Old Friends on Old Downtown Bossier
Old Friends on Old Downtown Bossier
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I beg to differ. At least among old friends discussing a photograph in our History Center collection of old downtown Bossier City (Barksdale Blvd.) circa 1952, it is worth 6,173 words. At least, the photo elicited that many words in the transcribed oral history interview, recorded in 2011 at the History Center with friends Samuel “Aaron” Kelly and Larry Moore. Both men were born in the mid-1930s and were lifelong Bossier residents. (They also passed away within months of each other in 2017 and 2018.)
Aaron Kelly went downtown every Saturday with his father, a contractor. Starting with Norris Food Market in the photo’s foreground and working his way up the street, Mr. Kelly, with some help from Mr. Moore, gave me a “guided tour” through the busy downtown of mid-century Bossier City. Next door to Mr. Norris’ Food Market, at least as late as 1947, was Whisenhunt’s jewelry and watch repair shop where, the men informed us, railroad employees went once a month on a mandate to have their watches checked and certified to make sure they were right on time.
Across the street was Barksdale Drug, owned by partners Dutch Fenton and Arthur Ray Teague. Kelly and Moore told me the partners invented Teague and Fenton Foot Remedy, marketed nationally. Mr. Kelly said, “You could order that Teague and Fenton. Man, it would get rid of athlete’s feet. Strong alcohol is what it was. Mr. Moore quipped, “And get rid of a sore throat if you drink enough of it.”
Barksdale Drug also had a soda fountain that was, apparently, the gathering spot: “That was Saturday, after the Friday football games. I mean that was a city council meeting down [there]. Everybody that was anybody in Bossier City was going to be at Barksdale Drug on Saturday to replay the ballgame,” remembered Mr. Kelly.
Of course, one of Mr. Kelly’s favorite places to go downtown as a boy was the movie theatre, the Southland, but he also couldn’t forget the fascinating blacksmith shop behind Red River Motor Company. Mr. Moore remembered, “They could make anything”. As Mr. Kelly described it, “They had all kind of machines in there and they had a lot of lumber. They made …wagons that horses would pull.” Even in the 1940s, trucks weren’t ubiquitous and people would bring in wagons for repair, or to get a wagon wheel made. In fact, there was a horse and mule barn downtown then, too. “Most of the smaller farmers, [a horse-drawn wagon] was just about all they could afford,” said Mr. Moore.
It is not the same as the downtown of Mr. Moore’s and Mr. Kelly’s memory – there are no blacksmith shops or drug stores, after all – but the new “East Bank” incarnation of downtown Bossier City has become an entertainment destination once more. If you have stories or photos of downtown to share, please let us know. If you want to see more pictures of historic Bossier City, be sure to visit our History Center Research Room where we have drawings by BPSTIL student John Fox on display. We are in the new Bossier Parish Libraries Central Complex at 850 City Hall Drive, Bossier City, LA (across Beckett Street from the original History Center and “old” Central Library). We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org
For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.
Images: Downtown Bossier City, LA Circ 1952. Photo by Bacon’s Studio. Bossier Parish Libraries History Center photo.
Article By: Pam Carlisle