Background
Downtown Louisiana:
The Central Business District

Overview

            All communities have a “downtown” area, whether it consists of one central thoroughfare or several streets networked. Often the one central street is named Main Street. This area was the focus of a town’s public life -- both work and play -- until the middle of the twentieth century. In addition, nearby rural residents came to downtown on Saturdays to obtain necessities and find entertainment. Downtown also was the location of local government and sometimes parish government, too.

            Downtown areas thrived during the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth. Good economic times facilitated the replacement of older, fire-prone wooden buildings with new buildings of brick. Downtown businesses prospered, and downtown districts grew as party wall buildings of various heights sprang up along the streets. Many were devoid of decoration; others displayed Victorian and early twentieth century decorative styles. Many commercial buildings were Italianate in character. Others were decorated with fancy brickwork patterns.

A common characteristic of downtown commercial buildings was that    architectural ornamentation was put only on the façade. If the building stood on a corner lot, the side elevation that was exposed would also have ornamentation. Utilitarian was the descriptive word for rear walls. They were quite plain but functional in nature. [Patricia L. Duncan, “Appreciating Small Town Commercial Buildings,” Preservation in Print, March 1996, p. 12.]

Town water towers were often visible from downtown or the town’s main street. The first water towers were constructed of wood; later ones were made of metal. More often than not, the town’s name was featured on the side. The water tower stood out as a symbol of convenience, comfort, and safety from disease and fire. [Richard V. Francaviglia, Main Street Revisited: Time, Space, and Image Building in Small-Town America, p. 39.]

            Downtown reached its apex in the late 1920s, remained prosperous for about twenty years, and then went into a slide. Several factors caused this decline, but the automobile was a major element. Mobile customers drove to large centers that offered a greater variety of stores and lower prices. After World War II businesses related to the automobile -- dealerships and service stations -- moved to the towns’ outskirts where room was available for expansion. Merchants began to relocate their businesses to the outskirts of towns, too, because of unhappy customers, parking problems, and general congestion. Downtowns now possessed empty buildings and experienced a sharp economic slide.

The automobile introduced the parallel parking concept to downtown. Horse-drawn wagons were parked in a diagonal fashion. Parallel parking gave extra width to the traveled portion of the street and helped to relieve some of the congested traffic flow. [Richard V. Francaviglia, Main Street Revisited: Time, Space, and Image Building in Small-Town America, pp. 46-47.]

            Many Americans remember formerly bustling downtowns as symbols of a simpler, better, more easy-going time. Downtowns provided an identity and reflected old-time values and traits of America. Each community’s historic downtown area has much to say about the past, and its buildings.

        

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