Beauregard Town

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beauregard Town, Baton Rouge, Louisiana is a historic district in downtown Baton Rouge, anchored by Government Street.

Beauregard Town was commissioned in 1806 by Elias Beauregard. Beauregard Town is the second oldest neighborhood in Baton Rouge and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Beauregard Town is the area bounded by North Blvd., South Blvd, East Blvd., and on the west by St. Louis St. Government Street (or the "Grand Rue" as Beauregard wanted it) runs through the middle of Beauregard Town, with four streets - Beauregard, Grandpre, Penalvert, and Somerulos - approaching it on diagonal angles in the form of an "X," typical of the European manner of town design of the time. These streets are named for Beauregard himself, for Don Carlos Louis Boucher de Grand Pré (the Spanish administrator in 1806), for Roman Catholic Bishop Luis de Penalver (the bishop in 1806), and for the Marquis de Someruelos, Captain-General of Cuba. Beauregard named other streets after rulers: Philip, Louis, Ferdinand, Charles, Napoleon, and Maximilian (several of these namesakes became saints through later translation error). Other streets Beauregard named after countries and continents: Spain, France, America, and Europe.

Historic homes in Beauregard Town include the Governor Henry L. Fuqua House (circa 1834) and the Williams House (circa 1890), both on Napoleon Street, as well as the Judge Robert D. Beale House (circa 1840) on the corner of St. Louis and Government streets.

Today, many of the homes have been renovated and are used as law offices.