November 2010

The Pentagon Barracks of East Baton Rouge Parish has been won and lost by the Spanish, French, and the British, and even has the distinction of being the site of the birth of a nation - the short-lived Republic of West Florida. During it's use as a military post, many famous men and public figures served or visited, including Lafayette, Robert E. Lee, George Custer, Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln. The British erected a dirt fort on the site of the barracks in 1779, which was soon captured by the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez. Not wanting to be under the rule of Spain, the citizens of the West Florida Territory revolted and in September of 1810 raised the flag over the fort declaring their independence and announcing the birth of the Republic of West Florida. The citizens then turned the area over to the United States on December 10, 1810. The fort served as the assembly point for American troops going to the Creek War in 1813-1814 and to the Battle of New Orleans in 1814-15. A major expansion of the post was made in 1819-1823 when new barracks were built and a large Arsenal Depot was established to serve the southwestern United States.

Canterbury Shaker Village was established in 1792 when followers of founder Mother Ann Lee formed their seventh community in Canterbury, NH, which remained prominent for 200 years. The Village has operated exclusively as a museum since 1992 when the last Shaker sister in residence, Ethel Hudson, died. The few remaining Shakers live at the Shaker Village in Sabbathday Lake, Maine. At its height in the 1850s, 300 people lived and worked in over 100 buildings on 3,000 acres at Canterbury Shaker Village.

The religious group that we know today as the Shakers was formed in 18th-century England when dissidents from various religions, including English Quakers and Methodists, formed a religious society based on prophetic doctrine. The group, formally called the United Society of Believers, were known as Shaking Quakers, or Shakers, because of their use of ecstatic dance in worship.

The Lyon County Museum and Historical Society was founded in 1937. The current Museum holdings include over 150,000 items of Lyon County history spanning from 1865 to the present.

Much of the settlement of Lyon County was made by immigrants from other states, as early as 1857 many Welsh were arriving, and they continued to come in large numbers through the 1880's. French, Swiss, and German settlers began coming in the 1860's, also. The Welsh came in the largest numbers, the Germans next, and the French third. The Welsh secured the bottom land whenever possible while the Germans took the high prairie land and made excellent farms of this land. This same land, only a decade or two earlier, had been condemned as worthless.

The first road in Lyon County was the Santa Fe Trail, entering from Osage County in an east to west direction approximately 3 miles north of Admire, Kansas.

The Houmas house is significant in the area of architecture as an excellent example of a plantation house designed in the peripteral mode of the Greek Revival. It represents an important regional variation of the Greek Revival, which typified many of the grandest residences in the deep South. Houmas house is also historically important because under owner John Burnside in the 1850s and 60s it was the center of the largest slave holding in Louisiana. With over 800 slaves, it represented the largest economic unit in the prevailing slave economy of the state's pre-Civil War period. The plantation house began in the late 18th or early 19th century as a two-story, pitched roof brick building with end wall chimneys and a stuccoed exterior. The house had two rooms on each floor with a central staircase, six over six windows, and exposed beams, some of which were beaded. Although it presents a historic appearance, this old portion of the house has been much reworked. Changes made by Dr. Crozat include the removal of the stairs, the addition of an upstairs hall with a Palladian window, the replacement of the fireplaces and mantels, and the installation of closets and cupboards.

The Donaldsonville Historic District is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River and encompasses an area of about 50 blocks. The buildings, about 640 of them, date mainly from the period of 1865-1933 and include residences, commercial, and public buildings, five churches, and three cemeteries, of the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faiths. Comparable to other Mississippi River towns in Louisiana, Donaldsonville contains a number of Queen Anne Revival residences and a number of Italiante commercial buildings. Donaldsonville is unique in that it retains a sizable complement of working class areas complete with housing including shotgun houses, cottages and bungalows, as well as neighborhood stores. Donaldsonville also possesses several neo-classical buildings and two fine Romanesque Revival office buildings. A Romanesque Revival Courthouse, the site of which was part of the 1807 plan for Donaldsonville, is located on Houmas Street. Moreover, the Lemann Store, located at 314 Mississippi Street, is probably the finest Italiante commercial building in any Mississippi River town north of New Orleans.

The WrightMuseum's mission is to preserve and share the stories of America's Greatest Generation for the benefit of generations to come. As a one-of-a-kind non-profit institution, the WrightMuseum collects and displays artifacts that illustrate the Second World War's significant and lasting impact on American life.

During WWII, Americans from all walks of life pulled together to defend freedom against a global threat to our commonly-held values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of a better life. Hardened by the privations of the Great Depression, Americans were primed for the sacrifices necessary to thwart the forces assembled against them.

This extremely rare example of an American World War II Fletcher class destroyer is permanently docked across the street from the Old State Capitol on the Mississippi River.

Having undergone almost no alterations since the end of World War II, the U.S.S. KIDD has become one of the most important tourist attractions in the city of Baton Rouge. Altogether, the KIDD earned 12 battle stars while being used in the Pacific during both World War II and the Korean Conflict. The U.S.S. KIDD was part of Destroyer Squadron 48 of World War II, which was composed of nine Fletcher class destroyers, four of which were constructed at the Kearney Shipyard in New Jersey. The Fletchers were the backbone of the Pacific destroyer force during World War II. Small, fast, fighting ships, they were used to screen task forces, escort convoys, bombard shore positions and deliver torpedo attacks. No aircraft carrier or battleship ventured into enemy waters without her escorting destroyers ahead. On April 11, 1945, during the battle for Okinawa, the U.S.S. KIDD suffered a kamikaze attack when a Japanese pilot targeted and crashed into her, killing 38 crewmen.

St. Elizabeth Catholic Church is a large brick basilican plan Gothic style church near the center of the small bayou town of Paincourtville. Purely Gothic in origin, St. Elizabeth stands out from other large Roman Catholic churches of the period, which can best be described as mixtures of Gothic, Romanesque, Renaissance and Baroque architectural features.

The study of art has long been an integral component of the curriculum at DartmouthCollege, originally founded in 1769 in Hanover, New Hampshire. Over the years the College received a variety of objects as gifts from its alumni. Paintings, works on paper, and antiquities were stored and displayed in various buildings located throughout the campus. The purpose of the Hood Museum of Art at DartmouthCollege is to inspire, educate, and collaborate with our academic and broader communities about creativity and imagination through a direct engagement with works of art of historic and cultural significance by making effective use of our collections and staff.