Spanish Town, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spanish Town is a historic district anchored by Spanish Town Road in Baton Rouge, the capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana.

Spanish Town was commissioned in 1805 when Baton Rouge was under the control of the Spanish government. Spanish Town holds the title of the oldest neighborhood in Baton Rouge and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The community has gone through many developmental changes since its inception, and serves as a "living history" by hosting an assemblage of surviving structures ranging in date from 1823 to 1975. The oldest structure is the Pino House (built 1823).

Home to a virtual hodgepodge of people hailing from many different social classes, this diverse community is home to artists, writers, musicians, actors, students, teachers, physicians, politicians, and attorneys. Spanish Town was at one time particularly renowned for possessing a higher-than-average proportion of gay residents, though this has waned over the years with urban gentrification. However, despite all of these differences, the neighborhood somehow manages to maintain a unique sense of community.