Abandoned Baton Rouge Through Time

by Colleen Kane

Overview

Unveils the forgotten history of the city through over 130 images of abandoned landmarks, revealing their stories from grandeur to decay.

Around Louisiana's state capital, structures sit abandoned for years. Some of them hold memories, some hold clues to the city's history. With subjects ranging from antebellum to agri-industrial, from a rickety single-room shack to one of Huey Long's pet projects, to the last gasps of a grand ballroom, this travelogue of decay reveals some of that history and at times, some insight to the city that is today. In Abandoned Baton Rouge, discover what's been going on in forgotten spaces when no one else was looking. Learn about the establishments that once were, the high times and the low crimes. Meet the people who loved the places and find out what they kept as souvenirs. Captured in photos before they were gone are Baton Rouge institutions like The Bellemont Motor Hotel, and that ordinary building on Oklahoma Street that helped to make LSU athletics extraordinary. More than 130 images show how these places looked when they were new, not-so-new, abandoned, and on their way out of existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635000740
Publisher:	Fonthill Media
Publication date:	11/19/2018
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

COLLEEN KANE is a writer who has worked at BUST magazine and CNBC. In between those jobs, she lived in Louisiana and created the blog Abandoned Baton Rouge. Colleen lives in Brooklyn, where nothing stays abandoned, and the Catskills, where she’s explored what’s left of the old Borscht Belt resorts. In the latter home, she keeps a small piece of The Bellemont’s rusted decorative iron railing.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 5

Introduction: The Mold and the Beautiful 9

1 Check Out at the Bellemont 14

2 Everybody Out of the Pool 35

3 Desolation Road 46

4 Two Lincolns and a Sweet Olive 58

5 The Game Changer 69

6 Roll the Credits on These Movie Houses 76

7 Cinclare Sugar Mill, Decommissioned 89

8 Sometimes They Come Back 98

About the Author 107

Endnotes 108

Editorial Reviews

Sometimes, it takes a fresh set of eyes to see what’s in front of everyone’s nose. When Brooklynite Colleen Kane arrived in Baton Rouge in 2007, she noticed structures that had been left to the ravages of time and nature. Now, many of them are gone.Thanks to Kane, however, they don’t have to be forgotten.First, she started the “Abandoned Baton Rouge” website, a photo repository for buildings that had lost a purpose. Now, her book by the same name brings their melancholy images to a less digital crowd and to the thousands of website followers who might appreciate a hard-copy picture. The Advocate

From the Publisher