Restoring the Past

Crowley builds its future on the renovation of historic structures

Twenty miles west of Lafayette, just off Interstate 10, stands the city of Crowley, founded in 1886 by two brothers who deemed the flat Cajun prairie a suitable place to build a town.

It didn't hurt that the land W.W. and C.C. Duson chose had a railroad line running through it, courtesy of the Louisiana Western Railroad, or that they were able to persuade one of the railroad company's officials to move a nearby switch to the town. In exchange, the Dusons agreed to name the nascent community after the official—Patrick Crowley.

The railroad brought settlers, and the city grew. By 1903, the population had reached five thousand, the city was incorporated, and rice farming formed the backbone of Crowley's economy. The wealth generated by all this activity led to the construction of some of the city's landmark commercial buildings, such as the Grand Opera House and the Crowley Motor Company, which housed the Ford Model T dealership. Other notable structures included the first city hall building just south of the parish courthouse, the art deco building that became home to the city's second city hall, the Egan Hotel, the Duson Building, the First National Bank building, and the Rice Theatre.

Flash forward to the late twentieth century. Crowley—population just under fourteen thousand—was like a lot of small Louisiana communities: blessed with a largely intact historic downtown that featured a number of distinctive commercial buildings, many of which were in varying states of disrepair, their original purposes in several instances consigned to the history books.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the city's declining downtown. A mayor with a passion for preservation and a native son who “loves doing restoration of old buildings” took on two of Crowley's most famous buildings and brought them back to life.

Today, the renovation work is ongoing, and more than two hundred buildings and residences in the city are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The payoff? The number of tourists visiting the city has increased from around two thousand visitors between 2007 and 2009, to about five thousand in 2013.

When Isabella delaHoussaye took office as mayor in 1997, city hall was stuffed into the 1913 art deco building it shared with the police department; the Grand Opera House was home to a hardware store; and the Rice Theatre was shuttered. The picturesque, grassy median that once graced Parkerson Avenue-the main street through downtown-had been replaced by a smaller concrete divider when the road was widened, making it harder for people to stop; and the Crowley Motor Company building was largely unused.

DelaHoussaye recognized the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reclaim some of the declining buildings and help give Crowley a brighter future. “I started the whole process of renovations,” she said.

She first focused on finding a new space for city hall. Initially she set her sights on buying the Grand Opera House, but another buyer beat the city to the punch. Instead, the city bought the former Crowley Motor Company building in 2000 from the J.D. Miller family.

The structure, which is across the street from the Opera House, was built in 1921 as a Ford dealership. The showroom was on the ground floor, said Charlotte Jeffers, the tourism coordinator for Crowley. Upstairs, workers finished putting together the cars, which arrived partially assembled.

J.D. Miller bought the building in 1964 and converted it into a beauty college on the ground floor and the J.D. Miller Recording Studio on the second. Miller was a singer, songwriter, and music producer. His best-known song was “It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” which earned a gold record for country singer Kitty Wells and for Miller.

The city began the restoration work of the Crowley Motor Company building in 2003, and city hall was officially moved into the structure in 2006 just as delaHoussaye finished her second and final term as mayor.

The restoration work was extensive. The building, which was full of trash when the city bought it, was gutted; but construction workers salvaged much of the wood used in the interior and reused it to build the main reception desk as well as the counter in the clerk's office. In addition, the contractor managed to save the massive freight elevator designed to hoist automobile parts up to the building's second floor when it was the Ford dealership. The elevator, which is open, is usually occupied by rows of seats for presentations; but it remains fully functional.

In addition to being the center of Crowley's administrative offices, the City Hall building is home to four museums-the History of Crowley Museum (which includes a display about such famous Crowley sons as Edwin Edwards, John Breaux, and Edmund Reggie), the Rice Interpretive Center (which explains the history of rice farming and the International Rice Festival), the J.D. Miller Music Recording Studio Museum (which allows visitors to hear some of Miller's recordings), and the Ford Automotive Museum (which includes two 1921 Model T Fords and one 1928 Model A Ford). DelaHoussaye said the city considered setting up separate museums, but decided it would be more efficient to combine the city hall and museum operations in one building.

While city officials tried to get the Crowley Motor Company building project started, work was already underway on the restoration of the Rice Theatre. The art deco structure, built by the Southern Amusement Company, was opened in 1941 as a movie theater. The city bought the building in 1986, completing limited remodeling work; it wasn't until 2001 that the major renovation took place. Today, the theater is used for civic and community events.

The next project delaHoussaye undertook was the renovation of an old bag manufacturing building located on Parkerson Avenue near the railroad tracks. The structure-known as the Enterprise Center-now houses the Crowley Chamber of Commerce and the Assist Agency, which is a three-parish entity that provides various social services.

Another piece of delaHoussaye's plan was the refurbishment of the Parkerson Avenue median on the south side of the Acadia Parish Courthouse-essentially the five-block stretch that is the heart of the city's historic commercial district.

An old photograph showed what the median had looked like early in the twentieth century-it was wider, planted with grass, and lined with lampposts. While delaHoussaye was able to begin lining up the money to pay for the work, Hurricane Katrina delayed the project, Jeffers said. The project was finished under delaHoussaye's successor, Mayor Greg Jones.

Jones said the city spent nearly $5 million on the street enhancement project, despite some grumbling from residents. The work took a little more than a year and received rave reviews once it was finished. “Now everyone thinks it was a good idea,” he said.

Funding for the project came in part from the Louisiana Main Street program. Crowley has been a Main Street community since 1999. Leon Steele, design coordinator for Louisiana Main Street, said the program's goal is to help communities and property owners put buildings back on the tax rolls. “It really does spearhead a lot of community reinvestment,” he said.

Jones said the work has inspired other property owners to improve their buildings. One such example is Gremillion's Drug Store, whose owner received a Main Street grant to renovate the exterior of the business, Steele said. “We're particularly proud of that,” he said. “After [the owner] finished, people were so thrilled.”

Then there is Crowley native L.J. Gielen, who undertook the restoration of the Grand Opera House.

The Opera House, built by David Lyons in 1901, originally hosted vaudeville shows and other entertainment. After Lyons' death, the building housed a John Deere dealership, a liquor store, and a hardware store before Gielen and his family bought it in 1999.

Gielen's goal was to finish the restoration project by November 2001, the one hundredth anniversary of the Opera House. He didn't make it.

The work, which Gielen estimated would cost $300,000, took some nine years and cost $4.5 million before it was finished in 2008. The project included replicating and rebuilding the Opera House's grand staircase, replacing and repainting the large metal ceiling panels, and refurbishing the seats and boxes.

Gielen and his family donated the building to the nonprofit Grand Opera House of the South organization in 2004. Today, the Opera House is open for weddings, receptions, school events, banquets, and other functions. The facility also plays host to a concert series that will bring Jordan Bennett, The Official Blues Brothers Revue, and The Alley Cats to Crowley this year. But neither delaHoussaye nor Gielen is finished with the quest to breathe new life into Crowley's historic buildings.

Along with her husband and two other partners, delaHoussaye owns the first city hall building just off the courthouse square. The structure served as Crowley's city hall from 1900 to 1937. At the moment, a restaurant occupies the building's ground floor. Plans call for the second and third floors to be turned into apartments.

Gielen has turned his attention to the Egan Hotel building, which was built in 1914. He has finished most of the restoration work on the ground floor, but the rambling building has two upper floors. His plan is to put a bed and breakfast on the second floor and renovate the third floor into apartments.

Preservation work is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. For all of the work that has been done in Crowley, there are still many downtown spaces for rent or sale, Gielen said. But he is optimistic that will change. “Everything good takes time to develop.”