Holiday fundraiser sale on ABR book

Hear Ye, Haa Ye:

The Abandoned Baton Rouge book is on sale for $19.99 when you buy it at this link, and I'm extending my Giving Tuesday fundraiser. For each book purchase until Christmas, I'm donating $10 to ACLU Louisiana, where an anonymous donor is matching all donations up to $25K in December.

Peace. 

photo of Broadmoor Theatre sign's new home at John Schneider Studios in Holden, Louisiana, courtesy Marshall Thornhill 

 

 

The Watson Motel

 

Earlier this month, I visited Louisiana for the first time since 2012. I stayed in New Orleans most of the time, but rented a car to come up to Baton Rouge for the day to explore for a new ABR post. 

I've covered the sad-sack motels of Airline Highway before, but I missed the Watson Motel for two reasons: it's pretty far out in the southern direction I rarely ventured, and it's almost totally overgrown, so if you're not looking for it, it's very easy to miss. 

What type of establishment was the Watson Motel and its attached bar? It closed before the Information Superhighway really got going, so very little information is available online. 

But there is this:

In 2010, "Papercutninja" remembered it thusly on Tigerdroppings.com.  

I used to live in Pecan Creek across from the State Fair Grounds. I used to ride my bike down the street that backs up to motel on my way to work at that McDonald's. I vividly remember seeing what looked like rental cars there parked out by the rooms. There is no chance that there was not prostitution going on there. I also remember a rumour about there being some kind of store or bar there that only sold single beers and half pints of hooch. It was allegedly called "Steve's" and it was supposedly a hang out for people that went to Woodlawn but who knows. Kids tend to spread shite around just to do so.

Having seen the place, I wholeheartedly believe this. (The first part would be a safe guess anyway, as the Watson was a motel located smack in the prostitution corridor between BR/New Orleans.) 

Shall we?

Best Comment Ever, Lincoln Theatre Edition

One of the more historic buildings featured on Abandoned Baton Rouge is the 1950s-era Lincoln Theatre, at one time a "blacks only" movie house. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke there when planning the Montgomery bus boycott. According to commenters on the post, musicians such as James Brown and Chuck Berry performed there, it showed porn and blaxsploitation films toward the end, and it was possibly the site of a race riot in 1972, although that was probably at the Temple theater. (Such is the ephemeral nature of "oral" history passed on in blog comments.)

A Tinseltown Surprise

 

It only closed in the past few years or so, if memory serves, but I still thought every time I passed it en route to New Orleans that I had to check out the former Tinseltown movie theater. Even a few months can do some interesting damage to a structure here. Plus, you never know what you might find. Turns out it was a quick and mostly uneventful visit, but I did find something pretty cool.

Broadmoor Theatre, Merchants Landing flea market, and more

The Broadmoor movie theatre is one of those places that's supposedly not permanently closed. It's still up for lease, or as the roadside sign reads, FOR L A

 

Lincoln Theatre complex

This compound is an abandoned and semi-abandoned downtown treasure. (I think it's in the downtown? Or near it? It's hard to tell where downtown starts or ends when nobody's around.)

Today's subject: The onetime sight of the Lincoln Theatre, Pharmacy, Barber Shop, and Wash-In (I think that's what the last phrase says? Is a "wash-in" a Laundromat?)