Historian and Times Reporter John Andrew Prime discusses the endangered historic schools in Caddo Parish in a recent article published in The Times. Check out the link for his excellent article.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2015/01/18/history-beleaguered-school-full-history/21974001/

Remaining structure of “Victory Natatorium,” Shreveport Municipal Swimming Pool, 1988 (Conway Link Collection)

Remaining structure of “Victory Natatorium,” Shreveport Municipal Swimming Pool, #2, 1988 (Conway Link Collection)

Photo: W. Conway Link, 1998

Standing at the corner of Cotton Street and Louisiana Avenue looking north, one can see beyond Texas Street. up to Travis.  Looking south on Louisiana Avenue, one can see beyond  the site of the former Union Depot, beyond  the interstate to where Louisiana Ave begins to climb higher. To the east there is an almost unobstructed view down to Marshall Street and Ridgways  past where it curves where the Downtown Garage used to be. Looking west on Cotton Street is a different matter. One is looking up hill.  At the northwest corner of the Cotton and Louisiana intersection, near the highest point on Cotton Street, stands the Arlington Hotel.

By the end of World War I, the area near the Union Depot was awash with hotels and rooming houses. In 1917 there were five within walking distance in the 600 and 700 block of Milam Street, nine between the 600 block and 900 block of Louisiana, and four rooming houses between the 600 and 800 blocks of Cotton Street and the Arlington Hotel. Of the eighteen, ten were listed as hotels and the remaining eight were rooming houses of some sort. All but The Creswell on Milam Street and the Arlington are gone now, replaced by a few businesses or the vacant lot “tombstone”

It should be mentioned that hotels and rooming houses were not unusual in the downtown area, plenty of others existed elsewhere, some fine examples indeed. This writer confesses ignorance on the exterior appearance of most of them, with the exception of hotels of more recent construction, themselves now gone — The Washington, The Youree, The Caddo, the Captain Shreve, The Nashville, the Creswell,  and the Columbia.  To be sure – of the eighteen listed in R.L. Polk’s 1918 City Directory,  the Arlington Hotel is noted for the beauty of its exterior façade, and was perhaps the grandest hotel at the time, if not in all of Shreveport, perhaps the area mentioned above. Beautiful molding graced the front and sides of the Arlington. From the covered front porch and second  story porch, guests had a commanding view of the Union Depot area – those long ago scrapped steam locomotives and passenger cars from which soldiers left Shreveport to fight in Europe or Japan and, if fortunate enough, returned to loved ones waiting for them at the station. The replacement of these living, breathing coal or oil fired steam locomotives was in full swing by the early 1950s.

By 1930, the number of hotels in this area near Union Depot totaled 13 which included the Jefferson Hotel, the Kersh, and the Plaza. There were additional hotels,  but they were at the same sites as in 1917 so this was interpreted  as a re-naming of existing hotels.

By 1958, six hotels, one 80% vacant apartment house and one empty apartment house remained.  Soon thereafter the Union Depot was gone. The steam locomotives were gone. The Arlington still stands.

The news from the 700 block of Cotton Street has not been good as of late. Just a few years ago, I received a call that the Shreveport Laboratories Vet Supplies building, the hotel’s  next door neighbor, complete with beautiful arches, and promises of restoration by the owner, was being demolished. Another horizontal tombstone for Shreveport – this one more ornate than the rest. Tile work comparable with that of the finest Hot Springs bathhouses mark the spot where the building stood.

And the latest bad news from Cotton Street appeared in the “Blotter” section of the December 18, 2011 issue of The Times – a fire in a second story room on the east side of the building  was contained and extinguished before major damage occurred. The Arlington still stands.

Three times in the last two days I have returned to the Arlington. It was there that I began what  I expected to be a one  year project to document on film what was left and what was being demolished in the downtown area. One of my first subjects in the project (dubbed Y1.999K) begun in late December 1998 was the Arlington Hotel. Two years later, with Bob Hopkins, an original SWWM board member, we covered the Arlington from top to bottom, thinking of the possibility of purchase and renovation.

The reader will be disappointed to learn that the building is in desperate need of a loving owner. The bottom windows on the west side are covered with plywood, the molding along the west upper wall is missing almost all the way to Cotton Street,  grass, Chinese Tallow trees, and who know what else is growing, (even after our severe drought of the last two years), the inside is in shambles, and the smoke from the December 17 fire is visible from the east wall, and the porch, windows, and other exterior look to be in need of repair. Yet the Arlington still stands.

Perhaps of all of the buildings on the Shreveport Historic Preservation Society’s 2011 Ten Most Endangered List, the Arlington should be considered a  top priority for preservation.  It is the very last hotel of its  kind in Shreveport .  A monument to quality construction and craftsmanship, quick action by local governmental agencies may be necessary to stop further deterioration and begin maintenance to preserve the Arlington.

This writer should tell you that from 1998 to 2006 over  50 buildings were demolished in downtown Shreveport leaving gaping holes everywhere from Common to Commerce Streets. To make matters worse, there are additional gaping holes  on the horizon including the Rubensteins Building, the demolition of which would leave yet another eyesore parking lot downtown, this one in the 500 block of Milam Street.

On the positive side, the Goody-Clancy Master Plan praised our fair city for its then current inventory of historic buildings and placed the preservation of them at a high level  of importance.  Recently a Demolition Delay Ordinance was passed by the City Council, which requires a 180 day delay once a demolition permit is requested. A third positive note is that Mr. Frank Gilbert of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, visited Shreveport in May 2009 and pushed for the establishment of a Historic Commission,  which 32 months after Mr. Gilbert’s visit, looks possible. Although the Arlington still stands, its future is dim unless the Historic Commission is established quickly and measures adopted to preserve such magnificent structures in our historic downtown.