318 Best Kept Secrets Part Two

BEST KEPT318 SECRETS Part Two

171 171

160

165 In this issue, we continue our list of interesting facts in northwest Louisiana with a focus on some of the area’s historic homes.

160. Real estate developer Albert Colwell (A.C.) Steere developed the neighborhoods of South Highlands, Glen Iris, Broadmoor, Dixie Gardens, Hollywood, and parts of Highland. He died in 1930 at age 50.

161. The Dunn House was once a Confederate Hospital, but it had been left to decay next to the wrecking yard, until 1995, when a group of citizens led by the Greenwood Pioneer Club and the Greenwood Women’s club saved it and turned it into the Dunn House Museum.

162. Walker House on Fairfield Avenue was once the home of the Coca-Cola bottler Zehntner Biedenharn.

163. Bliss-Hoyer House, built by Abel and Nettie Bliss, was later the home of Ewald Max Hoyer, the first mayor of Bossier City, who continued to reside in Shreveport.

164. The C.C. Antoine House is a Queen Anne Revival style home in Allendale built by Caesar Carpenter Antoine, son of a father who fought in the battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812 and a mother from the West Indies. He was a State Senator from Caddo Parish and introduced a Senate bill to incorporate the city of Shreveport in 1871. He also served as Lieutenant Governor in the mid 1870s.

165. Huey P. Long House is a two-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style house made with stucco over hollow tile. Politician Huey P. Long and his family moved into the house in 1926. He moved to Baton Rouge in 1928 when he became governor of the state, but the house remained in the family until the 1970s.

166. Ogilvie-Weiner house, built in 1896, was owned by Shreveport grocer William Buckner Ogilvie, followed by Samson Weiner. The house is the largest Victorianera mansion in Louisiana, and was featured in the show “True Blood.” It is being renovated as the Austen Place Bed and Breakfast.

167. Caspiana House, also known as the “Big House” from Caspiana Plantation, is an antebellum cottage built by William Joseph Hutchinson in 1856. It was donated by the Hutchinson family in 1977, moved to the LSUS campus, and restored to its original specifications.

168. The Davidson House is a large, Queen Anne revival cottage located in Shreveport’s oldest residential area of Highland. Built in 1899, it was home to local historian Max Bradbury.

169. The Dodd College President’s Home was built in 1929 and named for the college’s founder Dr. M.E. Dodd, who operated the school from 1926 to 1943. The house, located at the intersection of Ockley Drive and College Lane, is called “Medjoy.”

170. The Colonel Robert H. Lindsay House was built in 1872 by Col. Lindsay for his bride, Mary, in what is

now downtown Shreveport. Unfortunately, she died before the house was finished. In 1957, it was moved to Woodlawn Avenue and is now known as the “Symphony House,” operated by the Shreveport Symphony Guild.

171. The Logan Mansion was designed by architect Nathaniel Skyes Allen in 1897 for ice manufacturer and beer distributor Lafayette R. Logan. The Logan Mansion has been a boarding house, a church, and a radio station.

172. Built by Mr. Thomas Zilks in 1850, the Thrasher House was donated to LSUS’s Pioneer Heritage Center by Aubrey Thrasher and moved from its original site near Castor, Louisiana, in 1981. The house is a classic example of the true Upland South plantation home. The structure is commonly called a log dogtrot, with two single pen rooms joined by an open hallway. It is constructed of pine logs with a single dovetail joint at the corners and the roof boards are hand made from cypress or cedar logs.

173. The Samuel G. Weiner House was designed in 1937 designed by Samuel Weiner and his brother William and is considered one of the most significant early Orthodox Modern houses located in the Southern U.S. The house sits as the centerpiece of the Pine Park Subdivision, which was designed as a romantic park landscape.

174. The I. Ed Wile House, designed in 1934 by Samuel Gross Wiener, III, is the oldest known extant International Style house in Louisiana. Shreveport boasts some of the largest and most significant collections of early modern (pre-World War II) structures in the state.

175. The Lewis House is one of the few remaining large Victorian houses in Highland, built in 1898 and named for owner Thomas C. Lewis, a Captain in the Confederate Army and a pioneer druggist.

176. The Swearingen House is locally significant in the area of architecture because it contributes to the distinctly Greek Revival architecture heritage of DeSoto Parish.

177. The Victorian-style McDonald House was built in Minden in 1900 by John W. McDonald. Over 8000 square feet, the house has 12 rooms and four fireplaces. McDonald, a single man, would travel by horse drawn wagon to Sibley to pick up supplies for the building of the home that came by train. He also made trips in the same wagon to Shreveport for supplies that came by paddle wheelers from Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

U.S. The house sits as the centerpiece of the Pine Park Subdivision, which was designed as a romantic park landscape. 174. The I. Ed Wile House, designed in 1934 by Samuel Gross Wiener, III, is the oldest known extant International Style house in Louisiana. Shreveport boasts some of the largest and most significant collections of early modern (pre-World War II) structures in the state. 175. The Lewis House is one of the few remaining large Victorian houses in Highland, built in 1898 and named for owner Thomas C. Lewis, a Captain in the Confederate Army and a pioneer druggist. 176. The Swearingen House is locally significant in the area of architecture because it contributes to the distinctly Greek Revival architecture heritage of DeSoto Parish. 177. The Victorian-style McDonald House was built in Minden in 1900 by John W. McDonald. Over 8000 square feet, the house has 12 rooms and four fireplaces. McDonald, a single man, would travel by horse drawn wagon to Sibley to pick up supplies for the building of the home that came by train. He also made trips in the same wagon to Shreveport for supplies that came by paddle wheelers from Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

…to be continued. Have a best kept secret …to be continued. Have a best kept secret to share about a home, business, person or place? Submit it online at sbmag.net.