Time Stands Still for Old South Bossier Home

 Along Highway 71 in south Bossier stands a home that seems somewhat out of place. Part of no neighborhood, it’s located in a field not far from Walker Place Park and the Brookshires Grocery Arena with majestic, white columns and a brick façade. I’ve long been curious about the home’s history, and apparently others have too, as evidenced by a recent email to the History Center asking about the place.

Newspaper accounts state that the two-story colonial dates to the World War II era. An article in The Shreveport Times from August 4, 1998, describing renovation efforts at the house, states “Construction workers last week began refurbishing the 3,000 square-foot home, which was built in the early 1940s …” An ad in a 1945 edition of The Shreveport Journal lists the place for sale. “Upstairs there are three exceptionally large bedrooms with two baths complete,” according to the ad. “Downstairs there is the kitchen with many built-in features, a large dining room, breakfast room, living room that is huge and comfortable.” Included were a three-car garage, and on the home’s east side, a large porch. The showplace was called Rainbow Manor, the name coming from the land on which the home stood, Rainbow Plantation. Also included were stables and three large barns.

According to an article written by Bossier Parish Historian Clif Cardin in the Bossier Press Tribune on October 26, 2000, this property was called Chalk Level Plantation in the 1800s, and later Red Chute Plantation before being renamed Rainbow. One of the earliest accounts I found of the plantation being referred to as Rainbow was a story in The Shreveport Journal from July 6, 1915 discussing the sub-division of the 1,000-acre property for farming. “The plantation will be divided into 20-acre tracts, each fenced and provided with a house and barn,” the article states. “The buyers will be supplied with horses and wagons, implements and seed and feed for the first year.” This venture fell through.

In 1946, planter and cattle breeder John Walker, Jr. bought the home and the surrounding land, which, by then, encompassed 360 acres. At least part of that acreage was later used for equestrian training, as evidenced by a pictorial in the December 6, 1963 issue of The Shreveport Journal showing young people on horseback at the property jumping over obstacles. An accompanying article states, “Learning to jump and teaching their horses to jump is of particular interest among the youngsters.”

By the mid-1970s, suburban growth was envisioned for this area of south Bossier. The Shreveport Journal reported in an article on January 17, 1974, “Plans for … development of a major residential-commercial project in Bossier City … were revealed today by the Don Coleman Construction Company, Inc. The development will be on land formerly called the Rainbow Plantation.” According to the article, the home was to remain on site.

Although those plans didn’t come to full fruition, the home did remain and was occupied by a Walker family member until February 1996. Two years later, the city owned the home and began refurbishing efforts, intending to turn the vacant house into an arts and information center, complete with state-of-the art conference facilities, but results of a lawsuit, brought by the U. L. Coleman Company over traffic access to the Teague Parkway, forced the city to abandon the idea and relinquish ownership. The home was used for office space during construction of the nearby arena, and the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings football team briefly used the home for office space in the early 2000s. Since then, it has apparently stood mostly empty and silent. While the tides of change move swiftly around it, for the home, time seems to stand still.

If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/

Images: 

• Home shown in sales ad/The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 5, 1945
• Tommy Skiffington making a jump on his horse Rusty/The Shreveport Journal, Dec. 6, 1963

Article by: Kevin Flowers

Rainbow Plantation Purchased for Italian Colonization

During the first world war, an organization by the name of Louisiana Colonization, Construction, Oil and Gas company purchased the Rainbow Plantation in the summer of 1915. Robert R. Emery was the vice president of the organization, and he secured the $40,000 purchase of the 1,000-acre property from the current owners at that time, George P. Murray and John E. Murray. The Rainbow Plantation, which was located four miles below Shreveport in South Bossier, was purchased for colonization purposes.

According to an article published in The Shreveport Journal on July 6, 1915, “The Louisiana Colonization, Construction, Oil and Gas company stock is largely owned by Italians, and the company proposes to put Italian farmers, truck gardeners and fruit growers on the land it has purchased. It is capitalized at $200,000. The officers and directors of the company are as follows: Joseph R. Tucker of Shreveport, president; Joseph Di Carlo of New Orleans, first vice president; Robert R. Emery of Shreveport, second vice president; D. Zagone, Shreveport, treasurer; A. Tingali, secretary. The directors are: J. W. Peyton, Joseph Sunseri, Frank De Fatta, Phillip Tucker, Joseph P. Glorioso, John Cordaro, Sam Ginnoni, and V. L. Campisi of Shreveport, and Joseph H. Tingali of Detroit. Messrs. Barnett & Keeney are the attorneys.

“The plantation will be divided into 20-acre tracts, each fenced and provided with a house and barn. The buyers will be supplied with horses and wagons, implements, and seed and feed for the first year.

“These tracts will be sold to Italian farmers only, and they will be given every convenience for comfortable and sanitary living. Graveled roads will be built, deep well water piped to the houses which also will be provided with gas for fuel and, eventually, with electricity.

“A school house and a church will be built this summer. The company is now erecting a building for store purposes. An experimental farm of sixty acres has been reserved and will be one of the first tracts to be put into cultivation. On it will be started everything that can be successfully grown in this climate for the instruction of farmers who come from other sections of the country, and, as its name implies, experiments will be made with profitable products unknown now to this section.

“Arrangements have been made to place twelve families on the land just as soon as possession can be had, which probably will be early in November. Permission has been secured, however, to proceed with the erection of the necessary houses at once.

“One of the farmers who will settle on the land has bought sixty acres, and will plant an up-to-date vineyard with the best varieties of Mediterranean grapes, the so-called California types. He will instal [sic] a heating plant and piping system with which to warm the ground and the air about the vines when necessary to defeat frost.

“Every building in the colony will be painted white, and the owners have already dubbed it ‘The White City.’”

In another article published in The Shreveport Times, July 7, 1915, it was reported that, “It is the belief of the company’s officers that, following the close of the war in Europe, Italian immigration to this country will be enormous, and they intend to take advantage of this circumstance to select the best of the immigrants for their colonies. They expect to buy a great deal more land in this section and treat it in the manner they are handling Rainbow Plantation.”

The reason the Italian Americans wanted to colonize during that time is most likely because they were often shunned by the dominant white culture in Louisiana, including Bossier Parish. By forming their colony, they would have a stronger sense of community, allowing them to support one another and create opportunities to improve their socio-economic status.

To learn more about the history of Rainbow Plantation and local communities in Bossier Parish, visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City.

By: Amy Robertson