Elizabeth Hospital Building

The Elizabeth Hospital Building, at what is now 230 Poplar Street in Elizabeth, Louisiana, was apparently built in 1924.

Elizabeth Hospital Building
Identified as Elizabeth Town Hall in 2005
Elizabeth Hospital Building is located in Louisiana
Elizabeth Hospital Building
Location230 Poplar Street, Elizabeth, Louisiana
Coordinates30.8649°N 92.79551°W / 30.8649; -92.79551
Area0.8 acres (0.32 ha)
Built1924
Built byIndustrial Lumber Company
Architectural styleColonial Revival
NRHP reference No.85000092[1]
Added to NRHPJanuary 18, 1985

Elizabeth was a sawmill town founded and platted by the Industrial Lumber Company in 1907, within a 70,000 acres (280 km2) area of long leaf yellow pine that the company acquired in 1905. The huge Elizabeth mill started operation in 1909, and Elizabeth became the company's headquarters. It supervised the lumber mill's production capacity of up to 160,000 board-feet of lumber daily (using one shift), and 150,000 board-feet of daily capacity in two other mills at Oakland (about 180 miles north in Union Parish) plus more in a mill in Vinton (about 80 miles southwest), all connected by company-built railroads.[2]

In 1907 the company owned mills in nearby Oakdale and in Vinton. To expand production, in 1907 it opened a new mill at Elizabeth, in a 70,500 acres (285 km2) parcel of long leaf yellow pine that the firm acquired in 1905. It platted a mill site and town site, and opened operation in 1909.[2]

The Industrial Lumber Company's mill at Elizabeth processed 160,000 bf/day. Given how the lumber industry worked in Louisiana in that era, this mill, like others, likely operated for only a few years, producing vast amounts of lumber, until all available forest in the area was clearcut.[3]

The hospital building, a two-story frame structure, has a stone at its front steps with date 1924, but it may have been older. 1924 may have been when it was restored or rebuilt after a fire. It is 11 bays wide and two rooms deep, with a central corridor. It has "a central aedicule motif arched entrance under a pediment", and its "exterior features three different types of clapboarding, which lends a subtle textured effect." It is somewhat Colonial Revival in style."[2]

By 1985, the town included only residential buildings (50 to 75 workers' cottages, and several larger houses presumed to have been for managers), the hospital, the company-built Methodist church, and "a Catholic church which may or may not have been built by Industrial."[2]

In 1985 the hospital building of the town was deemed "locally significant in the area of industry because it best represents the community's origins and early history as a lumber company town."[2]

In 1985 it was the Elizabeth Town Hall, in Town of Elizabeth. Before the 2020 census it became Village of Elizabeth.

In 2022, the building is still identified by sign above its front door as Elizabeth Town Hall.[4]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation staff; Warren Clark; Jewel Gunter; George Laird; Dorothy Lejeune (October 1984). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Elizabeth Hospital Building / Elizabeth Town Hall". National Park Service. Retrieved September 26, 2022. With accompanying five photos from 1984
  3. The Louisiana Lumber Boom (c.1880-1925) (PDF). State of Louisiana.
  4. Google Streetview imagery dated January 2022. Imagery might be viewable here


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