OVERVIEW

It was on October 15, 1912, that DeRidder, not Singer, had been chosen as the parish seat. One of the first major duties of elected police jurors was to provide for a permanent courthouse and jail. A donation of ten lots in the Hudson River Addition was accepted from the Hudson River Lumber Company.

"Colonel" William Louis Stevens of New Orleans was selected to design the courthouse as well as the jail because he was renowned as a specialist in institutional architecture. Falls City Construction of Louisville, Kentucky, was the contractor who completed the structure in 1914. It is hard to imagine two buildings next to each other, built at the same time and by the same contractor, that are as different in architecture as the gothic jail and parish courthouse.

According to state historian Donna Fricker, Historic Preservation of the Louisiana Office of Tourism, during the early 1900's, there was a period when opulence was often displayed in public buildings to symbolize power of governing authority. It was a period in which historical architectural styles were being reviewed and elaborateness was evidence of pride and prosperity.

Prosperity could be attributed to the sawmills in the area due to the virgin timber clear-cutting of the landscape. Businesses flourished as railroads made their way to the parish.

The large, three-story structure occupies a city square in the heart of historical downtown DeRidder. It has buff-colored brick trimmed with white-glazed terra-cotta and stone. It rests on a half-submerged basement podium which contains offices. The structure is topped by a large dome which rests on a tall, square, windowed base with beveled corners. A clock face extends out from the bottom of the dome on all four sides. At each corner sits a pair of stone vases. The clock in the dome with its four faces, originally hand wound, has been converted to electric motors. Two mercury weighted glass vials manipulate a bicycle chain pulley which operates the clock mechanism. The clockworks name plate is inscribed, "Made by Seth Thomas Clock Co. Thomaston, Conn, U.S.A."

The courthouse is connected to the jail by a tunnel which allowed prisoners to be moved from jail to court out of public view.

The building consists of a three-story main block with a pair of two-story side wings, all of which is set on an English basement. Each of the two main elevations has a massive two-story coupled lonic columnar loggia which is approached via flights of granite steps. Each loggia is surmounted by an oversided parapet which contains the third story of the main block. This parapet is surmounted by a second inner parapet which in turn is surmounted by a high drum and a square dome. Overall, the courthouse reaches a height of six stories at the apex of the dome. Each of the side wings has a secondary wing protruding from the end. This yields a total of six receding planes which make up each of the main fronts of the courthouse. The columns and all of the trim are of white glazed terra cotta.

The courthouse is entered through an octagonal lobby with axial corridors which run to the ends of the building. The courtroom is a two-story space which occupies the second and third stories of the main block. At one time the dome and lantern were part of the courtroom space, but in 1960 the courtroom ceiling was lowered, thus obscuring the upper part of the room.

Despite interior changes, the courthouse still retains its architectural integrity. Its status as a landmark is entirely dependent upon its exterior which embodies all of the of the Beaux Arts characteristics which establish the courthouse as an example of that style. These include the coupled colossal columns, the elaborate symmetrical massing, the use of receding planes in the facade composition, and the relative profusion of classical details.

The Beauregard Parish Courthouse is locally significant in the area of architecture as the architectural landmark of Beauregard Parish. Its opulent Beaux Arts design is in sharp contrast to the fairly ordinary early-twentieth century one and two story commercial buildings and frame residences which make up the bulk of the parish's patrimony. It is easily Beauregard Parish's largest building, as well as the only example of a domed structure with classical details. It is also the only building in the parish with colossal order columns.

Beauregard Parish was created in 1912. The courthouse constructed in 1914 is the parish's first and only courthouse. It was placed on the National Register of Historical Properties on September 22, 1983.

Brasseaux, Carl A.; Conrad, Glenn R.; and Robinson, R. Warren, The Courthouses of Louisiana

Lafayette, LA: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of LA at Lafayette

State of Louisiana, Historical Preservation Div. of the Dept. of Culture, Recreation and Tourism

Provided by: Velmer Lenora Smith, DeRidder historian