Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 - (Page 28)

The Stoner Avenue Fire Station, built in 1905 on Stoner Avenue at Nutt Street, is seen here in a photo from the 1920s; today it is a private residence. Fairfield neighborhood, Highland’s other National Register-listed historic district. Fairfield, like the eastern part of Highland, is really several subdivisions which, over time, grew into one. The largest intact portion of this historic section of Highland is found in its southern portion, that area historically known as the Thornhill subdivision or, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the Garden District. The Fairfield area takes its name from Fairfield Avenue, the elegant thoroughfare of Shreveport which runs parallel to Line Avenue two blocks to its west. In between lies Thornhill Avenue, a less significant road which lends its name to the southern part of the Fairfield area. Shorter than Line Avenue, though equally significant as a north-south artery, Fairfield follows a gently curving and rolling route between the Central Business District and Shreveport’s Cedar Grove area, passing through the Highland and South Highlands neighborhoods along the way. The route of Fairfield as it passes through Highland is very old, dating back even further than the permanent settlement of Shreveport. A Caddo Indian trail once ran along much of the modern-day course of Fairfield Avenue, which explains its curving form. Most of the houses found in the Fairfield section of Highland date from the turn of the 20th century, give or take a decade and a half either way. North of Olive Street, however, the Fairfield area was being settled by the time of the Civil War and many fine homes were built there in the years immediately following the era of Reconstruction. Much of this area began to be extensively developed around 1880 and by 1900 had reached its zenith as the city’s most exclusive neighborhood. Today every one of the great houses that once marked the northern reaches of the built by the family of Governor W. Fox McKeithen and later the residence of the family of Governor Jimmie Davis. The neighborhood also boasts the home of Governor R. G. Pleasant at 1703 Highland Avenue (1909) and the one-time home of oil magnate H.L. Hunt at 330 Herndon (circa 1930). Greenwood Cemetery is located on Stoner Avenue, opened as a city burial ground in 1894. Greenwood has separate Masonic, Greek, Jewish, and Labor Union sections as well as military sections for veterans beginning with the Civil War and running through the present day. Six mayors and one governor (N.C. Blanchard) are buried there. One the west side of Line Avenue, Shreveport’s most significant north-south thoroughfare and the road which divides the Highland area in two (running along a range line, from which it takes its name), lies the 28 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Fall 2008 Trackless trolley on Highland Avenue in the 1950s; trackless trolleys replaced electric streetcars in 1939 and these, in turn, had replaced mule drawn streetcars in 1890.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities New Orleans Immortelle The Historic New Orleans Collection Highland-Fairfield: The Historic Heart of Shreveport The Ogden Museum of Southern Art Perils of the Mississippi River Louisiana Foodways Harvest of Life King Oliver: The Forgotten King of Jazz Louisiana Architecture Jazz Notes Louisiana State Museum Eye of the Storm Louisiana Association of Museums Soul Resin Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.