Allendale Fire

Allendale was a mixed neighborhood of working-class Italian and Sicilian immigrants and Black, Greek and Lebanese families, and the fire of September 4, 1925 left more than 1,200 of them homeless. Strong wind drove the flames north and east along the Texas and Pacific tracks, which helped keep the fire from downtown. Reports say little immediate help came from local, state or federal government, and many immigrant families moved away. Their lots sold cheaply, and many went to African American families. The city later expanded its fire alarm network and worked on its water mains.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Shreveport Municipal Auditorium — 0.6 mi
  The Art Deco hall of 1929 where the Louisiana Hayride went out over KWKH from 1948 to 1960 and where Elvis Presley first played Shreveport on October 16, 1954.
• Shreveport Water Works Museum — 0.7 mi
  An 1887 brick pumping station on McNeill Street where Worthington steam pumps ran until 1980, now a free museum and a National Historic Landmark.
• Spring Street Museum — 0.8 mi
  An 1866 bank building downtown that also held a Freedman's Savings and Trust branch in 1870, now a free LSUS-run museum with a Victorian parlor and the original vault.
• Louisiana State Exhibit Museum — 2.4 mi
  A circular Art Deco museum of 1939 on the Shreveport fairgrounds, with a 1,000-year-old Caddo log boat, rotunda murals and dioramas of early Caddo Parish.

More markers nearby

• St. Paul's Methodist Church — 0.4 mi
• First Jewish Cemetery — 0.5 mi
• Oakland Cemetery (A Brief History) — 0.5 mi
• Oakland Cemetery — 0.5 mi