STANDARDS

The material in this unit may be used to address the following Social Studies Standards:

SHARED CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS
BEGINNING IN THE BRICK AND MORTAR PHASE

Party wall construction (image)

Two buildings share a common side wall

The physical connection of buildings resulting from party wall construction led to interpretation of downtown as a district where only business activities should occur.

Homes were almost completely excluded.

The use of the two-part commercial block (image, another view) continues -- shop or shops on first floor, offices or apartments for shopkeeper on upper floor.

Buildings' relationship to the land:

        Buildings cover all available land, adjoining sidewalk or street and spreading to property line.

        The size and shape of a building were determined by lot size; typical size was a building 25 feet         wide by 100 feet deep; buildings were wider when owner purchased more than one lot.

        An irregular shaped lot resulted in an irregular shaped building because the structure followed the         property line.

        Unplanned nature of downtown development, i.e., buildings were located and constructed without         any thought of zoning or environmental issues.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE OF COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS

Because Louisiana was slow to adopt new architectural styles, buildings at first tended to be restrained versions of styles already out-of-fashion in other areas of the country.

Builders also copied the styles being used in nearby towns.

By the 1890s the railroad was bringing information on new styles and Louisiana buildings began to look more like those in other parts of the nation.

Main Streets tend to look somewhat alike because builders in different communities drew from the same stylistic sources.

Some commercial buildings had their owner's' names and/or dates of completion prominently displayed on their facades.

Popular styles for Louisiana small town commercial buildings:

        Mid-19th Century Italianate

                Most popular style for commercial buildings; it was the dominance of this style
                that made Main Street a recognizable identity by the end of the nineteenth
                century.

                Many are restrained examples with only one or two characteristics of the style,
                including:

                        • Cornices featuring large brackets (another view)
                        • Round arched or segmentally arched (second view, third view) windows,
                          sometimes in rows
                        • Cast iron balconies on some elaborate examples

                Style remained popular until c. 1910

                Examples:

                Brusly Building, Iberville Parish
                Lemann Store, Ascension Parish
                Building in Main Street Historic District, East Baton Rouge Parish
                Building in Amite Historic District, Tangipahoa Parish
                Building in Downtown Minden Historic District, Webster Parish

        Romanesque Revival

                Again, most buildings in this style are simple, restrained examples using only
                one or two characteristics of the style, including:

                        • Heavy brick arcades (view, second view, third view, fourth view), formed
                          of large semi-circular arched windows, piercing one or more stories of the
                          building
                        • Arched entrances (second view, third view, fourth view), often located at
                           the building's corner
                        • The treatment of the front corner, whose walls are raised higher than the
                           rest of the building to create the visual effect of a tower

                        Especially used on corner buildings with two decorated elevations.

                Examples:

                Bank of Lockport, Lafourche Parish
                Bank of Gueydan, Vermilion Parish
                Former Bank, West Feliciana Parish
                Bank of Minden, Webster Parish
                John R. Taylor Drugstore, Iberia Parish

        Beaux Arts

                Restrained examples of this style used after 1900

                Features of the style include:

                        • Eclectic use of classical motifs based on the architecture of Greece and
                          Rome; special emphasis on the arch (another view), (a Roman invention)
                        • Monumentality (second view, third view)
                        • Axial plans
                        • Projecting pavilions (view)
                        • Roofline statues
                        • Paired colossal columns (view)
                        • Exuberant surface decoration (another view) based on classical and
                          Renaissance motifs

                Often used for courthouses and city halls

                Examples:

                Ruston State Bank, Lincoln Parish
                Beauregard Parish Courthouse, Beauregard Parish
                Citizens Bank of Lafourche, Lafourche Parish
                Central Bank and Trust, Avoyelles Parish

        Neo-Classical

                Restrained examples of this style also often used after 1900

                Features of the style include:

                        • Eclectic use of classical elements based on the architecture of Greece
                          and Rome; preference for Greek precedents, especially the use of
                          square headed (post and beam) openings rather than arched openings
                          (another view). NOTE: Arches can be found on Classical Revival style
                          buildings, but they are usually of secondary importance visually when
                          compared with the building's square headed elements.
                        • Rectangular masses with large expanses of plain wall surfaces
                          (another view) lacking projections
                        • Absence of free-standing statues
                        • Single rather than paired columns (another view)
                        • White, or at least light, coloration

                The Classical Revival and Beaux Arts styles are easily confused. The Classical
                Revival is also easily confused with the Colonial Revival style. The latter is
                usually found in houses, while the Neo-Classical style is found on large
                institutional buildings such as courthouses, city halls, and federal and state
                governmental buildings.

                Examples:

                Shreveport Municipal Building, Caddo Parish
                Ouachita National Bank, Ouachita Parish
                Bank of Webster,Webster Parish

        Patterned Brickwork Vernacular

                Fancy brickwork patterns below cornice lines, on the parapet, and/or on
                pilasters of otherwise unstyled vernacular buildings

                Textured surfaces created by the brickwork show the influence of the Queen
                Anne Revival style, which generally was not adaptable to commercial buildings.

                Examples:

                Building 1, Downtown Minden Historic District, Webster Parish
                Building 2, Downtown Minden Historic District, Webster Parish
                Building 3, Downtown Minden Historic District, Webster Parish
                Building 4, Downtown Minden Historic District, Webster Parish
                Building 5, Downtown Minden Historic District, Webster Parish
                Building 1, Ponchatoula Historic District, Tangipahoa Parish
                Fagan Drugstore, Tangipahoa Parish
                Hammond Commercial Building, Tangipahoa Parish

        Unstyled Buildings

        Undistinguished buildings lacking any hint of architectural styling were also built.

        The False Front

        During the Victorian Era, which was concurrent with the brick and mortar phase of
        many towns, the false front developed as a treatment for the façade of commercial
        buildings.

        Definition:         A false front is a large, flat front wall which rises above and hides the
                                   low roof of a commercial building facing the street. A false front can
                                   be styled or unstyled. When present, a false front gives a building
                                   more of a presence on the street.

        Example:         Building in Winnsboro Commercial Historic District, Winn Parish
                                 Building in Broussard, Lafayette Parish
                                             Front view
                                             Side view showing false front separate from roof behind it

USE OF CAST IRON IN COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS

After the Civil War foundries began manufacturing (casting) elaborate, standardized Victorian trim such as iron columns, cornices, etc. for use on building facades.

Cast iron was strong enough to support masonry construction yet was adaptable enough to be produced in a variety of forms and designs.

Cast iron elements for buildings could be ordered from catalogs.

Merchants believed that ornamented facades would lure customers into their stores.

Example:         Building in Downtown Hammond Historic District, Tangipahoa Parish

ORNAMENT ON BUILDINGS

Facades are the most important and most ornamented parts of a building because they face Main Street.

Buildings on corner lots usually have two decorated elevations.

Unless a building is located on a corner lot, its side and rear walls are plain and utilitarian in appearance and are made of less expensive materials.

A three part approach used to decorate a building's façade no matter what style it reflected:

                1.         First floor shopfront (another view)
                2.         Decorated flat wall surface, one or more stories high and pierced by
                            windows, located above the shopfront
                3.         Capping of building by an ornamental cornice with parapet or without
                            parapet

Occasionally towers are found on commercial buildings. These reflect the influence of the Queen Anne Revival and Romanesque Revival styles.

The presence and elaborateness of commercial building decoration depended upon:

                • the wealth of the owner
                • the owner's desire to make a statement
                • the owners' and builder's knowledge of stylistic trends
                • the ability of the railroad to bring construction materials not available locally

AWNINGS/PORCHES

Awnings or canopies helped to shield customers from the hot sun and bad weather. They came in standard sizes and could be ordered from catalogs.

Examples:         Building in Plaquemine Historic District, Iberville Parish
                           Minden Commercial Building # 1, Webster Parish

For the same reason, many buildings had covered wooden or cast iron porches on their facades.

Streetscape

Consists of one, two, and three-story buildings (sometimes with awnings or canopies) intermixed within the same block.

Combination of party wall construction and free-standing buildings.

Occasionally multiple buildings of the same height and style stand side by side (connected by party walls) within a block. An entire block might be unified in appearance if it were constructed after a major fire or in response to a prosperous town's need for additional commercial space.

The streetscape has a human scale, i.e., the buildings are a size which makes people feel comfortable rather than overwhelmed.

During the historic period, the commercial district would have been:

        • filled with activity and merchandise
        • crisscrossed by telegraph and telephone wires
        • cluttered with signs

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