Spanish Period (1779-1810)
See also: Battle of Baton Rouge (1779)A colony of Pennsylvania German farmers settled to the south of town, having moved north to higher ground from their original settlement on Bayou Manchac after a series of floods in the 1780s. Known locally as "Dutch Highlanders" ("Dutch" being a corruption of Deutsch, meaning German), they settled along a line of bluffs that served as barrier to the Mississippi River floodplain. Historic Highland Road, located in the heart of present-day Baton Rouge, was originally established as a supply road for the indigo and cotton plantations of the early settlers. They named two major roads in the area, Essen and Siegen lanes, after cities in Germany. The Kleinpeter and Staring families were amongst the most prominent of the early German families in the area. Their descendants have remained active in local business affairs since.
In 1800, the Tessier-Lafayette buildings were built on what is now Lafayette Street. The buildings are still standing today. Development of sections followed. In 1805, the Spanish administrator, Don Carlos Louis Boucher de Grand Pré, commissioned a plan for the area today known as Spanish Town. In 1806, Elias Beauregard led a planning commission for what is today known as Beauregard Town.
Read more about this topic: History Of Baton Rouge
Famous quotes containing the words spanish and/or period:
“The Bermudas are said to have been discovered by a Spanish ship of that name which was wrecked on them.... Yet at the very first planting of them with some sixty persons, in 1612, the first governor, the same year, “built and laid the foundation of eight or nine forts.” To be ready, one would say, to entertain the first ship’s company that should be next shipwrecked on to them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We are in a period when old questions are settled and the new are not yet brought forward. Extreme party action, if continued in such a time, would ruin the party. Moderation is its only chance. The party out of power gains by all partisan conduct of those in power.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)