Here is the lemon next to an average tomato and my 11 year old daughter's fist.
Wow.
In 1847, Baton Rouge lured Louisiana's capital away from the city of New Orleans with the donation of a plot of land high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi. Architect James Harrison Dakin (1806-1852), a New York native with a thriving practice in New Orleans, was retained to design the new capitol building.
Dakin described the building as "Castellated Gothic" because of the cast-iron decoration of its crenellated battlements and turrets. The building's construction started in 1847 and ended in 1852, the same year as Dakin's death. The statehouse featured heavy masonry walls covered with lime mortar plaster scored to resemble stone blocks.
The statehouse served as the seat of Louisiana government until 1862 when Union troops captured Baton Rouge. Fleeing Union troops, Louisiana legislators abandoned the building in which they had voted to secede from the Union in 1861. The building was used as a Union prison and garrison until December 28, 1862 when the interior of the building was destroyed due to an accidental fire started by Union soldiers.
The ruined interior was completely reconstructed in 1882 by architect and engineer William A. Freret who installed the signature grand staircase. Since older legislators remembered the darkness from the 1850 period, Freret added the magnificent stained glass "lantern," or dome, in an effort to emit more light. A single ornate central pier was included to support the dome, the whole resembling a grand umbrella of painted glass.
On March 1, 1882, Governor McEnery and other state officials arrived in Baton Rouge to officially take possession of the newly restored statehouse and the new life of the capitol began.
In 1932, construction of the new State Capitol was completed and the Legislature officially transferred the seat of Louisiana government to the new building. The abandoned statehouse became the headquarters of the Works Progress Administration in 1936.
In 1991, after decades of neglect, a group of dedicated, concerned citizens and politicians saved the Old State Capitol from demolition and began a massive reconstruction to restore the historic building.
Information from the Louisiana Secretary of State's Official Website.
Sorry the photos are from the backside of the building as we walked to the Mississippi River. It was too rainy to take the long walk around the front. That will have to be saved for another day, another blogpost.
I remember seeing a variety of countries listed on the sides of the barges. These enormous boats come around a turn in the river carrying anything and everything, and so often the mass of the boat can't even be seen as it lies flat, just barely sticking out of the water.
I have heard stories that as a teenager/young man, my grandfather would swim across the Mississippi River. Were those stories true? Maybe someone in my family can verify that...
The River. I think it's in my blood.
See the theme here? These are cajun staples. Don't move here unless you like meat and rice. Or rice and meat. Fortunately, we like it ALL.
(I was thinking about a special 'facebook friend' in England yesterday as we ate. Sure wish I could have shared it with you so you weren't so homesick!)
(The men rode up front while the kids and I rode in the "wagon" that was pulled behind.)
Mr. Fuselier has been burning back his fields several years now because they do return fuller and stronger than before. This also keeps the prairie flowers and grasses from getting as tall as they could be if left to grow for several years. When the prairie was just getting settled, it wasn't uncommon for a man's head to barely be seen above the grasses WHILE he was sitting on his horse.
I'm not that brave. I'm sure that if my family/wagon/horses had come up to a prairie that tall, where that's all I could see for miles and miles and miles, I likely would have turned around!
(Every once in a while, Mr. Fuselier would hop out and pick some of the plants to show us. Some smelled like licorice, some like spearmint, some of the leaves were used to make shoes.)
The whole experience gave me even more respect and appreciation for the folks that first came to this area and settled here.
More pictures in the next blog post of the actual grasses and flowers that are native to the Cajun prairie.
