breard Mercantile building.  In later years, it was known as the Hipp Marks building.  It stood at the corner of South Grand and…

  • The Ouachita Parish Courthouse

    This is the oldest known photo of the Ouachita Parish Courthouse.  It was the second one built (the first was a log building) and was built in 1831.  During the…

  • Lovers Lane

    Did you know Monroe once had a Lovers Lane?  Yep!  The above penny postcard was done in the teens.  See those trees with fencing in between?  That was a happy…

  • Zadoc Harman

    Here is another article I wrote for Louisiana Road Trips magazine in June, 2001.  Zadoc Harmon was a fascinating Ouachita Parish character! Zadoc Harman:  Free Man of Color in Colonial…

  • The Legend of the Trent Brothers

    I wrote this article for Road Trips Magazine October, 2009.  This legend is still circulating as fact! The Legend of the Trent Brothers             The following tale of how Old…