Looking Back… Labor Day in 1922… at Riverside Park in Central!

Looking Back… Labor Day in 1922… at Riverside Park in Central!

Delightful Resort with 3,600-foot Pavilion, Air Typhoon Cooling With a Restaurant, Dances on Sundays

by Woody Jenkins, Central City News

“On the banks of the Comite a short distance from Baton Rouge is located a pleasure resort equipped and furnished to meet the requirements of the most critical or exacting amusement seeker.

We refer to Riverside Park to which a representative of Woman’s Enterprise recently paid a visit to be delightfully surprised at the magnitude of the undertaking. The Park was found to be planned and constructed upon a magnificent scale embracing the very latest and best ideas of what a pleasure resort should be.

— Woman’s Enterprise, 1922

CENTRAL — Hardly a man or woman is still alive who can remember a wonderful resort that existed here in the 1920’s on the banks of the Comite River near Hooper Road.

It was called Riverside Park.  A feature story in the September 1922 edition of the Woman’s Enterprise, a Baton Rouge newspaper at the time, heralded the beautiful beaches, clear river, “sylan retreats,” restaurant, bathhouse facilities, and the 3,600-square-foot Dance Pavillion, which was cooled with “an air typhoon cooling system” that was driven by an eight-horsepower engine that delivered “11,000 cubic feet of cool air every minute.”

Wow, on these hot days in 2011, I’d like to experience that!

An ad in the same issue of the Woman’s Enterprise invited Baton Rougeans to “Riverside Park on the Breezy Comite, Take Plank Road to Howell’s Store, then Hooper Road.”

The ad promoted “Dances every Sunday night from 8 to 12 p.m.” with “Music by One of the Best Jazz Orchestras in the State.”

The ad warned, “Objectionable Characters Barred”!  Mr. T. H. Daigre was listed as the proprietor.

Mr. Charlie Carmena, 89, who has lived his entire life (except for the war) on Blackwater Road and Comite Drive, remembers at age three passing by the park with his dad on the way to Baton Rouge.

“I begged him to stop but I don’t think he ever did.  A lot of people in our area didn’t approve of the park because of the dancing,” he said.  Mr. Carmena said the park was located on the south side of Hooper Road on the west side of the Comite River.

Ms. Ned Carpenter, 91, grew up just north of the park but said, “My daddy wouldn’t let us go there.”

However, Mr. Walter Bliss, 92,  who grew up on Hooper Road, remembers the Riverside Park clearly.  He said in those days Hooper Road was a bit farther south from where it is now and followed what is now called South Blackwater Road.  Riverside Park was about 100 yards south of Hooper, which was a gravel road, he said.

“It was a nice park with a cafe to eat in and also a dance hall.  They were owned by different people.  Lots of people would come from Baton Rouge.  There was a sand bar in front of the cafe, and there was entertainment on the sand bar, including a water slide.”

“When the Comite would flood, the cafe would be damaged or destroyed, and they would have to rebuild.  Finally, the owner of the cafe gave up because of the cost. But the dance pavillion continued in operation.  Some of the neighbors were set against it, especially when the cafe closed.  We were never allowed to go back after that,” he said.

In about 1929, the dance hall was disassembled and moved to Greenwell Springs Road near Sullivan and was renamed Beech Grove, he said.  The Eisworth store was nearby.

A lot of people remember the Beech Grove dance hall, and the late Miss Camille Kennard used to speak of it often.

After the Riverside Park closed, Mr. Bliss said people continued to come to the site to swim.  “There was no swimming in Baton Rouge, and this was the best place to come.”

The bridge in those days was right over a deep spot that was perfect for swimming and diving.

“Every weekend, there were lines of cars parked up and down Blackwater Road as people came to picnic and swim,” Mr. Bliss said.

On Labor Day 1922 — 89 years ago — Morris’ Rough Riders performed in the Dance Pavillion at Riverside Park, according to the ad.

It’s a shame that more of us don’t take time to enjoy the beautiful Comite River.  A nice beach is available at the Blackwater Conservation Park on Hooper Road.

 

Our thanks to Mrs. Vickie Carney of the Central & Greenwell Springs Historic Society for making this story possible.

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