As you may know, several commemorative signs have been put up at the sites of historic Lake Charles commercial buildings that have been lost. It’s part of the Lost Landmarks in Lake Charles series being undertaken by the Calcasieu Historical Preservation Society.
Now three more commemorative markers that have been put up at the sites of lost landmarks. The new markers can be seen at the sites of the original LaGrange High School, the Louisiana Baptist Orphanage and the Missouri Pacific Railroad Depot.
The marker at the intersection of Clarence and Ryan commemorates four lost Lake Charles railroad stations. Around 1880, there were passenger and freight stations on Railroad Avenue at Bilbo. These were used by the Louisiana Western Railroad (later Southern Pacific) and the Lake Charles and Northern Railroad that ran north to DeRidder. The passenger station was lost to fire in 1984, and the freight station demolished shortly thereafter.
Kansas City Southern’s passenger terminal was built in 1925 at the corner of Ryan and Lawrence (now Pryce) Streets, and was demolished in 1989.
This station was built near the site of the Iron Mountain-Missouri Pacific Terminal, which was constructed in the early 1890s and whose building lasted until the 1960s.
On to another marker … In 1903, Mesard LaGrange donated an acre for a one-room schoolhouse. Ten years later, he donated 9 more acres for an expansion of the school. The school didn’t open until 1929. On opening day, it had two large brick buildings.
A larger LaGrange Senior High School was constructed on Louisiana Avenue in 1954. The two original buildings were demolished in 1983.
Finally, the Louisiana Baptist Orphanage was located at the corner of 7th and Bank Streets.
In 1899, area congregations constructed a two-story orphanage that housed as many as 150 children. The structure was so integral to the community that the area was called Baptist Meadows at the time.
In 1925, the orphanage closed. The building and grounds were purchased by Mrs. J.A. Landry; she donated the site to the Christian Brothers, who made it a Catholic boys’ high school; it opened in 1927.
By the time Landry merged with St. Charles Academy and Sacred Heart High in 1970 to form St. Louis Catholic High School, the original orphanage building had been demolished.
As closely as I can calculate, the buildings discussed here lasted — on average — 72 years until they were demolished. While that’s not a figure to be proud of, it is, unfortunately, a figure that compares favorably with many places in the U.S.
To learn more about the lost landmarks signs program, visit calcasieupreservation.org. A big Up Fronter thanks to Adley Cormier for disseminating the information about these historic sites and markers to the public.
Beer Camp
Arnaudville’s Bayou Teche Brewing is working with five other southeastern U.S. brewers to create a limited edition craft beer that will be sold in the upcoming Beer Camp Across America.
This Beer Camp will feature beer festivals all over the country. The craft brewers that have been chosen can promote their beers and festival-goers can try them.
For the project, 30 brewers from around the country have been divided into six regional teams. Each team will produce a craft beer recipe. Starting next summer, stores throughout the U.S. will sell 12-packs that contain two bottles of each of the six beers.
“The beer we are working on is like nothing you’ve ever tasted,” said Bayou Teche president Karlos Knott. “All I can tell you is that it will definitely be recognized as a Southern beer.”
Bayou Teche Brewing produces many beers, including the LA 31 Biere Pale, LA 31 Biere Noir and the Acadie. The beers are created by Cajuns for the specific purpose of complementing Cajun and Creole foods. The three partners in the venture started their brewing enterprise in an abandoned railroad car in Arnauldville.
There’s plenty of info at bayoutechebrewing.com. Arnaudville is a little northeast of Lafayette, and due east of Sunset and Grand Coteau.
The Beer Camp project is taking place under the auspices of the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Of course, Sierra Nevada has long been a favorite of the craft beer lovers crew.
Are We Paying For Jindal’s Campaign?
Would you believe that Gov. Bobby Jindal has already spent $830,000 of your money for his failed lawsuits against Common Core? I’m guessing you would.
Just as legal experts predicted, Jindal lost his first two suits against Common Core — one in state court and one in federal. To fight these losing battles, he dished out a lot of taxpayer money to several Louisiana lawyers.
The lion’s share — $600,000 — went to an Alexandria attorney named Jimmy Faircloth.
How does Jindal know this Faircloth guy in the first place? Well, Faircloth used to be Jindal’s executive counsel.
In 2013, the Associated Press reported Faircloth’s law firm had received $1.1 million in no-bid legal contract work from Jindal and his appointees in state government. Note the “no-bid” part.
The Times-Picayune reported that “most of the Common Core lawyer contracts were amended multiple times over the last [fiscal year] to increase the amount paid out to outside counsel.” At first, Faircloth was just supposed to get $50,000 for his work on one Jindal suit against Common Core. How does $50,000 become $600,000?
Jindal did not, by the way, come out and say he had spent this taxpayer money. The Times-Picayune reported the figures at the tail end of September.
Jindal spokesman Mike Reed dismissed these sorts of payments as “a typical practice across state government.” Well, I don’t think it’s typical for state governments to give money to private attorneys to fight educational programs that the states signed on to and endorsed in the first place. Nor do I think it’s typical for state governments to pay these huge sums when the governor is the only one who wants to bring the suit.
Now, the total you’ll wind up paying for Jindal’s suits is bound to go up, and will almost certainly surpass $1 million. Why? Well, Jindal is using taxpayer money to pay Faircloth and other attorneys to appeal both his lost cases — so that they can, inevitably, be lost a second time.
Couldn’t Faircloth just move some of that $600,000 forward and apply it to the appeals? Oh, no! That wouldn’t work. Faircloth told the Times-Picayune “what you are seeing is not for work moving forward. It is for work that has already been done.”
Even parents who are pretty steamed about Common Core aren’t crazy about Jindal’s suits. Why? They, like everyone, figure that Jindal is only bringing the suits so he’ll have talking points in his presidential campaign. In his Iowa stump speeches, he’ll be able to claim he’s taken the lead in fighting Common Core. Of course, he won’t mention that just a few years ago he was a strong supporter of the program. One thing you’ve got to give Jindal — he doesn’t sweat the small stuff.
“In every way you could analyze it, it’s a waste of money,” said Chas Roemer, president of Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. “It seems to be to the benefit of one person and his politics.”
You may be surprised to learn that the Legislature could stop all this spending if it wanted to. The Louisiana Legislature has the power to cancel the agreements between the state and the attorneys “due to budgetary reductions and changes in funding priorities by the state.” We’ll see if the public puts enough fire under the legislators’ feet to make them dance.
The upshot of this is that we’ve all contributed $830,000 to Jindal’s campaign whether we want to or not. I call that fundraising!
I do see the virtue of raising the figure to an even million rather than having it sit at some twerpy total like 830,000. Gov. Jindal! Come back to Louisiana! Spend another $170,000 of our money!
On The Campaign Trail
On Oct. 1, Gov. Bobby Jindal goes on Fox News and says, “If government pays for your health care, they will claim it should have a say in your lifestyle: whether you smoke or drink, your salt and sugar intake, how you exercise and even whether you own a firearm.”
Yeah, I know how that works. The innocent-looking doctor says, “Open your mouth. Say ‘ahhh.’ Now go home, get your Precision DSR 50 Sniper Rifle and bring it to my office so I can put it in my safe. Oh, and bring your ammunition, too.”
My only question is: how did Jindal go from “they” to “it” in just four words? I think the dude’s grammar is more dangerous than his firearms.
I Love Me Some Hick
What was the big story of the last two weeks? Well, some were saying Jindal might have lost the backing of his most prominent supporter.
The official spokesman for Louisiana — Duck Dynasty superstar Willie Robertson — appeared at a Donald Trump rally at the Oklahoma State Fair, where, according to the Times-Picayune’s Kevin Litten, “he gave an endorsement of sorts to Trump.”
On the stage, Trump asked Robertson, “Willie, do you love Trump?”
At this point, Robertson broke into the following pristine backwater gibberish: “I do like me some Trump, I’ve got to admit. Here’s the deal: We’re both successful businessmen. We both have pretty big shows on television. We both have wives that are 1,000 times better looking than us. So I like Trump.”
What did we learn from this? Well, we learned from the Duck Commander that in 2015, the same things are important in U.S. politics that are important in U.S. culture as a whole: celebrity, success, entertainment value and physical appearance.
We also learned that just as television can take a Louisiana hick and make him think that he’s important and his ideas are so important that he should speak them into any microphone, so too can television take a Queens hick and make him think that whatever ideas are bouncing around in his skull are so important that he should be president.
I think the reportage by the Times-Picayune was less than stellar. Robertson’s vapid little speech was entertaining in a perverse way. But it was in no sense an endorsement. He just said he liked Trump and that they had a few things in common. For that matter, they have common things in common.
The News
“Mom breaks superhero mold by baking Incredible Hulk princess cake for twin girls”
— Today, Sept. 18; No. 9 in Google News’ list of “Spotlight” stories.
“How to get Cersei Lannister’s ‘Shame’ look for Halloween”
— Huffington Post, Oct. 2
The Up Fronter now reports the following crucial news headlines, all of which were received in emails to the Up Front office from the most respected and reliable news sources in the world: promotional agencies.
Here are the headlines that will be changing your lives in the days to come:
“Britney Spears Premieres Britney Spears Slot Game at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino” (Talia Rothman, public relations specialist at Caesars Entertainment Corp.).
“Original Star Wars Stormtrooper Helmet sells for world record $120,000 at Entertainment Memorabilia Auction” (ASTP agency, London).
When I know more, so will you.
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