Caddo Parish Courthouse - Shreveport, LA (The Death of the Butterfly Man)

501 Texas St.

Shreveport, LA 71101

32.512156,-93.749811

            We begin our next story in 1838, when a newly created Caddo Parish was in need of a parish seat and center for local government. A temporary courthouse, if you wish to call it that, was established at the private residence of Thomas Wallace. Wallace would later become an important figure in Shreveport and Caddo Parish history, also giving Wallace Lake its name. Obviously, this would only be temporary, and by 1840, the parish then used a structure at the corner of Texas and Market Streets. In April of 1855 the building was sold at a sheriff’s sale, leaving the parish without a courthouse once again so they rented a structure in the 500 block of Market Street from Ephraim C. Hart. Finally, in 1860, someone would come up with the ingenious idea that maybe, just maybe, the city needed a permanent courthouse so a two-story colonial-style structure would be erected.
            As we have learned, during the Civil War, Louisiana was a state without a capitol, as

Photograph of the original Caddo Courthouse.

legislature would move from New Orleans, to Baton Rouge, to Opelousas, to Shreveport, finally returning for good to Baton Rouge. During the times that the temporary capitol was in Shreveport, it set up shop at the Caddo Parish Courthouse. By the time the capitol was returned to Baton Rouge, the building was in great disrepair and would ultimately be demolished in 1889. In 1892, a new Romanesque-style courthouse was built and would remain as the center of local government until 1926 when it too, was demolished and replaced with the current courthouse that stands there today.

St. Landry Parish Courthouse - Opelousas, LA (A Temporary State Capitol)

118 South Court St.

Opelousas, LA 70570

30.533626,-92.082934

www.stlandry.org  

            As I previously mentioned, with Opelousas surprisingly being the third oldest settlement in Louisiana, it is only fitting that it have an ample amount of historic locations. One must not look any further that its government seat, the St. Landry Parish Courthouse. Up until the present, day, St. Landry parish has had a total of five courthouses that have stood on the current grounds, each unique in design and history.
            On March 31, 1807, Governor William C.C. Claiborne signed the legislation which created nineteen parishes, with Saint Landry being the eighteenth and encompassing most of Southwest Louisiana. Now an established parish, St. Landry was in need of a courthouse and jail so a crude structure was said to have been built something around 1806. With a growing local community, the parish was in need of a larger structure. In 1822, a large brick building was erected to serve as the new courthouse. Later, parish records indicate that the 1820's courthouse was subsequently replaced in 1847 by a more substantial two-story, frame structure flanked by two outbuildings housing the District Clerk and the Recorder’s offices.