Baton Rouge

We started our visit of Baton Rouge at the LSU Rural LifeMuseum. Here is a collection of buildings from the 18^th and 19^th century which give you a glimpse of life in Louisiana. The museum starts with a large indoor collections of farm implements, buggies, and tools used in the houses and farms of the times. Maybe we've been spoiled by all the mansions we've visited in the past few days, but most of the buildings we saw today were in poor shape, but, of course, they were share cropper's and slave’s homes. What is even more amazing is that many of these homes and barns had been occupied until the 1950's. Most of the furnishings and artifacts are also in poor shape. But we did get a sense of the typical architectures of the homes and public buildings. For example, a Christian church, had painted windows with an angle wing and trumpet; and a devil’s wing and pitch fork on either side of the altar. The slave homes were interesting, because of their utter simplicity of straw bedding and rough furniture. The share cropper’s home was better constructed, but still very simple. Shot-gun houses were typical of rural Louisiana, 12 feet wide, the rooms went from front to back. The dog-trot house had two rooms separated with a porch and awning. We tried to find the associated gardens on this site, but they must have been closed because we never found the entrance.

Dog Trot House

Next stop was the State Capital, a 34 floor building built in 14 months and completed in 1932 by Governor Huey Long. His statue and grave are in front of the capital. He was assassinated here in 1935. Both the House and Senate chambers were fairly simple. The Senate chamber was known for the bomb that exploded in 1970 during a fight over Right to Work laws. While completely rebuilt, several splinters can be seen still embedded in the ceiling and columns. The other highlight was the observation platform on the 27^th floor. Here you get a good view in all directions: the Mississippi, the gardens below, and the Governor’s mansion.

Louisiana State Capital

But the highlight of the day was visiting the Old Capital. This building looks more like a church than a capital. The ornate central chamber has a huge spiral staircase with a stained glass ceiling above. The original building was built here in 1850, but it was burned down by Union Soldiers in 1862. The current building was built in 1883 and served as the capital until 1932. The chambers have been turned into event centers. Inside the building is a museum of political history devoted to telling the stories of Louisiana's governors. The largest exhibit was on Huey Long, who either is considered a savior of the poor or as a dictator. From what I can tell he was both. He set up a system that heavily taxed the rich and used that to provide free text books, new roads, and other public projects. But he also had a large party machine, with a lot of corruption, and maneuvering to keep his friends in power. For example, he was elected a U.S. Senator in 1930, but wouldn't resign the office of governor, because he was opposed to his vice-governor. In 1932, the state elected a new govenor.

We completed our day by about 2:00, but decided to go back to the hotel and relax for the rest of the afternoon – our first day of rest in two weeks. 

Old Capital Ceiling