The Bellemont
The Bellemont was an Antebellum, Colonial, plantation-style hotel and convention center built in 1946, according to a Yahoo travel listing that doesn't yet know it's closed.
This enormous complex is empty now...kind of. (See that car? Not ours. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.) Thankfully I had a new abandoned co-explorer to help me braven up for this mission.
This enormous complex is empty now...kind of. (See that car? Not ours. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.) Thankfully I had a new abandoned co-explorer to help me braven up for this mission.
At the far end of the front of the complex is the only building still officially in use: The Great Hall, which has several ballrooms and other rooms available for events. Note the table set for no one.
But in-use buildings= boring, so let's move on and look inside at the main lobby. (To clarify, these photos were taken through windows, as are almost all the inside-view photos on this blog. The place is locked.)
And here we have the best piece of tragically abandoned furniture ever.
The lobby appears to be in decent shape, until you notice the green and gray living carpet.
What do you think these chairs in the next photo were set up for? "Attention staff: we are closing, if you couldn't tell."
The sign on the window of The Orleans Room says, TEMPORARILY CLOSED. That's not the first such inaccurate sign I've seen in my abandoned travels.
Between the lobby and the Great Hall there was a bit of trouble visible though a curtain opening. A roof collapsed, chandelier on the floor and all, exposing this lovely LSU Tigers mural to the open air.
Here's the view in the other direction from the collapse.
The Bellemont's bar/club, Brella's Spirits & Spins, is not doing much better. Here's what remains of it.
That's all you get for now, kids. Part Two of The Bellemont, including the interior campus areas, the hotel rooms, and more, coming soon.
But in-use buildings= boring, so let's move on and look inside at the main lobby. (To clarify, these photos were taken through windows, as are almost all the inside-view photos on this blog. The place is locked.)
And here we have the best piece of tragically abandoned furniture ever.
The lobby appears to be in decent shape, until you notice the green and gray living carpet.
What do you think these chairs in the next photo were set up for? "Attention staff: we are closing, if you couldn't tell."
The sign on the window of The Orleans Room says, TEMPORARILY CLOSED. That's not the first such inaccurate sign I've seen in my abandoned travels.
Between the lobby and the Great Hall there was a bit of trouble visible though a curtain opening. A roof collapsed, chandelier on the floor and all, exposing this lovely LSU Tigers mural to the open air.
Here's the view in the other direction from the collapse.
The Bellemont's bar/club, Brella's Spirits & Spins, is not doing much better. Here's what remains of it.
That's all you get for now, kids. Part Two of The Bellemont, including the interior campus areas, the hotel rooms, and more, coming soon.
I didn't realize that place was abandoned. Ron Paul spoke there only a few months ago.
Posted by: Randy | May 27, 2008 at 04:09 AM
Very cool.
Posted by: Jules | May 27, 2008 at 08:49 AM
Our HS prom was in the Great Hall. I think there was some Katrina relief efforts based there also. That carpet is the most telling though.
Posted by: Alexis | May 27, 2008 at 09:28 AM
There have been a lot of businesses in Baton Rouge that just couldn't bring themselves to admit that they were being shuttered for good. The favorite phrase for this seems to be "closed for remodeling." I can't tell you how many signs have said that for years and years around here. Is this a pride thing? Why would a one-location store or restaurant care about its PR after the decision to shut down has already been made?
Posted by: Alistair | May 27, 2008 at 09:49 AM
Wow- can you liberate that round couch/lounge/settee thing?
Posted by: therese | May 27, 2008 at 09:54 AM
Love that photo of that shedding dogwood (?) in the hall.
Beautiful!
Posted by: jason | May 27, 2008 at 01:40 PM
Randy, The Great Hall is where RP spoke, that's the only building that's still open.
Alexis, interesting--am going to get to the Katrina factor in part two...
Alistair, I don't know, it's sad. I guess they don't want to give up the dream.
Therese, if I could, it would be in dominating my living room and I would be doing Pee-Wee Herman impressions while lying down on it. The lobby is locked, though.
Thanks Jason!
Posted by: cokane | May 27, 2008 at 02:18 PM
The Port-au-Princification of my hometown continues apace. Once upon a time, the Bellemont Motor Hotel (as it was known when I was a kid) was among the nicer places in town.
John Wayne lived there when he was filming The Horse Soldiers in 1959, for example. And I remember when the studios of WLUX radio (before its Jimmy Swaggart and black gospel incarnations) were in the Bellemont.
Sigh.
If you haven't read it already, now is the time for you to pick up Walker Percy's "Love in the Ruins." The flora growing inside the lobby resonates.
Absotively metaphorical.
For that matter, in Red Stick, places don't even have to be abandoned to LOOK abandoned. Such is the case of my old high school, which I believe is in your neck of the woods.
http://revolution-21.blogspot.com/2007/11/unfit-for-bums-just-fine-for-your-kids.html
Follow all the links in the story. You'll get an eyeful of why they're going to tear down the whole thing except for the historic main building, which will be renovated.
BTW, you know the abandoned New Developments building from September? New Developments was a commercial photo lab, and before that building housed the photo lab, it was the early home of Baton Rouge's late, lamented alternative paper, Gris Gris.
Local political columnist John Maginnis was the founding editor.
Among my favorite cover stories from back in the day:
http://revolution-21.blogspot.com/2007/11/favogs-dont-come-from-nowhere-or-people.html
Posted by: The Mighty Favog | May 27, 2008 at 03:00 PM
Too bad about that awesome chair. Although I think if you can rescue it now, you may not want it. The floor is alive after all. Who knows what's living in the chair!
Posted by: Kartek | May 27, 2008 at 07:13 PM
Too bad about that awesome chair. Although I think if you can rescue it now, you may not want it. The floor is alive after all. Who knows what's living in the chair!
Posted by: Kartek | May 27, 2008 at 07:14 PM
damn, a billy cannon picture....
Posted by: vl100butch | May 29, 2008 at 08:28 AM
The Bellemont back in the 70's was the home for the Louisiana Band Directors Convention. We had great times there and if I can remember there was a lounge that was the "place" to be in Baton Rouge.
So sad to see the building in such bad condition.
Posted by: Pat Travasos | June 11, 2008 at 06:47 AM
The Bellemont had a really wild lounge back in the mid 1960s! The telephone operators got off work at midnight and there would be a stampede of guys headed toward them at the first note of a slow dance...
We had conferences there in the 70s and 80s and it was still pretty nice.
Posted by: James | June 11, 2008 at 07:37 AM
The Bellemont had a really wild lounge back in the mid 1960s! The telephone operators got off work at midnight and there would be a stampede of guys headed toward them at the first note of a slow dance...
We had conferences there in the 70s and 80s and it was still pretty nice.
Posted by: James | June 11, 2008 at 07:38 AM
THE OWNERS OF DJ BEAUTY SUPPLY WERE TWO OLD LADYS WHO RECENTLY PASSED AWAY, WITH NO ONE TO LEAVE THERE MONEY TOO. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF ALL THIS? THESE PICTURES COULD BE ANY TOWN IN THE US.
Posted by: TODD | June 11, 2008 at 01:01 PM
The Bellmont WAS the place to be in the 50's & 60's. My father & uncle were bellboys there for years. During the filming of the movie "Long Hot Summer" Paul Newman & JoAnn Woodward stayed there. My dad took me to see them lounging around the pool & I got autographed pictures of them which I sold in adulthood for some nice change. Clark Gable & Yvonne DeCarlo also stayed there during the filming of "Band of Angels" in 1959. It was a grand old place in it's day. So sad to see it go.
Posted by: camille | June 11, 2008 at 11:10 PM