My Hood

Spanish Town unveils signs
DENNY CULBERT
Three markers unveiled Saturday morning highlight Spanish Town’s important place in Baton Rouge’s history.

The first sign, placed at a yellow stucco house on the corner of Spanish Town Road and Seventh Street, marks the location where Rev. George Byrd founded Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church 136 years ago.

“History is something that all of us ought to be more conscious of,” said Rev. Charles Smith, who became the pastor of the church in 1964. “We are not just creatures of the present, we are products of the past.”

Addie and Femi Euba, professors at Southern University and LSU, respectively, bought the house in 1992 without knowing that the church had formerly sat on its spot.

Effie Carter, the Realtor who sold them the house, was among the 20 members of Shiloh Baptist who came out for the ceremony.

“I didn’t know the house they bought was the old site for the church,” Carter said. “I’m glad I came this morning.”

Another marker was placed at the Lakeland Street home of Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, the man who allegedly assassinated Huey P. Long. The third marker will be installed on North 8th Street, to mark the location of the former home of LSU band leader Castro Carazo, composer of “Every Man A King.”

The signs were made possible through the Spanish Town Civic Association and a donation from the Society for the Preservation of Lagniappe in Louisiana, said Bill Good, chairman of the civic association.

The markers are identical in design to 104 existing signs made in 1970s by Anne Woolfolk White. Four of those signs were placed in Spanish Town before the city-parish administration discontinued the marker program in 1982.

A member of the original historical marker committee, Baton Rouge author Charles East Sr., helped proof the text on the latest three signs.

Spanish Town “is one of the greatest assets that we have here in East Baton Rouge Parish,” Mayor-President Kip Holden told the gathering, his voice rising over gusts of wind from the outlying bands of Hurricane Ike.

PS - Article is from Advocate.