Echoes From The Attic and Poems, Hammond, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Don Johnson, Mar. 2001
Typed by Belford Carver
Written by by Edna F. Campbell
Copyrighted by Edna F. Campbell
With special thanks to her family for permission to use her works.

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DOWNTOWN BUILDINGS ARE A PART OF HISTORY

As Hammond basks in the glory of having its downtown section placed on the 
National register, newcomers have the opportunity to learn much about the town's 
past.  During recent months extensive research has included mapping out the 
historical facets in each of the old buildings.

Placement on the register gives national recognition to properties significant in 
American history, architecture and archaeology.  Many of the old buildings are 
distinctive and contributed to the honor.

Grace Memorial Episcopal Church, Hammond's oldest church, was the first to be 
awarded this recognition in March 1973.  The antiquity of the church is coupled 
with its design which follows the trends of old England church architectural 
lines.  The wooden structure is an example of late Gothic Revival idiom.

The second placement was the Casa de Fresa hotel, built by Colonel H. W. Robinson 
in 1893.  The building now stands in ruins following a fire, leaving its status in 
limbo.  However, the walls and site remain on the register.

The hotel was first named The Oaks.  It was destroyed by fire in 1905 and again in 
1929, after which the name was changed to Casa de Fresa.

Operated by the late Malcolm B. Wright, Jr., the hotel was closed to the public in 
1966.  It is steeped in history based on its role with the strawberry industry and 
serving as a home for traveling businessmen and high ranking railroad moguls.

The third placement includes the downtown business district, originally the hub of 
the city in its formative era. Hammond is the third city in the state to receive 
this distinction, along with Natchitoches and New Orleans, Vieux Carre.

The leaders have concentrated on retaining the flavor of the turn-of-the-century 
design in the old structures.  Preservation is stressed.

The old Boos building on the corner of North Cate and East Thomas streets is said 
to be Hammond's oldest structure.  It was built by William Boos, a barber, in 
1898.  A German architect is responsible for the style featuring intricate 
tapering spires edging the roof of the red brick two-story building.

Falling closely in historical emphasis is the Benjamin Mann Morrison building, 
listed as Hammond's first three-story business structure.  Located on the corner 
of East Thomas and South Cypress streets, the well-preserved building b belies 
its age and is in excellent condition.

Morrison built the store building in 1904 after a wooden structure of 1894 had 
been destroyed by fire.  The old Morrison building was a forerunner of modern day 
shopping centers with commodities available for all ages from cradle to grave.  
Groceries, farm equipment, general merchandise, wagons, yokes for oxen and 
coffins wereamong the wares for sale.

The Dantone building at North Cherry and East Thomas streets revives the history 
of sidewalk fruit stands where bananas hung in long bunches and apples were 
polished to perfection.  The market began in the early years of 1900.  The shop 
was converted to a dress salon in 1965.

Adjoining Dantones is the building inscribed with unique lodge insignias and 
letterings.  The Fountain and Davis Walker's photography shop are housed on the 
lower floors.  The lodge signs have remained on the building through the years 
long since the lodge became extinct.

Not quite so pretentious, but slanted in early history, is the building cornering 
East Thomas and South Oak streets, housing Louis Alack's barber shop.  It was a 
business site for Thomas Kidder, after his hotel building on the old post office 
grounds, formerly Cateís shoe factory, burned.  It also served as a center for the 
King's Daughters, an organization no longer is existence.

The Perrone Barber Shop was responsible for the erection of the age old building 
on the corner of West Thomas Street and Southwest Railroad Avenue.  John Perrone 
was one of the early tonsorial artists in the city, and his son kept the tradition 
going in the same building.

Albert Tolle built the Vincent Nicholosi brick store building on Est Thomas Street 
for other pioneers in the merchandise business in the early 1920s.

The Crescent Bar building was built in 1921 by Nat Kent and John Guess Sr., for a 
drug store that operated there many years.

The second block of West Thomas Street was a hub of activity around 1917 when the 
three Fourmy-Cate buildings came into being.  The first completed was the Locascio 
Building and Hardware building, 201 West Thomas St.  It was originally the 
Studebaker auto dealership building owned by LeRoy McGee.  Later it was run by 
Cassidy-Fagan motor sales and then later by W. J. Wylie.

The middle complex structure first housed the Citizens National Bank, when the 
bank building now in West Thomas Street was under construction.  The last building 
completed was the Dameron-Jones insurance office center.  It was build as 
headquarters for Hammond Building and Loan (now First Savings), with C. E. Cate as 
its first president.

Other buildings coming into focus are the Hammond Vindicator, which house the 
city's only newspaper for almost a century, the bank building formerly First 
Guaranty and in early years Old Bank of Hammond, built in 1894.  F. E. Neelis was 
president, John Wilcombe, Cashier.

The Tropic Cafe was earlier known as the Perry Building.  The Saik Hotel building 
on the corner of East Thomas and South Cypress streets now houses a business by 
the fourth generation of Saiks.  For years it was a men's clothing store operated 
by former Mayor Sam Saik.

Also in historical focus is the Central Drug Store, now operated by a third 
generation member of the family of Fellows.

The second block of east Thomas claims much past history, where a pioneer 
businessman, Silas Baltzell, used an entire block.  Now only the corner building 
is known as the Baltzell building.  Other stores include Forbes Furniture, owned 
by a third-generation family.

Businesses on that block in the early years included Noah's Ark, a variety store, 
Thomas Furniture, Brooks Hardware and W. E. Libby drygoods.

In addition, there are the Mondebello Shoe store, originally an early theatre, 
the Columbia Theatre, renovated by Wylie Sharp, the old Graziano Grocery Store 
now being remodeled by Dr. James Nelson and the Old Sam Lobue building, 
undergoing extensive remodeling by Jules Prokop.  Rosenblumís store at 314 East 
Thomas Street used to be the location of a Chinese laundry.

(From ECHOES FROM THE ATTIC, X 1979, by Edna Campbell)

(Pic of Morrison building)

(See other articles by Ms. Campbell on some of the above buildings and people 
mentioned.  A number of changes have taken place since 1979, too numerous to 
relate here.  BEC 3/1/2001)