They spent two days there mainly to visit Chris’ friend, Fran Grega, and the evening of their arrival, on Monday, February 7th, they enjoyed a tasty catfish dinner at her home with her sister and brother-in-law, Carolyn and Jim Bennett, who live next door.
Carolyn is the Executive Director of the city’s Historical organization and before the evening was over she had given Chris a list of places to visit during their stay starting with the Old State House, the Old Governor’s Mansion and the New State House, all of which they found to be beautiful, unique and steeped in history.
The next day, when they settled into an empty parking space immediately in front of the Old State House and caught a glimpse of the building, Jay’s comment was “Holy ----“. Brilliant sunlight bathed the stately white castle sitting atop an emerald hill overlooking the Mississippi River. The vision almost transported the viewers to the era of Camelot had they not just emerged from a 21st century vehicle. The interior’s polished wood paneling, spiral staircase and stained glass dome was just as grand.
Detail of the castle.
The grand, central staircase.
The beautiful, stained glass dome.
Inside they experienced the most fun, informational video ever. The video screen appeared to be a HUGE, 3’ x 8’ flat screen TV housed in a deep, ornate gold picture frame. To its right was what appeared to be a portrait of a young, 19th century woman – until she began to speak and move. The young lady was Sarah Morgan. Her father donated the land on which the Old State House stood and she loved the stately, enchanting building. As she narrated the history of the State House images on the screen, combined with lighting effects around the walls of animated silhouettes of people dancing in formal, pre-civil war attire during the heyday of the South, and workers swinging hammers and sawing wood when it was rebuilt after the destruction caused by the cooking fire of a careless soldier when Union troops occupied the building.
A portrait of Sarah Morgan.
Her Civil War diary was published in 1913 under the name of
A Confederate Girl's Diary
A huge part of the lower floor was dedicated to an extensive display about the controversial 1930s Governor, Huey Long. It cited the positives and negatives of his single-term reign. He went on to become a United States Senator but his term was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. Long introduced free textbooks and bussing for all school children. He constructed a network of highways throughout the State and instituted numerous other reforms to drag its citizens out of the mire of poverty and ignorance that gripped the South. Along the way he acquired many supporters but some, that were not comfortable with the speed of such radical changes and the amount of debt it created, became mortal enemies.
When Huey Long took office the existing Governor’s Mansion was in such poor condition that he refused to let his family live there. His appeal to build a new home was declined by the Legislature. Undaunted, Huey called up the State Penitentiary Warden and had him gather a team of prisoners, equip them with tools, and within a few days they had torn down the structure. The Legislature then had no choice but to build a new residence.
Long had a vision of a grand place to entertain his constituents, to be comfortable for his family to live in and have enough room for his office. He wasted no time in hiring a young architect and they traveled to Washington, D.C. to explore the layout and design of the White House! Although not on the scale of the President’s home, the Louisiana White House has a large, ornate ballroom, foyer with a curved, marble staircase ascending to the many bedrooms and living spaces on the second floor. The Governor’s bathroom is thought to be the first in the State to have a shower vs. the standard bathtub common at the time: the reason being he was so eager to tackle his brimming daily agenda that he was too impatient to wait for a tub to fill.
Chandeliers reflected in the “endless mirrors” hung opposite each other in the ballroom.
A dining room door with the pelican Seal of Louisiana.
Carolyn’s office was in the building and she took time out to say hello before shooing Chris and Jay out to get to the New State Capitol before the tower, viewing platform closed for the day. The scene that stretched before them, almost 30 floors below, revealed the bends of the muddy Mississippi river on the west, so close that it seemed they could have lobbed a stone from the tower and seen the splash it would make. There were refineries and huge fuel tanks to the north and the LSU campus and office buildings to the south and east, all basking in the radiance of the late afternoon sun.
A view to the south of a nearby park and the Mississippi River to the right.
The House and Senate chambers were closed for renovation and the only other area visitors could view was the main lobby, a somewhat dark but grand room of 30’ high ceilings decorated with patterns of gold and tawny autumn tones, supported by brownish marble walls. Ten foot tall white, marble statues of the State’s founders stood guard at either ends of the chamber. Huey Long was the catalyst behind the construction of the impressive building and was shot in a nearby hallway within a few years of its completion.
The State House is an impressive structure.
The ornate décor of the State House lobby.
The next day Fran could take some time off from her busy work schedule and she chauffeured her guests around the LSU campus on a gray and soggy day. The LSU mascot is a Bengal tiger and the highlight of the day was a visit to see Mike – the LIVE tiger. He lives in a beautiful 1/3 acre enclosure complete with bathing pool, waterfall and climbing rocks.
Mike was curled up in a sheltered corner just a few feet from where his admirers stood. Thanking their stars for the opportunity to be closer to this magnificent animal than they had been to his cousins at zoos, Chris eagerly snapped as many photos of him as she could before the rain forced them to seek shelter at the nearby campus store. The number of “tiger motif” items the store carried was astounding from stuffed animals, to baby diaper packs to men’s slacks. Chris and Jay could not leave without an adorable stuffed animal, which they promptly named Mikey, and now occupies a spot on their bed.
Mike was no more than five feet from them.
Mike pacing in his compound beyond the bronze statue.
You may be wondering why the title “Red Stick” was chosen for this blog. The story, found at this link, follows:
“Baton Rouge is French for “red stick,” a seemingly strange name for a city. When French explorer D’Iberville led his exploration party up the Mississippi River in 1699, the group came to a cypress pole on a bluff above the river covered with bloody animal and fish heads. The “red stick” marked the boundary between the hunting grounds of Houma Native American tribes and became symbol for Baton Rouge.”
Chris and Jay thoroughly enjoyed visiting with friends and the relaxed tourist days and looked forward to more of the same at their next destination – Houston, Texas.
