Thursday, November 20, 2008

An Early Morning Drive through an Historic Garden District

I was in West Monroe, Louisiana, visiting my parents recently, and decided to take an early morning drive through the Historic Garden District of Monroe, which is across the beautiful Ouachita River from West Monroe.

The Garden District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 3, 1996, and is unique in that part of the Garden District, Riverside Drive, has wonderfully renovated grand mansions, and another part of the district has a charming mix of bungalow, cottage, and even one "shotgun" house styles within it. This makes for a very interesting residential area, and gardens come alive in the spring and fall, with blooms and colorful leaves.

I enjoyed my tour of the Garden District and would like to share it with you. It was a beautiful crisp clear fall morning, and I arrived around 7:30 a.m. I soon found out that that was not a good time to be taking pictures because of the traffic. So, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures of several houses that I wanted, short of evoking the wrath of "rush hour" drivers. As it was, I risked the wrath of several barking dogs and just knew someone was going to call the police to investigate a "suspicious person taking pictures of houses in the neighborhood." In spite of all these little annoyances, I was able to get a few interesting pictures (in my humble opinion).

This charming little cottage has been my favorite house in the Garden District for many years. The picket fence and huge old oaks are just lagniappe ...

[You can click on the photos to enlarge them]




I would love to replicate this beautiful old house someday on about ten acres in the country somewhere around Vicksburg, complete with the picket fence and oak trees.

This pretty rambling house has two
giant roosters to welcome guests ...

And a pretty red door and red geraniums
welcome the guests to this little house ...

Gotta love red geraniums blooming for Thanksgiving ...

This colorful house was probably on the fringe of the Historical District, and looks like an artist's house. If you click on the picture, you can see a little patio area at the entrance, with its interesting decorative accents ...

I love the front porch and large dormer on this house. There's a swing on the porch, and I it reminds me of "a grandmother's house" ...

This pretty garage with some kind of vine growing across it caught my eye. I planted Confederate Jasmine around our front doors in a similar manner, and I want to do this on our garage next spring ...

This is a picture of my front doors showing the
Jasmine "arbor" growing around them ...

I can't wait 'til spring to do the garage doors!

Sorry, I got sidetracked ... now back to the Garden District.

I love this raised Louisiana style house ...

And this is the sole "shotgun-style" house in the Garden District, which I love. My husband and I looked at this little house when it was for sale many years ago during our college years. In retrospect, it would have been a good investment at the time since real estate in the Garden District is very desirable these days.

And last, but not least, there's got to be a LSU Tiger fan living in this gold house, complete with an LSU flag ...

I hope you enjoyed seeing part of the Garden District of Monroe. Perhaps I can go back someday and photograph some of the old mansions on Riverside Drive (preferably not during "rush hour" traffic).

Sincerely,

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Janie,
I enjoyed your drive bys...or walk bys!

I know what you mean about people being suspicious of someone with a camera! But usually, they are fine with it if they know why...most are honored to be 'blogworthy'.

I have though about painting our front door red like one of your pictures. Just haven't gotten up the nerve to try it.

I love the lime green one too...not for myself...but it is so cute!

Hope you have a great day,
Diane

Belle (from Life of a...) said...

Beautiful photos and SO many inspiring ideas...

Anonymous said...

Morning Janie! Glad you didn't get "picked up" for suspicious behavour!! Loved all these house, but I'm glad I don't live across from the green one! I could easily move into all the others though; still love that arbor and your entrance. Looking at these I wish it wasn't winter ahead of us!!! Can't wait to see where we go next! I just love our field trips with you!lol Sincerely, Jeannette

The Quintessential Magpie said...

Oh, Janie!

I so enjoyed this tour! Monroe is such a pretty town, and I particularly liked that adorable shotgun cottage. It makes me want to be in Louisiana SO bad! Thank you for sharing this.

I also adore your jasmine arbor and those wonderful doors and the lantern above. It's a fabulous entrance! Love it!

Love you, too!

XO,

Sheila :-)

Becky said...

Hey Janie, I came over from BJ. Loved your Garden District tour. I tried to pick a favorite but it didn't work. I love them all!!!

southerninspiration said...

Loved the tour.....looks like home.
Such pretty houses. I'd love to build an Acadian style house sometime, I think.
Suzanne

Salmagundi said...

That was a great tour! Loved all of the houses including yours with the arbor. Sally

Bo said...

Hi Janie, I could look all day long at old home districts like this...Thanks for the trip!;-) Bo

Jill said...

What pretty homes.

I love going on drives just to see pretty things, usually I have a nice peppermint mocha from Starbucks to enjoy on my tours!

~Jill

nikkicrumpet said...

OOOH they are so beautiful...and oozing with charm. I love that bright red door! And the vines growing over the garage....so quaint! Thanks for sharing your tour with us.

Beth at Aunties said...

Janie,

I too enjoyed the tour very much. We love visiting the older home dsitricts in diffferent cities in the country. The Garden District of Monroe is beautiful!
I had to chuckle because I too was taking a walk around a neighborhood last month in Richmond, Va and also dealt with the traffic and strangest looks.
One man walked up and startled me as I was taking a picture of his home. After I explained how beautiful it was and I wanted to put it on my blog, he offered to hurry inside so he wouldn't be in the picture;-)
Your front door is so lovely and inviting with the Jasmine arbor!

Beth~♥

Lori said...

What a beautiful area. I love the house with the brick archways under the porch.

Connie said...

That was a great post...just love looking at all the houses! I also have plans to grow jasmine over my garage. Would you please tell us how to go about it? Do you use wire? string? eye screws?