Young Baton Rougeans gathered downtown to drink beer, party at bars and play historic trivia at the Huey LongNeck Historic Pub Crawl on Thursday night.
The group hosting the pub crawl, Inherit Baton Rouge, is a new sub-group of the Foundation for Historical Louisiana. Inherit kicked off its creation with the pub crawl as a way to garner new members, said public relations senior and FHL intern Emmy Gill.
Young professionals from businesses across Baton Rouge and University students gathered at the Old Governor’s Mansion before spending an hour at each of four bars — The Roux House, Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar & Restaurant, Red Star Bar & Grill and Happy’s Irish Pub.
Attendees enjoyed drinks named after historic figures like Earl Long’s famed mistress, Blaze Starr, a burlesque dancer on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
Public relations senior and former FHL intern Zac Lemoine said attendance was well over 200 people.
“We were planning on 100 so we’re doing way better than that,” Lemoine said.
Gill said the pub crawl was part of a project for her capstone public relations class. Each group in the mass communication course had to pick a nonprofit to work with over the semester.
Lemoine said he is interested in historical preservation, the main goal of FHL.
Lemoine said “knowing where you’re from and better understanding who you are” is key to his interest in preservation.
FHL repairs and renovates historic homes and buildings.
Gill said the organization provides homeowners and developers with education and expertise and sometimes help repair old buildings.
“It’s not just saving some old building, it’s more than that,” Gill said. “It ties into things they’re already interested in.”
Gill said the work they do is culturally, environmentally and sustainably productive. Rather than tear down an old building and rebuild with new materials, updating an older homes save materials that would otherwise be destroyed and lower the cost of construction.
Danielle Honeycutt, deputy director of FHL, said she hopes the pub crawl will be the first domino in many that will encourage interest in and membership of FHL.
Honeycutt said it’s time a younger crowd started taking a greater interest in Baton Rouge history.
“We’re going to be the ones to protect and promote our cultural and architectural history,” Honeycutt said.
Honeycutt said FHL has always thrown around ideas for a pub crawl, but the dream was realized when the public relations group took the idea and ran with it.
“They had the time to work on it, and we had the resources and a building,” Honeycutt said.
Each of the four bars participating in the pub crawl has some historical significance.
“Lucy’s was a livery stable,” Gill said. “You’d bring your horse down there to water while you shopped.”
Lucy’s architect, Edward F. Neild, was also part of the White House renovations and designed the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Mo.
The Roux House was first owned by Sicilian immigrant, Joseph Campagna, for his business, the Union Clothing Company.
Red Star Bar was originally a ship’s chandler and then an art gallery, and Happy’s Irish Pub was the original location of Esnard’s Jewelry Store, which sold LSU class rings.
 
—-
Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]