Latest news with #GaryJoiner
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Redlining in Cedar Grove
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner took readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. The fifth article on Cedar Grove explored how Cedar Grove was settled after the Louisiana Purchase, how streets became bisected in Cedar Grove, and described the topography of the little community that later became a Shreveport community. We will learned about how glass coffins were once fashionable in the United States in the sixth article in the series, and we learned about a glass coffin factory that once operated in Cedar Grove. In the seventh article in the series, Dr. Gary Joiner discusses how redlining harmed Cedar Grove. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Is it possible to point to a single factor that doomed Cedar Grove from recovering its vibrancy from the first third of the twentieth century? The answer is unequivocally yes. The US Government created the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) as part of the New Deal programs in the 1930s. The intent appeared noble: to rescue clients and banks from bankruptcy and catastrophic failure. In practice, however, they assured strong banks would mitigate potential losses by protecting their best accounts. Any property with a mortgage in a 'good' neighborhood was safe. Any street with such housing was deemed acceptable for long-term loans. Any properties not meeting the highest standards became increasingly suspect. Any streets where people lived who were not White Anglo-Saxon Protestant were suspect and affected adjoining 'good' properties. The reasons given for rating neighborhoods are overtly bigoted from today's lens. The HOLC surveyed 239 cities nationwide to determine the viability of granting or continuing mortgages. Only two cities in Louisiana was surveyed–New Orleans and Shreveport. The HOLC came to Shreveport in 1940 and left chaos in its wake. The survey team, by practice, none of whom were from our region, created 25 neighborhoods. Twenty-three were in Shreveport, and two were in Bossier City. They used the 1930 Decennial Census to identify streets. They also used local street maps or Sanborn Fire Insurance Mao Company's index pages. They used the local Globe Map Company street map of Shreveport. The surveyors, called valuators, artificially ranked neighborhoods by letter grade, A-D. Class A was the best, and Class D was 'hazardous' and uninsurable. They created artificial boundaries that suited their purposes. They also did not cover all areas within cities. They flagged industrial areas (appropriately) as non-residential but penalized adjoining residential neighborhoods as undesirable. When they canvassed Cedar Grove, they ended the survey at 79th Street. The canvassers deemed Cedar Grove below the street to be primarily rural. The industrial northwestern area of Cedar Grove was hatched, indicating the proper extremities. The remainder from Hollywood Avenue/Pierremint/Southfield, south to 71st Street, was coded Yellow C-7, except for the area south of 65th Street, midway between Fairfield Avenue and Thornhill Avenue, west to the previous town boundary and south to 71st Street. This portion was coded Red D-9. This extended south to 80th Street and east to Linwood Avenue. C-7Population 90% white, 10% negro – composed of middle class salaried workers, mechanics and quite a few tradesmen who maintain their business in this section. It is the best section of Cedar Grove, formerly a separate municipality. Predominant type of building is single family, with a small commercial area along 70th street and Fairfield street. Area is about 60% built up. Age of properties 1 to 25 years only fairly well maintained. No shifting of population. D-9Population 60% white 40% negro. This section is the Southern part of Cedar Grove. About 20% built up. Population consists mostly of wage earners of lower to middle class, some salaried workers, laborers and mechanics. White population resides West of Railroad. Single family buildings predominate. Age of properties 1 to 20 years with white property fairly well maintained and negro property poorly maintained. Section is at the extreme end of the city limits, somewhat inaccessible. Cedar Grove has been an integrated, working/middle-class neighborhood from its inception. The harm done by the HOLC in 1940 still rings true throughout the decades. Redlining harmed its residents by preventing them from obtaining mortgages and/or low-interest mortgages. According to the 2020 Decennial Census, Cedar Grove's population is healthy but older: Total population 4161 White 371 White % 8.92 All persons Black 3630 All Person Black % 87.24 Asian 14 Hispanic 120 18+ Population 3210 Housing Units 2260 Occupied 1757 Unoccupied 503 59th Street to Hollywood Ave/Pierremont/Southfield East. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 233 and 234 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. 71st Street West to 73rd Street West. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 241 and 242 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. 73rd Street East to 76th Street East. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 240, 242, and 244 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. 78th Street West to 80th Street West. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 242 and 244 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. Sources: Library of Congress, Introduction to the [Sanborn Map] Collection. 'Fighters; Louisiana Campaign Gains Heat From Charges, but Effect on Primaries Is Doubtful. Home Rule Chief Issue,' New York Times, December 8, 1935, Section E, Page 11. See Richard L. Engstrom, 'Home Rule in Louisiana—Could This Be the Promised Land?' Louisiana History, Vol. 17, No. 4, 1976, pp. 431-455. 'Cedar Grove Pastor Asks Probe of Riot,' Shreveport Journal, January 7, 1936, Page 11. For an extensive investigation of housing discrimination by the Federal Government during the 1930s and since, see Gary D. Joiner, 'Redlining in Shreveport,' or Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Cedar Grove had a glass coffin factory
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner took readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. The fifth article on Cedar Grove explored how Cedar Grove was settled after the Louisiana Purchase, how streets became bisected in Cedar Grove, and described the topography of the little community that later became a Shreveport community. In this, the sixth article in the series, we will learn about how glass coffins were once fashionable in the United States and learn about a glass coffin factory that once operated in Cedar Grove. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – 'What will be of interest to the entire world is the Glass Coffin factory now nearing completion and which will soon be in active operation in Cedar Grove,' wrote a reporter for The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 26, 1921, pp. 51. Yes, that's right. Cedar Grove once had a glass coffin factory. But what is a glass coffin, exactly? The industrialization of casket machinery transformed the business of death in the United States by the 1920s, when multiple companies began producing caskets with glass windows. Glass windows were originally added to caskets so that family and friends could look into the coffin to see the body of the deceased. But that's not the only reason why glass casket windows became popular. 'The window also would alert onlookers that the occupant had been accidentally buried alive if breath condensation appeared on the inside of the glass,' wrote Troy Smythe in an article called Failure to launch: The American glass casket industry, published by the Corning Museum of glass. By the early 1920s, The National Glass Coffin Company in Cedar Grove, Louisiana (now Shreveport) was determined to provide yet another service for glass coffin customers. 'A circular letter received from the Nationa Glass Casket Co., Denver, Colorado, states that they are going to build a factory at Shreveport, La. for the purpose of manufacturing glass caskets. Their reason for locating at Shreveport is 'because that section offers and unlimited supply of natural gas and glass sand, and water rates for the transportation of the product,' wrote The National Glass Budget, a weekly review of the American glass industry, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1919. 'The coffins and caskets to be manufactured, it is believed, will revolutionize the coffin industry in this country. The glass coffins are hermetically sealed and are moisture proof as well as vermin proof and persons buried in these receptacles may be unearthed thousands of years hence in the same identical condition as when interred,' explained The Shreveport Journal. During the 1920s, glass caskets were a fashionable trend in the United States. On Apr. 24, 1969, on the Egypt Plantation in Cruger, Mississippi, farm workers were using a backhoe near the old bank of the Yazoo River when they hit something 2-4′ deep in the ground. Suddenly liquid began pouring from the object, and when the farm workers began investigating the situation they suddenly saw woman's body inside. She was wearing a red velvet dress, a long cape, silk boots, and she looked like she was in her early 30s. 'The Lady in Red,' as she was later called, had red hair and pale skin. After the farm workers called the local sheriff, an investigation proved the strange liquid to be alcohol and determined that the woman had been buried long ago. The coffin was later determined to be a Fisk Airtight Coffin, which was made by the Fisk company in Rhode Island. Their caskets were used to preserve the bodies of the deceased as they were shipped home to their families far away. Who was the Lady in Red? Her identity is still a mystery, but it is suspected that her body was buried long before the Civil War–which proves that caskets with glass windows were being used in the South long before a glass casket company opened in Shreveport during the 1920s. The idea of covering the dead in a liquid that preserves their bodies is nothing new. An ancient Roman method covered the bodies of the deceased in liquid gypsum that acted almost like a plaster. Archaeologists have found that Roman burials in liquid gypsum date back at least 1700s years. Those who grew up watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures, pictured the post-apple Snow White asleep in a glass coffin, waiting for her prince to show up and kiss her back to life. It's a rather Grimm story. More than 80 years after the release of the 1937 film, the image of Snow White in a glass coffin is a little bit creepy when you think about it. But now that you know a little about the history of America's glass coffin industry in the 1920s, are you really surprised that such a coffin would appear in a cartoon movie released in 1937? The National Glass Coffin Company was based in Denver, Colorado, and a patent for one of the class coffins was filed on Nov. 7, 1916. And though we can't be certain that this is the exact model that was produced by the same company's Shreveport factory, we can easily make assumptions. The patent application stated that the coffin was comprised of a base and a cover, with the base made of glass reinforced with metallic elements. The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 26, 1921, pp. 51. The National Glass Budget, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1919. Glass Worker, Volume 41, No. 1, Oct. 1, 1921, pp. 11. The Caucasian, Shreveport, Louisiana, July 8, 1909, pp. 4. United States Patent Office Official Gazette, Department of The Interior, May 1, 1917, pp. 96. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Cedar Grove's first residents, topography, and first streets
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner took readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. The fifth article on Cedar Grove explores how Cedar Grove was settled after the Louisiana Purchase, how streets became bisected in Cedar Grove, and describes the topography of the little community that later became a Shreveport community. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The Cedar Grove neighborhood of Shreveport today is bordered by Southfield Road and Hollywood Avenue on the north, Line Avenue on the east, Linwood Avenue on the west, and 84th Street and 85th Street on the south. In modern Shreveport, Cedar Grove is bisected north and south by 70th Street and east and West by I-49. But things haven't always been this way. Cedar Grove was once an independent town with its own boundaries. It was also an economic powerhouse that eventually allied with Shreveport. Did you know that several adjoining neighborhoods, including Eden Gardens, Oakmont, Woodlawn, Home Gardens, Morningside, and Shady Grove, owe their existence directly to Cedar Grove? The oldest detailed map of the area that would become Cedar Grove is found in the Louisiana Office of State Lands records in Baton Rouge. This is a portion of the original Patent Survey Map of Township 17 North, Range 14 West. Cedar Grove occupies Sections 24 and 25. The Cedar Grove township was surveyed in 1837, and the map was finalized in 1839. The boundary line between sections 24 and 25 is the original Pierremont Road track. The oldest land occupation is shown as a field owned by Weathersby. Cedar Grove is generally flat or gently rolling terrain and is well drained. West of I-49 and north of 70th Street is mainly flat. Original patents in Cedar Grove occurred in 1839, 1849, and 1859. Not all acreage was patented, and not all of the land patents went to the same individual. A land patent is the first time a king or government offers land to a private individual or a business. The initial transaction is called separation from the sovereign, and after that, the transfer is called a deed. William Laslay Pickens, a native of Livingston County, Kentucky, purchased 360 noncontiguous acres in sections 24 and 25 for $1.25 per acre. The land was prime geography for growing cotton. One of William Pickens' sons, Israel, served as sheriff of Caddo Parish during the Civil War. The Pickens family cemetery is located in Cedar Grove near 74th Street and St. Vincent Avenue. The oldest grave is William Pickens, who died at age 46, just three years after purchasing the property. Several wealthy Shreveporters, some owners of early Cedar Grove industries, purchased most of the remaining Pickens land in 1910. Among them were former Louisiana governor Newton Crain Blanchard, real estate developer J.B. Atkins, Lee Emmett Thomas, Wesley E. Wheless, and John D. Wilkinson. Shreveport had friendly relations with Cedar Grove. The city extended street car service to its near neighbor, separated by five miles of mostly undeveloped land. While workers in Cedar Grove refineries and factories mostly lived there, owners and managers typically lived in Shreveport. Eric Brock, writing about Cedar Grove in 1998, described the original street plans and how they morphed into the larger City of Shreveport grid: 'Cedar Grove's original plan was drawn up by Wheelock, Call, and Call, a Shreveport development corporation, though other developers followed and expanded Cedar Grove to its present size. It consisted of a grid of streets surrounding an area set aside for factories. The idea was that workers could live close to their jobs. Initially, 1,574 lots were laid out for homes. Five streets running north to south and 14 running east to West made up the first phase of development. Initially, the north/south streets were named Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio Avenues, but soon the names were changed: First, respectively, to Western, Atkins, Division, Southern (as it connected, via the streetcar line from Shreveport to the already extant Southern Avenue to the north), and Highland. After the annexation [in 1927], in order to avoid confusion with other Shreveport streets, the north-south streets of Cedar Grove were given their present names: Dowdell, St. Vincent (it was connected with the already extant St. Vincent Avenue to the north), Dillman, Southern, and Henderson, respectively. The east-west streets, first named A through N Streets, were later renamed 67th through 80th, respectively. The numbering followed a pattern begun when the development's limits were extended to the north. The idea was that 70th Street was 70 blocks south of Stoner Avenue and so forth. Actually, the numbering was miscalculated by several blocks – which is not surprising since a great deal of land between Cedar Grove and Shreveport then remained undeveloped. Today, Cedar Grove possesses streets numbered 58th through 85th.' 'Cedar Grove was first a town on its own' by Eric J. Brock, printing in Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, Feb. 21, 1998. The railroad tracks initially divided east-west running streets in Cedar Grove into east and west names. (For example, East 70th Street and West 70th Street.) But as Shreveport grew to the West after 1927, extensions of existing streets received the West designation but were not necessarily connected to the original streets. That's why West Jordan Street does not connect to Jordan Street, etc. Eric J. Brock, 'Currently A Standing Symbol of Urban Decay, Cedar Grove Was Once a Booming Industrial Town,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, March 19, 1994. Eric J. Brock, 'Cedar Grove Was First a Town On Its Own,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, February 21, 1998. Louisiana Oil and Gas Museum, Oil City, Louisiana. Eric J. Brock, 'Cedar Grove Was First a Town On Its Own,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, February 21, 1998. [Louisiana Oil and Gas Museum, Oil City, Louisiana. The (Shreveport) Times, Aug. 25, 1897, pp. 8 The Shreveport Daily News, July 18, 1861, pp. 3 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Cedar Grove was an oil boom town
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner takes readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The Cedar Grove neighborhood in modern-day Shreveport was once a little oil boom town that sprang up overnight. Boom towns like Oil City and Trees City (from the previous timber boom) sprang up quickly in North Caddo Parish. Cedar Grove is one of those oil boom towns. Cedar Grove might have remained a pastoral setting during the early 1900s, and Caddo Parish may also have seen slow, steady economic growth if oil and gas deposits had not been discovered twenty miles north of Shreveport near Caddo Lake in 1905. Oil from Cedar Grove was transported through pipelines beginning in 1910. Former timber railroads now serviced oil companies. Refineries sprang up to process the oil and gas into useable products. Pipelines and railroads revolutionized the oil and gas business—access to transportation allowed oil fields to be separated from processing centers. Two early refining centers in Shreveport were located in Anderson Island and Cedar Grove. Several wealthy Shreveporters, some owners of early Cedar Grove industries, purchased most of the remaining Pickens land in 1910. Among them were former Louisiana governor Newton Crain Blanchard, real estate developer J.B. Atkins, Lee Emmett Thomas, Wesley E. Wheless, and John D. Wilkinson. Shreveport had friendly relations with Cedar Grove. The city extended street car service to its near neighbor, separated by five miles of mostly undeveloped land. While workers in Cedar Grove refineries and factories mostly lived there, owners and managers typically lived in Shreveport. Cedar Grove had many growth opportunities. The topography of the northwestern portion was flat, negating the need to move mountains of soil. The railroad tracks (now part of the main trunk line of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railroad) bisected the town east and West. Early oil companies eyed the town as a favorable location for refineries and associated factories. With an influx of industrial companies in Cedar Grove, lumber mills were needed to build the factories and homes. Cedar Grove became a nexus of the industry. Pipelines brought gas to run the local factories. Refined oil and petroleum products were loaded on railroad tank cars destined for larger markets. Among the early petroleum-related refineries were the D'Artois Refining Company, which produced a variety of oils and grease products, Western Carbon, McNutt Carbon, Rogers Refining, and Louisiana Fuel and Gas. Several of these were merged into the more significant Crystal Oil and Refining Company. 'The establishing of another refinery in the Shreveport, La., district is noted as follows by the Shreveport News: 'Ground will be broken at once, it was announced yesterday, for the $150,000 plant of the Marine Oil and Refining company at Cedar Grove, the site to cover 10 acres. The plant will be installed at a cost of $150,000 and the D'Artois process for the running of lubricating oils without a wax plant will be used. This, according tot he announcement, will cut the price of making high grade lubricants in half. Low grade Caddo oil will be used,' we read in Vol. XXII–No. 1 of the Apr., 1917, pp. 24 of The Petroleum Gazette from Titusville, Pennsylvania. In Shreveport Chronicles: Profiles From Louisiana's Port City, by Eric J. Brock, published by The History Press in Charleston, South Carolina in 2009, we learn that George D'Artois, the founder of the D'Artois Refining Company, was the grandfather of George D'Artois, the commissioner of public safety during Shreveport's civil rights movement. Sources: Shreveport Chronicles: Profiles From Louisiana's Port City, by Eric J. Brock, published by The History Press in Charleston, South Carolina, 2009 The Petroleum Gazette, Titusville, Pennsylvania, Vol. XXII–No. 1, Apr., 1917, pp. 24 The (Shreveport) Times, Oct. 20, 1915, pp. 8 The (Shreveport) Times, July 30, 1910, pp. 9 The (Shreveport) Times, Jan. 28, 1907, pp. 3 The Shreveport Journal, June 25, 1909, pp. 6 Eric J. Brock, 'Cedar Grove Was First a Town On Its Own,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, February 21, 1998. Louisiana Oil and Gas Museum, Oil City, Louisiana. Eric J. Brock, 'Currently A Standing Symbol of Urban Decay, Cedar Grove Was Once a Booming Industrial Town,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, March 19, 1994. Brueggerhoff's Shreveport City Directory 1917, R.L. Polk & Co., Dallas, Texas; Brock, 'Currently A Standing Symbol.' Brock, 'Currently A Standing Symbol.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
From horses and buggies to horseless carriages in Shreveport
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, Dr. Gary Joiner (LSU Shreveport Professor of History) will show us how Cedar Grove became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Did you know that Cedar Grove, now a neighborhood in Shreveport, was once home to multiple car manufacturing companies? Here's how, and when, it happened. By 1900, it was not very common to see gasoline being used to power an American vehicle. The nation was just beginning to leave behind the horse-and-buggy days, and it seemed that either electricity or steam would be the easiest way to power the Sunday afternoon drive. On May 31, 1901, a reporter for the Shreveport Journal asked what would have seemed like an unbelievable question: 'Will New York City, during this century, see the day when horses will be barred from its streets?' 'Signs point toward the gradual abandonment of horses in cities, save for pleasure purposes and the general introduction of motor vehicles. Certainly the condition of busy streets would be enormously improved,' continued the Shreveport Journal article. And though, at the time, the thought of giving up horses for motors on a large scale seemed outrageous, the Shreveport Journal was more correct than they could have imagined. By the early 1900s, horseless carriages were being manufactured in Shreveport. And by the end of the 1990s, cars and trucks were so common that most U.S. citizens had already forgotten what life had been like before the invention of the motor car. And Cedar Grove, Louisiana played a role in America's transition from horses and carriages to motor cars. 'I have not been in Shreveport in many years, but I must say that I am astonished at her marvelous development,' Colonel F. W. Blees of the Blees Carriage Company, Macon, Missouri, told The Shreveport Journal in early Oct. 1903. Blees had come to Shreveport with his company's General Manager, B. B. Breed, to strike a deal. 'A meeting of the Progressive league was scheduled, in which the inducements Shreveport would offer provided Colonel Blees could be induced to lcoate one of his factories here would have been set forth, but that part of the program was deferred until tonight,' wrote a reporter for The Shreveport Journal on Oct. 12, 1903. The potential plant had the ability to give employment to 'scores and scores of skilled workmen and beyond that would serve as a leader for the location in Shreveport of other manufacturing enterprises.' 'Shreveport stands a fair show of having a large vehicle factory erected within her limits providing the proper inducements are offered the owners of the proposed plant,' wrote a reporter with The (Shreveport) Times on Oct. 11, 1903. A few years prior, the Blees Carriage company had opened a Shreveport branch and placed Colonel W. H. Crosby at its helm. The company did a 'phenomenal' business in Shreveport. 'Colonel Blees' idea in the establishment of this factory was not so much for the profit that he might gain by such an investment, but to build up an industry which would afford employment to a large number of men, as it was his idea that happily employed mechanics and their families make good citizens, and in developing the city of Macon he was adding largely to the value of his real estate and business property holdings in and absent the city,' continued the article. Unfortunately, Colon Blees died before the manufacturing plant could be created in Shreveport. 'The Joplin (Mo.) Globe contains and interesting news from Mcon, Mo., in a telegram telling of the wedding of Mrs. F. W. Blees to Capt. F. L. Leibling. Mrs. Blees is the widow of the late Col. F. W. Blees, president of the Blees Carriage Company and founder of the Blees Military Academy at Macon. The Blees company formerly had a branch establishment in Shreveport and Col. Blees had several times visited the city,' we learn in The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 4, 1907. Cedar Grove was also home to an early automobile and truck manufacturing plant, The Louisiana Motor Car Company. The Bour-Davis automobile was produced in Detroit beginning in 1915, but starting in 1917, they were built in Cedar Grove. An article published in the Mar. 3, 1918 (Shreveport) Times stated that the Louisiana Motor Car Company had been organized and incorporated to build automobiles in Shreveport. They planned to compete with other cars produced in the United States. 'It has been fully demonstrated that an automobile can be manufactured–not merely assembled–in Shreveport to serve the South that will be in the class with the best standard cars manufactured elsewhere at an enormous saving, which can be added to the normal profits,' stated the article. Louisiana Motor Car Company sold shares of their stock to help fund the enterprise. 'That the Louisiana Motor Car Company will be a success can be easily prognosticated by the following premises: The mistakes of all other factories are before us. The proven scientific principles of accepted substantial construction are before us. All the developed and proven facts by all the leading automobile engineers are before us. We can buy the best and most up-to-date machinery known to the industry. We have thousands of the best automobile engineers to choose from,' claimed the company on pp. 12 of The (Shreveport) Times. Then in March of 1919, Louisiana Motor Car Company made an announcement. They were proud to have purchased, on Apr. 20, 1916, the assets of Bour-Davis Motor Car Company. Louisiana Motor Car Company stockholders selected the 'Louisiane' as the name of the car the company would soon produce. Mrs. A. R. Kilgore of Shreveport was given a car for suggesting the idea of naming the new car the 'Louisiane' in 1918. The Bour-Davis Motor Car Company, prior to being purchased by the Louisiana Motor Car Company, had produced around 600 cars an spent hundreds of thousands in magazine advertising. Their cars had been sent to Denmark, Cuba, Australia, and across the United States. A $1.8 million order reached the company in Feb. 1920. It was called one of the largest contracts for motor cars ever closed in the American South. 'Louisiana Motor Car Company is to deliver 1,000 cars by Jan. 1, 1921. The contract was made with the local automobile factory by C. W. McKay, representing the American Motors Corporation of 100 Broad street, New York City.' All cars would be boxed for shipment from South Shreveport, also known as Cedar Grove. The boxing would require more than a thousand feet of good-grade lumber. The touring cars were handmade, and weekly assemblies averaged four per week. Most parts were shipped via rail and assembled in Cedar Grove. All Bour-Davis cars were high-end luxury models. When Ford offered vehicles only in black, Bour-Davis autos came in vibrant colors. The same engine, a six-cylinder Red Continental engine, powered all models. The company produced a four-door open-touring car, a two-seat roadster, and five- and seven-passenger touring cars. The roadster cost $1,700 in 1917. According to the Consumer Price Index calculator, the comparative cost today (2025) would be $41,924.13. This figure is misleading, considering that World War I raged in 1917 and 1918, and the United States entered the conflict in April of that year. Fifteen pounds of peanut butter cost $3.88, and a two-pound package of coffee retailed at 44 cents. The Cedar Grove Chamber of Commerce ran a lengthy promotional advertisement in the Shreveport Journal on October 26, 1921, page 51, lauding the town's strengths. It is not printed in its entirety: 'Cedar Grove!Shreveport's Greatest AllyA City of Factories, Homes, Schools and Churches Cedar Grove already has eighteen factories and supports its population of four thousand. These factories are not paper concerns, they are actualities. Some of them are being conducted on a large scale, and all of them are prosperous and are now underway for the for the erection of several other factories, the town's very active and efficient commercial club having the negotiations in charge. An invitation has been extended to investors and those interested in manufacturing enterprises everywhere to visit Cedar Grove and investigate the unparalleled advantages offered. Among these advantages may be mentioned cheap fuel and ample water supply from wells. Easily accessible, equitable climate conditions whereby any factory may be able to operate 365 days in every year if desired. Low tax rates. Cheap land for home building purposes, low rents, excellent social conditions: splendid schools, churches, clubs, and fraternal Cedar Grove is 5 miles away from the Caddo Parish Courthouse, it is by many considered a part of Shreveport because the railroad, several macadamized roads, and the electric streetcar railways afford such easy means of intercommunication between the two points, and for the further reason that the territory between Saint Vincent College and the Cedar Grove residential section has been built up so rapidly within the last two years that the two places have almost merged. Indeed, it is only a question of a short time until all ther vacant lots between Shreveport proper and Cedar Grove will be persons, even in Shreveport, do not realize the tremendous importance of Cedar Grove as a residential and industrial section. The place now has a population estimated. At near 4000, ninety per cent of whom, it has been computed, own their own is no such thing as a vacant house in Cedar Grove and real estate agents have long waiting lists of people who are seeking homes in this prosperous little manufacturing to Cedar Grove's important industrial enterprises, are five active oil refineries with a large output of gasoline and byproducts. These refineries give employment to numerous men at good salaries, most of whom own their own homes and are contented, prosperous, and happy. Several of the nation's largest glass blowing concerns are located in Cedar Grove and give employment to many skilled workers who are paid larger salaries than ordinary mechanics. These glass factories have proven to be successful from the time they were built up to the present, and the prospects are good for several more to be established here within the next two the factories of importance here are the glass factories, the automobile factory, the colossal lumber mills, the automobile wheel factory; the window glass factory; the bottle factory where all manner of bottles are manufactured and shipped away in carloads; the lamp, the lamp chimney factory; the carbon black factory; the insect powder factory; the foundry where all kinds and descriptions of castings were made, and the cement block factory and the Western Silo factories derive their great advantage from the use of gas fuel being so near the great Caddo gas fields, this fuel is obtained at a cost far below that of any other what will be of interest to the entire world is the Glass Coffin factory, now nearing completion and which will soon be in active operation in Cedar Grove. This enterprise is one, and probably the largest of only three or four such enterprises in the entire United States. The coffins and caskets to be manufactured in, it is believed, will revolutionize the coffin industry in this country. The glass coffins are hermetically sealed and are moisture proof as well as vermin proof and persons buried. In these receptacles may be unearthed thousands of years hence and in the same identical condition as when interred. The enterprise is sponsored by the National Glass Casket Company. The operation of this plant will require a number of skilled workmen. At present, several new business buildings are being erected on 70th St. at a cost of approximately $35,000, and it is understood contracts have been let for the erection of buildings on the lots recently devastated by fire. Numerous residences are being built in the various sections of the town and, all in all, Cedar Grove is just about the busiest town in North Cedar Grove tax rate is only five mills. Bonds have been voted for. The commencement of an extensive system of Water Works also for the building of a $25,000 town hall. Work on these enterprises will be inaugurated in a very short time, and within a year, it is believed that water mains will supply the entire town with an ample supply of pure, soft, and potable water to be derived from a series of deep wells. Failing in this, a connection with Shreveport's unsurpassed and inexhaustible water supply will always be the least of the important institutions of Cedar Grove is the Commercial Club, composed of the best business and professional men of the town, who are constantly at work for its upbuilding and improvement and who are ever ready with their money, their time, and the weight of their influence for all things looking to the material or moral advancement of Cedar the benefit of men of moderate means, a Building and Loan Association has been formed in Cedar Grove, and is active in its help to all who desire to take advantage of its liberal and easy terms to home builders. Thus, it is made possible. Or any man who is able to hold a job and ordinary wages to become a homeowner. And this is the fastest growing and most desirable industrial community in the entire southwest.A letter to the secretary of the Commercial Club will elicit all the information desired. Correspondence Grove Chamber of Commerce.' Shreveport Journal on October 26, 1921, page 51 Ultimately, Henry Ford's 15-minute assembly line doomed the Bour-Davis. The retail cost of a 1917 Ford Model T was $365-$635. Louisiana Motor Car Company filed for bankruptcy in May 1921. Commercial National Bank took over the company by court order, and all of its assets were seized and sold. Commercial National Bank was the company's biggest creditor and helped stockholders settle at a meeting on Feb. 15, 1922. There is little doubt that the Boer-Davis went down in automotive history. But did you know that in 1913, before the Louisiana Motor Car Company even thought about producing cars in Cedar Grove, another man had a similar idea? 'A proposition for an automobile factory to be located in or near Shreveport is made the occasion for a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce this afternoon,' we read in a clipping from the July 17, 1913 (Shreveport) Times. ' Mr. (R. W.) Twyford proposes to organize a company capitalized at $250,000 to manufacture automobiles in line with his patents which cover a four-wheel driving system and changes in automobile design.' Twyford said that if successful in Shreveport, the company would be organized and chartered under Louisiana laws. The Houston Post wrote a long article about the Twyford Auto Manufacturing Company of Houston's factory the previous year. The company specialized in oscillating front axles, rigid worm steerage, and four-wheel drive vehicles. 'The company is preparing to manufacture automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Twyford patents, whose mechanism applies the power to all four wheels equally, thus enabling the machine to go anywhere that any vehicle can go, on rough roads, mud, sand, or on ice,' wrote a Houston Post journalist. Twyford Auto Manufacturing Company was unable to open a manufacturing facility in Shreveport. But as the years passed, another car manufacturing company moved into the city. In 1981, Shreveport became home to a General Motors assembly and stamping plant. The plant was producing the Chevrolet Colorado when it closed in 2012. Sources: The Houston Post, Apr. 28, 1912, pp. 60 The (Shreveport) Times, July 17, 1913 The (Shreveport) Times, Mar. 3, 1918, pp. 12 The (Shreveport) Times, Apr. 23, 1922 The (Shreveport) Times, Aug. 19, 1903 The Shreveport Journal, May 31, 1901 The (Shreveport) Times, Jan. 3, 1900, pp. 8 The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 12, 1903 The (Shreveport) Times, Oct. 11, 1903 The Caucasian, pp. 1, July 5, 1900 The Shreveport Journal, Aug. 22, 1919 The Shreveport Journal, July 28, 1910 The (Shreveport) Times, Feb. 23, 1920 Louisiana Motor Car Company brochure. Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, Shreveport, Louisiana. The Shreveport Journal on October 26, 1921, pp. 51 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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