Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

Category: Uncategorized

  • South Grand Street, circa 1873

    This is the third oldest photo of Monroe I have ever seen. Only the two photos of the 1871 fire are older. It shows South Grand Street, where a parade…

  • Monroe City High School

    Interesting postcard I just HAD to buy when I saw it for sale on Ebay. What stood out to me were the streetcar tracks in the road in the foreground!…

  • A Monroe Lawyer Punches a Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court!

    My jaw hit my chest when I read this one! The parties involved are Louisiana State Supreme Court Chief Justice George Eustis and a Monroe Lawyer named Wesley John Quincy…

  • An unusual view of the Salt Water Pool

    This photo: https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/lsu-sea-pvc%3A639 probably doesn’t look like much to you. It shows a mostly empty swimming pool. What caught my eye, was that it was the Salt Water Natatorium out…

  • Monroe Schoolboys – 1947

    I love this photo! https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/lsu-sc-p16313coll52%3A238 . It is titled, “Parochial School boys at Monroe, Louisiana.“ All the boys in the photo would be senior citizens today. There are three parochial…

  • The Swap Shop

    This one stumped me, until a colleague looked at the sign in the photo and said, “Swap Shop”. She was right! https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/lsu-sc-p16313coll52%3A1166 The Swap Shop was located at 905 DeSiard…

  • The Dixie Lunch Room and the Square Deal Shoe Shop – 1947

    I am discovering a treasure trove of photos from 1947! https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/lsu-sc-p16313coll52%3A1175 This one was taken in front of the two above named businesses. They were located at 607 and 605…

  • The Red Onion Cafe

    And tacking on to yesterday’s photo, this one: https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/lsu-sc-p16313coll52%3A1168 was located in the 700 block of DeSiard. 705 DeSiard to be exact! The Red Onion was very big in it’s…

  • African-American Schools in Ouachita Parish Before 1970.

    City and Parish schools were not integrated until 1971. Before then, the races were educated separately. Schools such as Wisner, Myles, Terzia, Boley, Monroe Colored High, etc. were all created…

  • Monroe History

    This last WPA document I want to share concerns the history of Monroe. https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/oplib-wpa%3A10 This is the last of the Monroe related WPA papers up at the moment, but if…