Winding quietly to the west of the University’s campus is a road that has mirrored the path of the Mississippi River for generations.
For decades, River Road has been an escape from the urban confines of Baton Rouge into the wide-open cattle pastures that line the Mississippi’s levees.
But, the course of River Road is changing.
The area of state Highway 327, or River Road, that extends from Skip Bertman Drive to approximately five miles south of the University’s campus is moving from an agricultural nest of homesteads to a more densely populated residential area of town.
While developers hope many people will move onto the road, some who already live there said the area should remain as it is — “peaceful and quiet.”
 
Remembering Yesteryear
At the turn of the 20th century, the Mississippi River was used the way an interstate is used today.
People used the river to travel, but more importantly in the agricultural South, the river was the way farmers shipped crops from fields to markets.
 “Most everyone owned the land across River Road on the levee in addition to their farm land. You used to even be able to own property 30 feet out into the river itself,” said David Floyd, director of the University’s Rural Life Museum. “Farmers would put a dock there so they would have a place to ship their crops.”
Floyd said he thinks it is ironic that River Road is being developed, because for a long time, many people in Baton Rouge thought it was too far away from anything to be developed.
“In 1924, Gov. John M. Parker and the Board of Supervisors decided to move the University from downtown to its current location,” Floyd said. “A lot of people wondered if the University could be successful because it was so far away from the rest of Baton Rouge. Now, River Road is being developed as part of the city, and it’s farther away than the University is from Baton Rouge.”
Floyd said the first major change of River Road’s landscape occurred during the 1930s and ‘40s when chemical plants began moving to the road to get away from the city.
Today, the chemical plants and holding facilities are intermingled with cattle fields along River Road.
“What used to be little hamlets of farms became chemical plants,” Floyd said. “When I was young, we could eat shrimp right out of the river, but there’s no way you could do that today — not with the chemical plants out there.”
Teresa James, a historian for Nottoway Plantation in White Castle, said the change River Road underwent — from agricultural to industrial — came as a result of the infamous Mississippi River flood of 1927.
The flood killed an estimated 250 people and left the wreckage of 130,000 homes in its wake.
“The flood of 1927 changed everything,” James said. “The Corps of Engineers had to put the levee system in, and people lost a lot of their connection to the river.”
Though James said she would like to see neighborhoods replace the industry on River Road, she said she will be sad to see the farmland disappear.
“If more residences were put on River Road, it would bring back some of the beauty of the area — some of how it should be,” James said. “But I wish it could remain a quiet, rural area forever. I know that’s impossible because time has changed River Road. It has lost some of the innocence it had when I was a girl.”
 
URBANIZATION
One of the first residential developments to move onto River Road was a subdivision of townhomes called Lake Beau Pre’.
Greg Flores, owner of Lake Beau Pre’ Development, said the subdivision of 206 townhomes began in 1997 as a place for students and other residents of Baton Rouge to live in an area that was not as busy as other parts of the city.
“We had already developed land close to River Road, so it was a natural move to expand onto the adjacent property,” Flores said. “There was land available elsewhere, but we decided that we liked the area and how quiet it was.”
Flores said when he began planning a subdivision on River Road, many people he spoke with thought the neighborhood would fail — just like in Parker’s time — because it was too far away from downtown.
“Eight years ago, people thought it would be a huge mistake to build on River Road,” Flores said. “But the city is growing, and it demands that the area around River Road grow too.”
Flores said he thinks the neighborhood will improve the area because it will be a change from the industry already on River Road.
“Most people don’t want to live next to a chemical plant,” Flores said. “A subdivision like this will be much better for the surrounding neighborhoods.”
 
‘the Hustle and Bustle’
While most of the developers of River Road say that their projects are going to improve the area, some of the people who already live there said they aren’t so sure.
Michael Courtney, who lives in a small neighborhood at the intersection of Trinity and River roads, said he is excited to see the development once it is finished, but he does not know if he likes the side effects the construction brings with it.
“There is a lot more traffic out here in the last few years,” Courtney said. “Some of the people who drive out here now drive like crazy people. They’ll cut you off as you leave your own driveway.”
Courtney said he can already see and hear the evidence of River Road’s development.
“It used to be all woods around here, but now it’s a lot more built up,” he said. “The city is working its way out here, and it’s just not quiet anymore. They’re taking away some of how we live.”
Courtney said he hopes the development does not force the remaining farmers and cattlemen on River Road to sell their land and move away.
“They need to leave it country out here because people need a place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city,” Courtney said. “If they keep building out here, it’s going to be nothing but apartment buildings.”
Marilyn Taylor has lived nestled among cattle pastures on River Road since 1962.
She said she loves the tranquil environment River Road offers its residents.
“It’s always been peaceful and quiet out here,” Taylor said. “I know it will be developed eventually, but I like it how it is.”
Taylor said it “breaks [her] heart” to see River Road lose the qualities that attracted her there in the first place.
“I know they call it progress, but I just hate to see the peace and quiet of the country going away,” she said. “I’ve always felt like I lived in a cocoon out here.”
And as River Road goes through its metamorphosis, Taylor said she will always remember what it was like when she moved here four decades ago — “remarkably simple.”
Click here for Part II