Community

Cultural:

Museums: Heritage Museum & Cultural Center
1606 Main St. Baker, LA 70714 (225)774-1776

Libraries: EBR Parish Public Library - New Facility Projected projected for the year 2000
4761 Groom Road, Baker LA 70714 (225)775-3125

Theaters: Baker Little Theater
3121 Van Buren St. Baker, LA 70714 (225)774-5953

Brief History of Baker

For more than 2 centuries there has been some sort of community in the area now known as Baker, Louisiana. And even before that, the place was home to the "red man". No particular Indian tribe inhabited this area, but bands of Choctaws and Creeks rambled throughout. The earliest known occupation of our state was 5,000 years ago, in fact by a people referred to collectively as Archaic. We are all familiar with stories of Indian tribes in the Scots Bluff area, just 5 miles south of Baker, and the famous "Red Stick" that marked the high point on the Mississippi River and for which Baton Rouge (French for Red Stick) was named.

From the time of Indian occupation and the earliest explorers to the area, the mighty Mississippi River has been predominantly responsible for the development of the areas skirting its banks. It played a major role in the development of an area called West Florida, of which Baker is a part.

The first settlers came to this area in the early 1700's and there has been continuous settlement since that time. Great plantations flourished in the rich soils adjacent to the river, three of which were located in the Baker area. Parts of the Baker, Groom and the Young properties comprised an area that is now Baker. The small community got its name from Josephus Baker, owner of the Baker Plantation, across which the Yazoo - Mississippi Valley railroad line tying Baton Rouge to Vicksburg ran. The line was completed in 1884, and trains made regular stops on Mr. Baker's property to drop and pick up mail, cargo and passengers. A post office was established at the ''Baker Stop'' on May 3, 1888, and the area became known for mail purposes as Baker, Louisiana. It was not incorporated until 1944 as a village. It achieved the status of ''town'' in 1952, and officially became a city in 1962.

Today, Baker has a population of 13,483, but still retains its small town atmosphere, as it enjoys the best of both worlds - being within the metropolitan area of Baton Rouge, yet having the advantage of local government, with a friendly, home town feeling where community pride and participation are a way of life.

The People and Places of Baker, Louisiana

Baker has a strong atmosphere of community, and its people are fiercely proud of its long and unique history. Baker has been the hometown of Senators and Congressmen, professional athletes and gold medal Olympians. It has been the site of great plantations and homes, gracious buildings and important cultural centers.

Little remains of the historic and beautiful old structures and places to bear witness to our unique history, but three places have been designated as Historic Buildings or Sites on the National Register of Historic Places. They are: Leland College, the Cushman-Slaugter Home (Heritage Museum), and the Baker Presbyterian Church.

Of the three listings, Leland College perhaps holds the distinction of being the most significant to our history and heritage. Nothing but a few crumbling walls and an entry marker remain of the original buildings at Leland College, but it has the distinction of being one of the permanent sites of America's first college for African-Americans. The college, first located in New Orleans, was moved to Baker on November 1, 1923, after its original buildings burned. The school provided education from first grade through university level for black students. After it closed its doors to students seeking higher education, the school continued as a public school for black students in the Baker area until segregation was finally abolished. Many local residents of Baker attended Leland school in the elementary grades. A more complete history and personal accounting by former students of the school is available in the publication Baker, the First Two Hundred Years.

The Cushman-Slaughter Home, which houses the Heritage Museum, received designation on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. The home was originally constructed in 1906 by Dr. William Cushman, a general practitioner, who later became parish Coroner. When he moved to Baton Rouge in 1917 to serve in that capacity, he sold the home to Miss. Carrie Slaughter, a local teacher who lived there until the early 1960's. The home had a succession of owners and stood empty for several years before being acquired by the City of Baker in 1974, to house the Heritage Museum. The home is a two bedroom Victorian era cottage with strong classical influences, and its architecture was rather unique to this rural farming community. For that reason, the building was listed in the National Register.

The Baker Presbyterian Church was built in 1898, and was also listed in the National Register because of its unique architecture. The Church is of the Victorian era as well, and has strong Gothic influences. The histories of the Cushman-Slaughter home and the Presbyterian Church are also available in Baker's history book, Baker the First Two Hundred Years.

The Charles E. Heine Memorial Park is an award winning two-mile park along the Illinois Central Railroad in Baker, and was honored as one of President George Bush's Thousand Points of Light in 1990. The park was Baker's unique way of dealing with an unsightly area in the center of the city. Through memorial donations, rose gardens and flowerbeds were created to line the railroad as it runs through Baker. The park is the site of a magnificent light display during the Christmas holidays.

Baker's Twin City - Joal Fadiouth, Senegal

In 1997 acting primarily for economic development reasons, the City of Baker established, through Sister Cities International, a Twin City relationship with the city of Joal-Fadiouth, Senegal, in Africa. Representatives of Joal-Fadiouth first traveled to Baker in August of 1997, to invite their participation in the venture. The small city in western Africa is located near the seashore, and near famous Goree Island, the gateway from Africa to the Americas for slave trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It has a very strong historical significance to both countries, and as a developing nation, it has great needs that could be matched to resources in our country.

Following their visit to our city, Baker sent a delegation to Senegal in November of that year, in search of an economic alliance between the two cities. They found the possibilities for commercial activity to be endless, as expected, but they found something else as well. They found great similarities between the people of Senegal and the people of Baker. They found friendship, and they found that the cultural exchanges were as important to both cities as were the economic ones. The Baker delegation was treated with kind hospitality and they were given gifts and memories for a lifetime. While there, our representatives signed the first half of the Sister Cities agreement, and as a symbol of their respect for Baker and its people, a plot of ground near the center of the city was given to Baker on which to erect a monument of their own choosing at some future time.

In February of 1998, an official delegation of 13 people from Senegal came to Baker. They were visitors in our city for nearly a week, and during their visit, the City of Baker dedicated a fountain in their honor. They were guests at several receptions and dinners, including the Louisiana Governor's Mansion. At the culmination of their visit, at an official twinning ceremony, the final agreements were signed creating a Sister City Partnership between Baker, Louisiana, USA, and Joal-Fadiouth, Senegal, Africa. The histories of the two cities and two nations thus became permanently intertwined.