Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

Author: Lora Diane Peppers

  • St. Francis Hospital

    How about this view of the original St. Francis Hospital? Judging from the car out front, I would guess this was taken in the early 1920’s.

  • Early View of LTI

    This is an old postcard I have never seen before. It shows the original buildings of the Louisiana Training Institute campus.

  • “Moving Pictures of Monroe, La.”

    I found this article in The Shreveport Times, August 18, 1913 and it made me ill! I want to see this SO BAD! The Palace Theatre has the following announcement:…

  • Iron Mountain Depot

    What you are looking at is a view of the old Iron Mountain Railroad Passenger depot. It later became the Missouri Pacific depot. The original building on the site burned…

  • Harrison Street

    This is a very unique photo, looking straight up Harrison street all the way to Jackson. You can see the Jewish Temple with the ten commandment tablets at the top,…

  • DeSiard Street Paving – 1923

    What you are looking at is the 300 block of DeSiard Street being paved. This was a big deal when it was finished in late 1923! You can see the…

  • Malone Stadium Predecessor

    This came from the very first ULM annual back in 1933. What you are looking at is Indian Field which was located behind the buildings that front DeSiard Street at…

  • Monroe City School Board – 1925

    Found this picture in one of our old yearbooks. Some pretty big names in our town’s history!

  • Uncle Tom of The Old South

    Another local author I found was a woman I was very familiar with: Martha Frances Surghnor. She was a contemporary of Sidney and Annie Saunders and wrote about Sidney’s tomb…

  • William Jennings Bryan Visits Monroe

    Did you know that the great orator, William Jennings Bryan once visited and gave one of his famous speeches at Monroe? I didn’t either, until I accidentally stumbled across this…