To see a slideshow of old and new pictures of the Northgate area, click here.
Scribbled on a white poster board in Highland Coffees is a formerly unexplored piece of history.A treasure map of sorts, it outlines landscapes and is exceptionally detailed. But this map isn’t of a foreign land or an exotic island — it’s of Northgate, or Tiger Town to older alumni, and its rich past. “This neighborhood could never be duplicated,” said Clarke Cadzow, owner of Highland Coffees. “It is purely original to Baton Rouge and LSU.”Cadzow, owner of Highland Coffees since 1989, spent nearly two years researching, finding pictures and talking to business owners to form a concise history of Northgate — the slew of local businesses and housing north of campus — which was previously undocumented. Besides downtown, Northgate is the oldest commercial area in Baton Rouge, he said.”I really thought I’d go to the library and find a book full of all the great old photos of Northgate,” Cadzow said. “There was no book, there was no history, there was nothing compiled about this neighborhood and yet, as you talk to people around Baton Rouge, everybody has connections to LSU and this area.”Cadzow then sketched a map of Northgate, listing every business ever established there. This task proved to be daunting, as many businesses dated as far back as 1925, when the University’s campus was moved from downtown to its current location. “The south side of campus didn’t develop at all until the mid-’70s,” Cadzow said. “Before that, the entire focus of the LSU community was [Northgate] in terms of shopping and entertainment.”Cadzow said the houses along Carlotta, East State and Ivanhoe streets — originally named Louisiana, State and University streets, respectively — were then occupied mostly by professors, business owners and their children — a stark contrast to the neighborhood’s primarily college-aged demographics today.Although hundreds of businesses have come and gone in Northgate, several have remained constant, becoming bona fide fixtures of the University. Louie’s Cafe, a 24-hour diner on State Street serving its signature veggie omelet and hash-browns, originally opened on Chimes Street in 1941 and is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Baton Rouge. Founder and owner Louie Sisk ran the restaurant until his death in 1977. His wife Nana took over the business for a few years but eventually sold the cafe to its current owner, Jimmy Wetherford. Wetherford attended the University and bought the restaurant with two friends when he was 22 years old. In 1986, the cafe moved to its current location on State Street.”We have a tremendous number of alumni that still love to come to Louie’s and get some hash browns,” Wetherford said. “I see and hear from people almost every day. We’ve been open 24 hours for a long time.”Opened in 1937, The Varsity Theatre is the oldest remaining business in the neighborhood. Having evolved into a nightclub, The Varsity is still a popular entertainment destination for University students.Located next to The Varsity is The Chimes restaurant, a Louisiana-style bar and grill that opened in 1983. Before, the building had always been a pharmacy, most famously Sitman’s Drugs during the ’40s and Maxwell’s Drugs during the ’50s.”[Alumni] always remember the drug store on the corner and the Varsity Theatre,” Cadzow said. Many Louisiana businesses, like Baum’s Fine Pastries, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, The Backpacker, Chelsea’s Cafe, Co-op Bookstore, Kadair’s Audio and Video and Bet-R grocery either started at Northgate or had early locations there.Billy Prescott, co-owner of the Co-op Bookstore on Burbank Drive, grew up with his family in Northgate. His dad opened the original Co-op on Chimes Street in 1932. The store sold textbooks and art supplies, as it still does today, and was located where Highland Coffees is now.”I see professors and students every day,” Prescott said. “I see customers that used to come to the Chimes location bringing their grandchildren to shop. They still remember going to the ‘old Co-op.'”In 1973, a fire destroyed the Co-op and several other businesses near the corner of Highland and Chimes streets. After a long six months, the Co-op re-opened in a building in the Northgate shopping center. It would remain there until 2006, when the shopping center was torn down.Inga’s Subs and Salads, The Chimes, The Bicycle Shop and Fed Ex Kinkos have been at Northgate for nearly 25 years, and The Chimes Text Book Exchange is in the same building as the Kappa Alpha fraternity house, originally built around 1929. Working with University alumnus Trey Pentecost, Cadzow put on a “history of Northgate” show in his coffee shop last spring.Cadzow plans to eventually submit his research to Hill Memorial Library, turning his white poster board of University history into something curious students and alumni can appreciate. “I thought it would be a shame for us to lose that history simply because nobody had ever taken the time to try to compile it,” Cadzow said. “I felt a certain urgency to do this project while photographs were still able to be found.”
—-Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]