Checking out Monroe, Louisiana (Part 2)

KCS rail yard from Desiard Street, Monroe, Louisiana (Hasselblad 501CM camera, 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

Dear Readers, in the last article, I showed you the Ouachita River and the Kansas City Southern railroad bridge. Let's move east and see what else is interesting in the big metropolis of Monroe. 

New York Furniture, Desiard Street, Monroe (1/250 ƒ/11.5, yellow filter)

707 Desiard Street, Monroe (80mm Planar-CB lens, 1/250 ƒ/11.5, yellow filter)

Old City Cemetery, Monroe (80mm Planar-CB lens, green filter)

Desiard Street was once one of the prominent commercial streets passing through the city and then crossing the Ouachita River. Today, it is pretty sad, with empty lots, boarded-up buildings, and trash. The Old City Cemetery has ornate tombstones of prominent citizens.  

Beth Eden MB Church, Milhaven Road, Monroe (1/250 ƒ/5.6)

Abandoned house, Milhaven Road, Monroe

Proceed west following the railroad yard, and you enter modest neighborhoods of mid-century houses. Sadly, we saw many closed or abandoned homes. 

KCS rail yard off Oak Street, view west

City of Monroe workshop, Oak Street (1/250 ƒ/11.5, 80mm Planar-CB lens, yellow filter)

Monroe has three rail yards, underscoring its importance as a rail junction city. I have not yet visited the yard south of I-20. Next trip....

120 Cotton Street, West Monroe

Cotton Street, West Monroe (orange filter)

Cross the Ouachita River to the Cotton Port Historic District of West Monroe, and you are in Antique Alley. This features an impressive collection of stores selling antiques, furniture, knickknacks, craft beer, and miscellaneous stuff designed to separate visitors from their money. The streets are busy many evenings with Open Houses, Champaign Strolls, Christmas on the River, and other events. Good for them! Come and spend money.

This ends our short trip to Monroe. We will return some day to explore some more.

All photographs are from Kodak Tri-X film exposed with my Hasselblad 501CM camera, all hand-held. I posted the pictures at 2400 pixels wide, so click any photograph to see more detail.

Checking out Monroe, Louisiana (Part 1)

Dear Readers, Happy 2022 to you all. I hope you are all prosperous, safe, and optimistic this year.

Kansas City Southern rail bridge over the Ouachita River, Monroe (Tri-X film, Hasselblad 501CM camera, 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens, green filter)

Monroe, formerly Fort Miro and now the seat of Ouachita Parish, is the "big city" of north central Louisiana. The family and I used to attend theater productions at the Monroe Civic Center and have flown out of MLU airport, but otherwise have not spent much time there. Readers may remember that in 2020, I followed part of historic US 80 through the northern part of the city (it was not too exciting). 

A Virginia friend asked about someplace to explore, and I suggested Monroe. We drove there on a sunny warm day and headed to the Ouachita River at the historic city core.

The railroad tracks come right through the business district and cross the Ouachita River on a beautiful old pivot bridge. Some railroad maintenance workers let us enter the railroad property and take photographs. They said the bridge still occasionally pivoted when a barge was passing on the river. The Ouachita is a Federal Navigation Project, meaning to is maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers:  

"The Ouachita-Black Rivers Navigation Project provides dependable year-round commercial navigation from the mouth of the Black River to Camden, Arkansas, a distance of approximately 330 river miles." (from the Ouachita River Valley Association) 

I showed my Hasselblad to one of the railroad workers, and he was fascinated to look through the waist-level finder and see that the view was reversed left to right. Maybe I made a film convert.

South Grand Street may have once been the main commercial strip paralleling the river. The area looks reasonably clean and well-maintained. Empty lots show where old commercial buildings have been demolished. But the standing buildings have businesses or occupation. 

Many of these late-1800s or early-20th century shops and buildings used cast-iron frames and supports on the facade. This was a common construction method, and you still see millions of buildings around the country with the cast iron beams. Any old-town downtown will have these buildings. The big advantage of cast iron was that the vertical supports could be much more slender than masonry supports of similar bearing capacity. 

The side of buildings that faced the railroad were typically a bit rough or industrial. You definitely see this when you take the Amtrak through the Northeast Corridor.

These photographs are from Kodak Tri-X 400 film, developed by Northeast Photographic in Bath, Maine. I exposed them at EI=320, all hand-held. The light was bright and glarey.

This ends our short tour of the riverfront region of Monroe. Standby for Part 2.

On the Dixie Overland Highway, Historic US 80 - Monroe to Ruston, Louisiana (LA-07)

Monroe is the Big City of north central Louisiana. I did not find it very inspiring architecturally, but it is busy, with plenty of commercial activity and lots of traffic. Much of the architecture where US 80 comes through town is strip America of the ugliest nature. I did not spend much time in Monroe and need to explore more in the future. I would like to visit the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum as well as the cypress swamps of Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge (north of the city). Antique Alley in West Monroe (west of the Ouachita River) would also be interesting.

Former car dealer, 2901 US80, Monroe, Louisiana (Kodak Tri-X film, Hasselblad 501CM camera, 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

Yes, it is strip America. Maybe I should do an article on the ugliest strips I can find.

West Prong Young's Bayou from Washington Street, Monroe (Tri-X film)

This bayou must be part of a drainage system for storm water and who knows what other effluent. I wonder if there are any alligators during high water?

Heading west, US 80 runs north of I-20 for a spell then crosses and runs south of I-20. Many of the neighborhoods west of West Monroe are converting into McMansion developments, often gated (American architecture at its finest). But remnants of older farm houses as well as plenty of trailers remain. 

I stopped at this old house in Claiborne. There are likely more like this in between the new developments.

Mount Zion Cemetery, US 80, Calhoun, Louisiana (Fuji X-E1 digital image)

The Mount Zion Cemetery in Calhoun, just north of where 80 crosses I-20, was peaceful and shaded by mighty trees. 

No more food here, Calhoun, Louisiana

The crossing at Interstate 20 consists of truck stops, a Dollar store, and a couple of dead restaurants. Not too inspiring.

US 80 view east, Calhoun, Louisiana

Calhoun is an unincorporated community in Ouachita Parish; a quiet little place. I continued driving west.

Fixer-upper house, US 80, Choudrant, Louisiana (Tri-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm ƒ/3.5 EBC Fujinon lens)

Masonic Hall, Elm Street, Choudrant, Louisiana (Tri-X film)

Choudrant is a village in Lincoln Parish. The village's web page advertises "Louisiana's Front Porch." Here I saw a surprising number of older homes in various states of repair. The former Masonic Hall on Elm Street was intact but am not sure who uses it.

In progress, 123 Allen Street, Choudrant (Tri-X film, Fuji GW690II camera)

Not being repaired, 147 Allen Street, Choudrant

Being dismantled? 153 Allen Street, Choudrant

Choudrant proved to be reasonably interesting. I did not see many people about. 

This was the end of my US 80 exploration on this outing. I continued west towards Ruston, which is a nice college town, hosting Louisiana Tech University and Louisiana Delta Community College. It will be worth a revisit some other day. Thank you for riding along on the Dixie Overland Highway. For background information on US 80 and the Dixie Overland Highway, the Federal Highway Administration has a detailed history. 

The photographs above are a mixture of Kodak Tri-X 400 film exposed with a Hasselblad 501 CM camera, Tri-X from a Fuji GW690II medium format camera, and digital images from a Fuji X-E1 digital camera.

Personal Note.  Dear readers, I hope you were all well and healthy this past year (2020), horrifying as it was regarding the virus, our national incompetence in taking medical precautions seriously, and our continued descent politically and socially. 2021 should be better in almost all respects. Stay strong, explore your world, comfort and support your relatives and loved ones, believe science and data, and stay optimistic. Happy New Year to y'awl!