STRAND THEATRE
Since The Strand Theatre opened in 1925 it has been a majestic showpiece in Downtown Shreveport and has consistently provided incredible entertainment to this community. The well designed ornate building with its beautiful lavish structure is listed on the National Register of Historical Places. Since reopening December 21, 1984 as a performing arts center, The Strand has presented Tony Award Winning Broadway performance, top rated musical acts, comedy shows, children’s performances, classic movies, gospel plays. The Strand facility has been the site of weddings, receptions, photo shoots, and has recently been used as a movie location for Factory Girl, Major Movie Star, Soul Men, The Gates and an unnamed movie this past April.
Historic Architecture
Rodessa High School, Highway 168, Rodessa
Architect: Seymour Van Os. Completed: 1939. Cost: $219,344
Historian’s Note: PWA Docket LA 1171-F, School Building and Gymnasium-Auditorium for Caddo Parish School Board at Rodessa, Louisiana.
Source: Theodore Flaxman Collection; LSU-S archives (151/S-402/blueprints). 1930s Images: 2 pics.
Hunter Oil & Investment Company, 900 Market Street (now Silver Lake Ballroom), Shreveport
Architect: Harry E. Schwarz, Structural Engineers: Freeman & Huey, Completed: 1931. Cost: $ unknown (privately built).
Historian’s Note: Three story Art Deco style building built by brothers Sam and Joe Hunter to house their business interests. Upstairs floors housed the Hunter Oil and Investment Company with the bottom floor designed for Central Motors, the first full-service automobile dealership in Shreveport selling Chryslers, Dodges and Desotos cars. The building is unique since it was built to be fire proof with walls and floors constructed of poured concrete with a 8-foot by 10-foot automatic fire found on the first floor. The fire door separated the show room from the service bays. The window sills and mud sills throughout the building are made of slate with the window frames made of steel. The building for a time housed the offices of Huey P. Long a neighbor of Sam Hunter with the auto dealership moving out in the mid-1960s. Afterwards the building housed a beauty supply store and military surplus store before becoming abandoned. In December 2003, the building was purchased to become the home of the Silver Lake Ballroom. Source: Sam Weiner Collection, LSU-S archives (083/AD77); Shreveport Times, Tuesday, October 17, 2006. 1930s Images: 1 elevation blueprint.
Long-Allen Bridge over Red River (aka Texas Street Bridge).
Architect: unknown (need to check dedication plaque on bridge).
Contractor: List & Weatherly, Kansas City, MO, Superintendent: Dennis W. Hedrick
Completed: 1933/4. Cost: $788,000.
Historian’s Note: Ground breaking was begun on August 14, 1931. Although the date of the completion as engraved on the bridge is “1933” it appears the bridge was not finished until 1934. Dedication was conducted by Senator Huey P. Long on the Shreveport side of the bridge. The Long-Allen Bridge was the first toll-free vehicular bridge linking Shreveport and Bossier City. The bridge became a tragic scene of a suicide on April 30, 1936. Ms. Laverne Miller, age 26, jumped off the Traffic Street Bridge but survived the fall into the river and was rescued by Bossier City police officers. After defusing the situation, the woman was sent home in a cab. However, she returned shortly and jumped from the Long-Allen Bridge with this fall breaking her neck killing her instantly. Sources: Pictures only; LSU-S archives (RB 1205) and “Bossier Parish History: The First 150 Years, 1843-1993” by Clifton D. Cardin.
Masonic Temple, 1805 Creswell Street, Shreveport
Architect: Theodore A. (Ted) Flaxman. Structural Engineers: Freeman & Rolfe.
Completed: 1937. Cost: $ unknown (privately built).
Historian’s Note: Masonic Temple was chartered in Shreveport on January 27, 1853 as Shreveport Lodge No. 115 Free & Accepted Masons. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 as Building #91000702 and is part of the Highland Historic District. Source: Theodore Flaxman Collection; LSU-S Archives (151/C-390/blueprints).
Shreveport School for Progressive Education (now Southfield School), 1100 Southfield, Shreveport
Architect: Neild, Somdal, Neild. Completed: 1936 (wing added 1937). Cost: $ unknown (privately built).
Historian’s Notes: A private school started in September 1934 with the school originally meeting in a public school building with enrollment of 20 First Grade students. For the 1935 scholastic year, the original 20 students advanced to the Second Grade with 20 new students enrolled in the First Grade. Class size was limited to 20 pupils. In 1935 to accommodate the growth of the school, Southfield parents purchased a 5 acre plot of land along Southfield Road where construction began on a new facility in late 1935. The new Southfield School building was opened for the 1936 school year. For 1936, the student body numbered 88 led by the Director and five teachers. By 1937, three additional acres had been purchased with a new instruction wing added to the original building. Southfield grew to include the first six elementary grades and three junior high grades. For the 1937-1938 academic year the tuition for Grade 1 was $100 a year and increased incrementally for each subsequent grade to the Junior High grades where the tuition was $200 a year. In 1941, a kindergarten was incorporated and in subsequent years, additional facilities were built on the campus. Today Southfield is still a parent-owned, parent-operated, non-profit, non-sectarian institution that focused on the development of the individual in “how to think” contrasted to the development of an entire group within a classroom on “what to think”. It is a very highly rated primary education institution and remains a private school. Sources: Southfield School Records, LSU-S archives, Collection 506, Box 30, Folder 49 and Somdal & Associates.
Louisiana State Exhibit Building (State Fair Grounds), Shreveport
Architect: Neild, Somdal, and Neild. Completed: 1937/38. Cost: $553,247.
Historian’s Note: Placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1991 (Building #91000071). Built to showcase Louisiana industry and agriculture displaying numerous dioramas. Externally at the front entrance are massive frescoes depicting North and South Louisiana. The frescoes were completed in 1938 and created by Italian-American artist Conrad Albrizio. Also the front entrance features the names of the 64 parishes in Louisiana carved into stone. The primary exhibit section of the building is constructed in a perfect circle and when constructed was the largest circular building in the United States. Sources: Somdal & Associates; books / articles by Eric Brock.
Commercial National Bank Building, Texas Street (now Regions Bank), Shreveport
Architects: Jones, Roessler, Olschner and Wiener; McKim, Mead & White. General Contractor: James Stewart & Company of New York
Completed: 1940. Cost: $ unknown (privately built).
Historian’s Notes: Original sketch by Wiener. 17 storied office high rise. “Q-Floors” were used in the construction that allowed any six-inch area of any floor to be tapped into for electrical power. Q-Floors were composed of steel cells crossed over by raceways therefore allowing availability of electricity over the entire floor permitting continuous changes of floor layout. Sources: Sam Weiner Collection, LSU-S archives (083/Photos II/C; SW/083/Box 3/Folder 56; SW/083/Box 3/Folder 57) and Somdal & Associates.
United Gas Corporation Building, 1525 Fairfield Avenue, Shreveport
Architect: Samuel G. Wiener of Jones, Roessel, Olschner and Wiener. Completed: 1940. Cost: $ unknown (privately built).
Historian’s Note: Original part was an eight-storied office building with a ten-storied office tower constructed late and attached to the original structure. Later became the Pennzoil Building and currently the State of Louisiana Office Building. United Gas Corporation was a collection of natural gas companies that went into business in Texas and Louisiana during the 1913 through 1929 period when the natural gas industry was in its infancy. These independent companies performed different functions from drilling to gas distribution to pipeline operations. The Corporation was incorporated under the laws of Delaware on March 29, 1930 and its five internal groups as a foundation welded more than forty associated companies from across East, North and South Texas and Northern Louisiana into United Gas. Interesting the new firm had natural gas properties and pipelines into Oklahoma and into northern Mexico. United Gas began operations formally on June 3, 1930 with the intent to create a fully integrated natural gas system. By the end of 1931, United Gas had streamlined its management structure from over 40 companies down to 17. Despite the current economic depression in the United States, United Gas from June 1930 to December 1931 invested some $40,000,000 into the business including building new pipelines as well as acquiring existing ones. By the end of 1931, United Gas through its pipelines had entered the natural gas market in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. In 1939, United Gas Corporation leased a portion of a ten-storied building in Houston so to consolidate its many offices previously located in different buildings. By 1940, United Gas had built its new own headquarters building in Shreveport and transferred the home offices once the building was completed in 1940. By 1941, United Gas set a record in sales volume for natural gas by selling more than 279 billion cubic feet achieving operating revenues of $49 million. Sources: Story of the United Gas, 1930-1960, LSU-S archives (separate folder); picture provided by LSU-S archives.
