An Afternoon on Florida Road

My fiance had to check out some abandoned sites on Florida for a school project, so he brought his in-house abandonment aficionado, yours truly. It was a fast run from site to site, but we managed to get a few good shots in, and discovered one of the most morbid sites yet.

This former site for Louisiana Office Supply should be turned into a club that could then also be the HQ for Red Stick Roller Derby.

Why, it's already a bit like a roller rink; people have been removing their shoes by the rear entrance.

 

Below in the foreground you'll see another shoe and some overgrown shrubbery.

And in some other overgrown shrubbery was another shoe, and still another shoe was helping support the front bottom corner of the porta potty.

Next we found...an abandoned funeral home! (Jackpot!)

Here's the sign, currently enshrouded (as it were) under a tarp.

Evidence suggested that someone's been spending some hang time at the front area of the funeral home: evidence such as an empty 40-ounce malt liquor bottle in one of the hanging planters and the tableau below: Family Dollar allergy medicine shots.

We went around the corner to the back, where I took this photo through one screened window.

From there I turned to the left, and the view through the garage-door window was...THIS!

Those are what you think they are.

If this were a concert, this is where I would say, "Thank you! Good night!"

But then I might come back onstage to show you this: Around the next corner was this Humvee with the vanity plate "UNDERTAKER DAVE" (who might be one of my ex-boyfriends, since they were all named Dave).

The photo's not lined up so good because I was pretty much running away in fear of an encounter with Undertaker Dave, who for all I knew might want to introduce me to  Coroner Joe.

Elsewhere, we found this mess.

Thank yoooou! Good night!

Comments

[Brad]

Hopefully the Louisiana Office Supply building will soon be the new home of LRCE (The Louisiana Resource Center for Educators). They are hoping to move from their current, and much smaller, space in the Bon Carre technology park.

[Meg]

I really wanted you to know that you have a wonderful blog. I found it this summer on a random Google search I did at work when I had nothing to do. I have been reading it and checking it probably once a week ever since to see if you updated. I am also from Raleigh, not really near to Baton Rouge. I just find your posts and photos fascinating, and I encourage you to keep going with this!

[Calvin]

If this post had a merch table, I'd be mulling around it after the encore.

[Calvin]

I mean, milling, HAHAHA (sigh)

[Evelyn Arrows]

drug-store codeine// dignity plague...awesometown.

[Kartek]

I asked the bone experts at work and guys agree (after some heated debate) that it's a housecat in that pic.

[Keith D]

The furneral home is still in operation. It is unfortunate that people hang out when it is closed and leave empty bottles of beer around.

[cokane]

Brad, I guess that's cool. Roller club would have been cooler.

Meg, why thank you!

Calvin, hmmm...maybe I should sell merch...

Keith D, How is it still open, if there is a for rent sign out front, and a tarp covering the business' sign?

[Keith D]

my mistake. It was open until recently. I guess if you let a few months go by in Baton Rouge, thing change for the worse.
I was riding around yesterday and came across an interesting site I never noticed before. Drive eastbound down goodwood ave, right before Lobdell. The is a "mansion" on the left, set back from the road. I "tresspassed" out of curiosity and found it to be a beautiful old building that had signs of construction around it. I would love to know what its story is.

[joey mabile]

Man, those bones! Ho-Lee Sh*t! I would have been a gone pecan!

[Keith D]

Inspired by Colleen, I am starting a blog of places i go. http://duncanstrek.wordpress.com has pics and details about that "mansion" for you to check out. Also, "Colleen, did you see the Lone Oak Cemetery when you went down River Road?"

[cokane]

Great find with the house, Keith D! I tried commenting on your blog, but it didn't let me. I didn't see that cemetery on River Road...

[Keith D]

the comments should be working now, thanks

[ecs]

I was really hoping you had found olde tyme office supplies to share with me. (I like anything that comes with carbon paper, and basically anything else, like slide rules, that is completely obsolete.)

[Susan Kirby-Smith]

yay! We drive by Leo's everyday and I always wish I had a picture.

[SVO]

That building with the multiple arched roofs used to be H.J. Wilson and company back in the late 50's early 60's. After that, I think it became a boating store and I'm almost SURE that there was like an indoor swimming pool where they would put a boat in the 'water' for you. Wilson's used to be somewhere uptown, then they moved here, then later they moved further east on Fla. Blvd up by the 'new' Sears. Does anybody remember the Globe that used to be across from Sears?

[TF]

I remember Globe from the 1960s. It closed down in the 1970s and the Baton Rouge Flea Market took up residence there, and for a while was a permanent sort of market, open most days of the week. Globe used to be the raunchiest discount department store, they had everything from parakeets to sneakers. I bought a black cowboy hat there when I was ten!

[New Balance Shoes]

Thank you! Friendship is a rainbow, incomparably beautiful! Friendship is a river, forever! Friendship is a pine trees, four seasons! Wish friends happy every day! Happy forever! Health and happiness!

[Cg Myemail]

15th February 2013 Update:

The Louisiana Office Supply building is currently the home of LRCE. Dean Tower (the 14 story skyscraper next to it) is currently for sale.

The Welsh Funeral Home no longer has a "For Rent" sign out in front of it and currently sits abandoned.

Keith D, the residence you are referring to is Goodwood Plantation, one of many former plantations that once sat inside current Baton Rouge city limits. It is currently privately owned and occupied.

[kmac]

The Boat store I think was called Aqua Marine

[kmac]

And the Shoppers Fair on Plank

[D]

WOW! Leo's Rollerland, many a Friday nights there.

Welsh Funeral Home ~ Lived in the apartment there for about a year. Ironically, the year Katrina rolled through ~ FUN times being in a funeral home with no electricity for a few days and some "guests" staying for a few days ;) Shortly after Welsh was purchased, the company decided to close that location as the building would be too expensive to repair let alone maintain. The building is still used for casket storage. It is owned by Service Corporation International, who also owns Greenoaks, just down Florida Blvd. There are several tales of that building...

[Gay New]

What was located on the property that is currently occupied by the Baton Rouge Community College on Fla. Blvd. ???

[DLB]

I grew up at Welsh Funeral Home in the early 1980's. My parents and I lived in the 2 bedroom apartment for 5 years or so. The stories and memories of that place are oddly comforting.

[Michael Townsend]

You grew up in Welsh Funeral Home and lived in the apartment there. Where were Mr. and Mrs. Welsh? They were still living in the 80s.