Those familiar with the area around the LSU lakes may remember a large pink mansion with white columns and an old New Orleans-style slate roof that once dominated a large peninsula on the North lake.
Lake joggers and commuters could easily distinguish the home through the giant oaks that border the property, and even drivers on I-10 East passing over the lakes could see it.
Until its recent destruction, the “Pink House” at 2644 East Lakeshore Dr. had been said to be a popular landmark for quite some time.
According to former owner Ned Dolese, in 1930, the area from the Baton Rouge Recreational golf course off Dalrymple Drive to the neighborhood off Morning Glory Drive used to be part of what was once Richland Plantation.
A company called Caz Perk Realty bought this area for the purpose of developing a subdivision.
It was at this time that the LSU lakes were dug out and the dirt was used to help elevate the LSU campus.
On the North lake, developers preserved a 2.9 acre piece of land to be sold as three separate lots.
In 1931, a man named King Harding Knox, who was the son of a wealthy banker who chartered Baton Rouge’s first bank, bought the entire lot and built a 10,000 square-foot mansion and a 1,200 square-foot guest home.
Jolie Berry, a university and Chi Omega sorority alumni, said that after the home was constructed, Knox’s wife and Pauline Nichols founded the LSU chapter of Chi Omega sorority.
Mrs. Knox opened her doors to the sorority and all Chi Omega business was handled at the home.
“Since there were no sorority homes at LSU at that time, Mrs. Knox decided to use her home,” said Berry. “It wasn’t until 1964 that sorority houses were built at LSU.”
Over the course of the pink home’s 72-year history, it passed through the hands of many different owners and survived many renovations.
Former owners include banker Theo Cangelosi, attorney Bob Jackson, local legislator William Daniel, and Arlin Deese, who has owned the Myrtles and Nottaway plantations.
Among those who had renovated the home was A. Hayes Towne, a renowned Louisiana architect who was responsible for giving the home its big white columns.
In May 2003, Dolese, who bought the home at a sheriff’s auction, sold the house to Rob Arkley, a wealthy businessman from Eureka, Calif.
Arkley and his wife, Sheri, were displeased with the home and decided to have it torn down.
University student Zach Martin, a construction management sophomore, lived in the home’s guest apartment last year before its destruction.
He was not pleased with the Arkleys’ decision to tear down the home.
“It was such a beautiful place to live,” Martin said. “It’s a shame that some outsider from California can come in and bulldoze a piece of Baton Rouge’s history.”
Dolese said the Arkleys plan to build another home on the property, but no other details were available.