1925 Shreveport Fire

In early September 1925, a devastating fire swept through Shreveport's historic Allendale neighborhood (detail above). Ironically, it originated at the Garden Street rental property owned by retired fire chief Chris O'Brien.

Strong winds carried the fire northeast, bounded by the Texas & Pacific Railroad. Firemen responding to the alarm -- from the engine house across the street -- arrived only to discover they had no access to water. In the map detail below, the fire station is marked in red, O'Brien's property is marked in white.

Contemporary accounts cite a water main failure several hours earlier as the primary cause of the fire's destructive growth. Rumors of criminal negligence circulated and racist reporting claimed a jazz dirge on a player piano accompanied the neighborhood's destruction.(1)

When the fire was contained at the T & P's main line, there had been at least two fatalities, nearly 200 homes were destroyed, and some 1200 residents displaced. African-Americans and recent immigrants comprised the majority of the victims. Insurance adjusters reported that only 60% of the losses were covered by policies.(2)

The Southeastern Architectural Archive's Map of the Area Involved in Conflagration at Shreveport, LA (shown above) was issued by the Louisiana Fire Prevention Bureau in New Orleans. We recently discovered it accordion-folded and hidden away inside the binding of a Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlas. The cartographer mapped out the fire's source, the wind direction and all of the "risks" (i.e. structures) that were destroyed.

A recent Washington Post blog addressing racial divides across American cities highlighted Shreveport and it reminded us of our "Conflagration" discovery.

Utilizing Dustin Cable's Racial Dot Map, WP blog authors Emily Badger and Darla Cameron discussed historic transportation arteries in the context of racial segregation.

From Cable's map, we cropped the Allendale fire and surrounding neighborhood in the detail above. Note that Texas Avenue largely follows the perimeter of the old T & P line.

(1)"Negro Apes Nero, Playing Piano as Shreveport Burns." The Times-Picayune 7 September 1925.

(2)"Losers in $700,000 Fire Paid $358,885."  The Times-Picayune 7 October 1925.

Images above:  Two Details, Louisiana Fire Prevention Bureau. Map of the Area Involved in Conflagration at Shreveport, LA. New Orleans, LA:  1925. Fire Insurance Atlases, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Detail. Dustin Cable. Racial Dot Map. Demographics Research Group, the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, University of Virginia, 2013.

Conversational Spaces

The Southeastern Architectural Archive retains a large and growing collection of building trade catalogs. We add new titles monthly, and so it is always a good idea to check with us to see if we might have the one(s) you are seeking. 

Many of these were digitized last year through our contacts with the Association for Preservation Technology International, with generous financial support from the Heritage Preservation Education Foundation. Digitized catalogs may be located in the Internet Archive's Building Technology Heritage Library. Please note that although many are available online, there is a larger number that are not digitized and must be consulted in the archive.

The Morgan Woodworking Organization produced a very ambitious catalog in 1923. Titled Building with Assurance, the catalog primarily illustrated mill work that the Morgan Company produced in its Oshkosh, Wisconsin factory. With sawmill operations in Arkansas, Michigan and Washington, Morgan could supply its products nationwide. It also sold art glass windows and residential building plans.

Breakfast Nooks became prominent in 1920's mill work catalogs. Morgan copywriters attributed their popularity to "servantless" and informal domesticity. Rose Angell, the former department editor of Woman's World touted their benefits:

In the morning, a few steps from the range take

you into the delightful little alcove--just wide 

enough to hold a long, narrow table and two seats.

What a saving of time and labor not to have to set

the dining room table for the quick breakfast or

cup of tea when the cheery neighbor steps in around

four o'clock.(1)

Nooks could accommodate early and late risers, and sheltered intimate conversations. The Morgan Company's copywriters stressed that tablecloths were optional: the only thing required was a sunny spot!



(1)Rose Angell. "A Woman's Thoughts About A Home." Building with Assurance. Chicago: The Morgan Woodworking Organization, 1923, p. 16. Architectural Trade Catalogs, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Images above:  Building with Assurance. Chicago: The Morgan Woodworking Organization, 1923. Architectural Trade Catalogs, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Global Celotex

By 1928, the New Orleans-founded Celotex Company had expanded its international operations to include much of the European continent. As a sugar cane industry, Celotex boasted a $12 million production out of New Orleans.(1) The bagasse building material shipped directly from its Mississippi River plant to these foreign markets.

Dependence on European exports began to detrimentally  impact the company in 1938, when apprehensions regarding political stability caused stock market fluctuations. Celotex posted quarterly losses and began to reconfigure its business for domestic and wartime production.


(1)"Sugar Cane Industries." The Times-Picayune 4 February 1931.

Image above:  From Verwendung von Celotex in Gebäuden. Chicago: The Celotex Company, 1928. This copy bears the stamp of the Hungarian Celotex representative, Magyar Celotex-Árusito Vállalat, which was located in Budapest on Harmincad Street. Architectural Trade Catalogs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

NEW EXHIBIT: MEDIEVAL LOUISIANA

From Tulane University’s Southeastern Architectural Archive:

The Southeastern Architectural Archive’s Medieval Louisiana exhibit focuses on the region’s adoption of Byzantine, Romanesque, Hispano-Moresque and Gothic architectural forms and motifs. From the antebellum period through the early twentieth century, a wide range of religious, commercial, civic and domestic structures were built and decorated in various historic revival styles. Architects as diverse as James Gallier, William Freret, James Freret, Benjamin Morgan Harrod, Thomas Sully and Moise Goldstein referenced medieval material culture for their Louisiana clients.

In honor of Milton Scheuermann, Jr.’s retirement from the Tulane School of Architecture, this exhibit draws on the holdings of the Southeastern Architectural Archive and the Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners.  It includes gifts from the Christ Church Cathedral, John Geiser III, Sylvester Labrot, Genevieve Munson Trimble, the New Orleans Town Gardeners and the Tulane School of Architecture.   

Co-curated by Keli Rylance and Kevin Williams, MEDIEVAL LOUISIANA opens 13 July in the Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) and runs through 20 May 2016.  The SEAA is located at 6801 Freret Street/300 Jones Hall, on Tulane University’s campus.  Hours are 9-12 and 1-5 Mondays-Fridays.  Admission is free.  

Image above:  James Freret, architect. A Design for the New Masonic Hall, New Orleans, LA. 1867. James Freret Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Steel Cells

In 1891, the E.T. Barnum Iron & Wire Works Company of Detroit, Michigan published its new general catalogue. Barnum specialized in fire escapes, jail cages, canopies, and elevator enclosures. Its headquarters was capped by an enormous railing and weather vane (above).

Over the company's long history, Eugene Barnum steered his enterprise from a small ornamental iron works to become one of the world's largest operations. His steel lattice jail cages were especially popular. One is still extant, on display in East Central Cowley County (Kansas). Another was enigmatically repurposed in Middletown, New York.

These were available in many different configurations, stacked or single-tiered. The cells were generally 4.5-5 feet wide, 6.5 feet deep, and 6.5 feet high. Each had its own iron corner commode, usually located below a retractable bunk.

Barnum utilized direct mail catalogs and magazine advertisements as promotional tools. By 1924, his company could boast jail shipments to 45 states. His cages were especially popular in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. For a complete listing of municipal clients by state, click here. Do you have one in your neighborhood?



Images above:

Top: Detroit in History and Commerce. Detroit, MI: Rogers & Thorpe, 1891. This image was also utilized in the company's 1891 trade catalog, now available via the Internet Archive's Building Technology Heritage Library.

Remaining:  E.T. Barnum Iron and Wire Works. Catalogue No. 650: General Catalogue. Detroit, MI: The Company, 1924. Courtesy Architectural Trade Catalogs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. A digitized copy is available via the Internet Archive's Building Technology Heritage Library.

Louisiana Penal Labor (1930)

In 1930, Transmissions, a New Orleans journal devoted to "the interests of motor transportation" honed in on the use of prison laborers to make highway signage. With the photograph shown above, its editors championed Governor Huey Long's efforts to expand the state's infrastructure without increasing taxes. They captioned the image "Convicts Making Road Signs Reduces Costs." A small guard station and two fencing perimeters can be seen in the distance of the signage yard.

Image above: "Convicts Making Road Signs Reduces Costs." Transmission: A Journal Devoted to the Interests of Motor Transportation and Police Jury Affairs 3:2-3 (February-March 1930). Courtesy Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Current call number is 976.3 (388.105) L891

New Orleans Public Health (1859)

In the summer of 1859, The Daily Picayune suggested improving the City's public health by raising structures above the ground and covering the earth with concrete or brick:

"Much improvement in the health of New Orleans doubtless might be accomplished by greater attention to the condition of the earth beneath the buildings which are erected. For many years, at least, the cheaply constructed tenant houses have been erected without any attempt to prevent the possibility of pools of water standing most of the season beneath the floors. Even in the heart of the city the floors of the most expensive warehouses and stores are laid within a few inches of the soil, preventing the possibility of any ventilation, and establishing immediately the process of decay.

"A soil which constantly is saturated with water, or which is loose and spongy, containing much inorganic matter is much less favorable to health than that which is dry, porous or gravelly. The former, made under the heat of a torrid sun, will constantly emit exhalations of a noxious character, and it should be the subject of architects to neutralize or obviate, by the manner of building, the natural moisture of such localities.

"This is the nature of the soil of New Orleans, and the general flatness of the surface of the ground on which it is built increases the danger and the necessity of measures to remove it. When good drainage cannot be effected, the earth beneath all edifices built here should not only be raised above the general level, but it should be entirely covered with solid concrete. This alone will prevent constant exhalations in the summer time of impure air, and a speedy decay of the wood in the neighborhood of the foundation. How much a change in the old mode of building would improve public health those alone can fully appreciate who have visited habitations whose lower floors rest on the earth beneath even the present level of the streets. The mouldiness of the walls, the damp, sickly odor which pervades them, and the impossibility of cleanliness, will instantly be perceived. Yet whole streets are constructed with this entire disregard of all sanitary ideas.

"We are so glad to see some indication of the recognition of the necessity of elevating the floors of our edifices, and preparing solid impermeable foundations. The splendid commercial temples lately erected on Carondelet Street, and the later structures on Camp, as well as many others in different quarters of the city, are at least two feet above the level of the sidewalk, while the whole area over which they have been built, has been covered with brick and grouted.

"The most cursory examination of these buildings will show how much more attractive, as places of business, they are than those whose floors are embedded in the earth. It is also true that much less damage will result to goods of a perishable nature in our climate in the former than in the latter class of buildings.

"It is the true policy, then, not only as a means of improving public health, but enhancing the value of improved property to adopt the later style of building, of which we have cited several examples.

"This change in the mode of buildings is so important that we cannot but regard it worthy of some legislation on the part of the Council. Certainly it is quite as necessary to regard what concerns the health of the city as that which has reference to the lines of the streets."


Excerpt from:

"Improvement in Building."  The Daily Picayune 20 August 1859. As viewed in ProQuest Civil War Era Database.