Post-Gustav update

Two sites I've featured before have become more accessible thanks to Gustav, as I suspect many other undiscovered sites have as well.

First up is the Shell Station on Government near Acadian.
 

Uninhabited River Road, part 2

See part one of this excursion here.

It's only after our River Road trip happened that I'm becoming more aware of how rich it is in historic sites and plantations. Without that previous knowledge, this next stop, J.N. Barthel General Merchandise store, was so perfectly Olde Tyme America, I kind of doubted its authenticity.

Why is the lettering on the sign such a crisp, bright white? Has this been restored, and/or is this part of a movie set? If this is a real site, you'll see below that we can date it to 1880. (But then why is that lettering in such fresh black paint?)

Here's one benefit of having a tall fiance: he was able to reach up and take this shot through a high window.

 

See the brand-new wood in the right foreground--? Movie set?

Clearly, this Jersey girl by-way-of Brooklyn is not accustomed to having such quaint antique buildings just casually hanging out unattended at the side of the road.

Uninhabited River Road

My fiance had a school assignment to explore uninhabited parts of River Road, from Baton Rouge down to the Houma House Plantation. This also sounded like a job for yours truly, so we went on an excursion along the Old Miss. We were not disappointed.

Our first stop: A decrepit shack being slowly reclaimed by nature.

But first: an uninhabited, unidentifiable animal more rapidly being reclaimed by nature, with butterfly.

Half-here today, gone tomorrow: The Turkish Baths

Rumors of the Turkish Baths' imminent demise have not been exaggerated.

The fiance and I happened upon it in this condition yesterday, a year almost to the day from the first time it caught my eye. See the first post about the place here.

This building was the first spark to the interest that became Abandoned Baton Rouge. I was sad to see the old place go, but I'm glad I caught it halfway. And at least now I could look inside...what was left of the inside.

The land of Cotton's...and more

This is the former factory for Cotton's Holsum Breads, a brand which still exists. I've heard the aroma of delicious baking bread used to permeate the surrounding area.

The Bellemont, Part Three

Welcome back to the show. Please start with Parts One and Two, if you haven't already seen them.

Back at the main entryway, we took that left, which looks like this (not our car):



And the wedge between the 9 o'clock and noon views from the entryway looks like this:

 

The Bellemont, Part Two

If you haven't already, please see Part One of The Bellemont here.

We weren't expecting the interior area of the Bellemont to be so expansive. Here's the drive leading into the interior, complete with a tree growing out of the roof.



Here's the straight-ahead view from the main road in.




We could have branched off to the left, but first we cut straight across the campus. The further into the complex we got, the more likely it seemed that we were being watched, just because there were so many places there to be watched from.

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.

 
 

I Love You Sugar Kane: Historic Cinclare Plantation

My first expedition with co-urban explorer Joshua took us across the Mississippi and south, to a land dominated by old sugar cane fields and crawfish shacks. We stopped at an industrial site on the site of the former Cinclare Plantation, a onetime sugar plantation "company town."

Innocent as it looks, it was to become the site of the scariest ABR incident to date. Although admittedly I am a complete pansy as explorers go. 

The Turkish Baths of Baton Rouge

On the first day the bf and I came to Baton Rouge back in July to look at rentals, a most intriguing old building caught my eye. It was an abandoned Turkish Baths/ old-time health spa. It was to become my ABR white whale. I couldn't find it for months after moving here. Not having a vehicle certainly didn't help matters. But recently, I finally found it again, and I believe the area is called Beauregardtown.