Page 2

I left La 29, going north, before it reached Bunkie. I didn't want to do the back streets of Bunkie today. I wanted to take Bunkie in as I remembered going through it as a child, on 71. So, I cut across from 29 on a muti-numbered road that turned into Bear Corner Rd. What happened there? The names are the hints. It wove around and hit 71 south of Bunkie. I went on through, looking at all the old buildings. Bunkie is doing ok and is busy. I didn't feel like lingering in ''busy", so I continued on. There are pictures elswhere on this site of Bunkie. Between Bunkie and Cheneyville, the Boeuf is close to the road.. From the bike, so much more is visible.

Then I saw her [Below]. What a beauty. Look at that ornate wood work on the roof line and above the porch. Why?
June had this to offer. It is priceless information found nowhere else.

Prior to June's note I had written: I think it was a store/residence. Below, you can see the counter and shelves. A posiblility is that this was a fine home which had been converted into a home with a store. I think it was originally designed to be both. If so, it is the finest example of that architecture I have seen. The place was huge. I wasn't far off.

Below, I panned the camera straight back from the door. The picture above is looking to the back left from the door. The right door led to a kitchen that I'd say looked like it had been "modernized" in the 50's. The door to the left was just a room. If you swung all the way to the left entering the house you would see a bathroom which had a modern tub turned on its side. Someone was going to do something with the place at one time and the plans fell through.

Panning to the right, I saw the stairs. When I'm in these old houses, the stairs always present a "gut check". No, not alone. I was not going upstairs, no matter how much you wanted to see what was up there. I was starting to get a little spooked out even though it was 11 something AM. Soon it would be twelve midnight somewhere and I wasn't going to be in Amityville Horror 2! (that was a haunted house movie)

Did you see that shadow move?

Almost directly across US 71 was another and still larger house. It was huge. I approached it expecting the fellow whose pickup was parked next to the field to come out hollering. I still approached it, on the bike, ready to leave quickly. I was on a little driveway that ran from the highway to the front of the house.

It had the ornate trim on the dormer, but was much plainer than the front of its neighbor.
It did not have an open door and was not inviting.

Are they broken panes or eyes. Don't know, don't want to know.

All kidding aside, this is all very sad. Both these homes or stores, were once beautiful and functional. They have lost human support and they are on their on. When the roofs go, that's it.
Nature will return them to the soil. A loss to all.

Norwood Plantation in not on the endangered list.

Norwood has a past which envolves the War of Northern Aggresion. Links are coming.
Norwood was a little closer to Bunkie, south of the two houses. I saved it's picture to finish this page on an upbeat note.

Yes, more houses and stuff.

Your site and photos brought back so many good memories of my childhood in Cheneyville, Louisiana.
I wanted to give you the story about the house and store on page 2 of your Alex to Washington trip. That's the old Bennett house and store. My friend Veronica grew up in that house. She once told me that the house had at one point been a funeral parlor. She may have just said that to scare me though! [The store and house are two different places. When she speaks of the "store", it is the picture directly below]
The store was vacant and we played in there often. Someone found a box of receipts including one from 1817 (when the store was new) that showed James Bowie shopped there; he invented his knife nearby and once owned a lot in Cheneyville.
We never went up those stairs either! Ezra Bennett came from New York and bought the house and store in the 1830s. He is buried in the graveyard over by Trinity Episcopal Church. I'm so sad to see the house and store are in ruins now. I wish someone would restore them.
Thanks for the photos and the trip back in time. :)

June added:
"Yes, the old house across the highway is the Bennett house where my friend lived (that's the one she said had been a funeral parlor). The store is the smaller, more ornate building on the bayou side where we used to play. I believe I heard that someone ran it as a store in the 1980's but I never saw it myself so I can't be sure.

Jim Bowie, she said, to had frequented the old store where I had been. That would put it functioning in the 1830's.