Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

Category: Uncategorized

  • Salt Water Natatorium Flood, 1912

    Very interesting shot of the flooded Salt Water Natatorium at Forsythe park, dated 1912. The pavilion would eventually be lost to a fire, but it would be another flood, the…

  • The Union Church

    Did you know that Monroe’s Protestant faiths once shared a building? The building was called the “Union Church”. Here is how it got started. In 1853, Mr. James S. Ray…

  • African-American Funeral Programs – The New Index

    Several weeks ago, I published the index to the first fifty volumes of Ouachita Parish funeral home programs the Genealogy Department has collected over the years. When my colleague retired…

  • OPPL Photo Index Part IV

    1501 Gahagan House – Bettie PFister 1982 1502 Edgewood House – Bettie PFister –  May, 1983, Farmerville, LA 1503 West Hill House circa 1876 – Bettie PFister 1982 1504 Lincoln…

  • OPPL Photo Index Part III

    1001 Monroe Colored High School Reunion 1002 Monroe Beauticians Local No. 130 1003 American Legion members – original members first out of WWII 1004 Madison James Foster – educator, minister,…

  • OPPL Photo Index, Part II

    501 Bayou DeSiard – one photo dated 11/14/1946; some others taken of algae overgrowth 502 NY Hardware & Furniture Co. -625 DeSiard St. – photos taken 10/28/1980 503 Community Band…

  • OPPL Photo Collection Part I

    Did you know that the Ouachita Parish Public Library’s Genealogy Department has a large historical photo collection? We have almost 2,000 photos in our collection. If you know of a…

  • Ouachita Parish Library Summer Reading certificate

    OPPL Summer Reading program just finished up over the weekend. On a related note, I found this copy of a summer reading certificate from 1953 in my files yesterday. I…

  • Endom Bridge

    Very few have seen the underside of Endom Bridge. This one was taken around 1968 by the Federal government as part of their historic American buildings survey. To see the…

  • Historical Topo Maps

    I get asked all the time about historical maps for Ouachita Parish. Usually, the person is looking for a topo map. A GREAT site for topo maps can be found…