Fire Spurred Growth at Louisiana Tech

 

 

 

An orangish glow cast strange shadows over the town of Ruston during the early morning hours of Monday, January 6, 1936. The eerie sky seemed to reflect that fiery haven ruled by the devil.

When the morning revealed the glow had risen from the complete destruction of the main building at Louisiana Tech, some predicted the end of the small north Louisiana college. But others soon saw it as a “fortunate calamity.”

The day students were scheduled to return to classes after their Christmas holidays, a fire struck “Old Main,” the primary administrative and classroom building and the symbol of the school’s early growth since its founding in 1894.

However, the opportunity for the erection of expanded and up-to-date facilities following the fire led some members of the education community to conclude the burning of Old Main was, in the long run, fortuitous.

Fire broke out sometime before 3:25 a.m. in a biology laboratory under the auditorium at the rear of the building. Ruston, Monroe and Arcadia fire trucks responded but the fire in the massive building could not be stopped until it ran out of fuel. 

Although the external walls were brick, the floors, internal walls, attic and roof, and anything constructed of wood nearly 40 years old burned quickly.

The death of Louisiana Tech, then called Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, was a given, according to the pessimists. No small school like Tech could survive the loss of a huge building like the Old Main, the largest structure on campus, containing administrative offices, classrooms, laboratories, and an auditorium.  

Why Bonnie & Clyde Still Fascinate

So sorry I have not kept this blog up. It's not that I haven't been writing. I've written plenty and most of it can be found at the news site lincolnparishjournal.com.  But I will begin posting many of those articles here.

 

 

At lunch last week, three men I know well sat nearby discussing a new book about the death of outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker—a book I had just read. Although about a dozen previous books address the ambush that relieved mid-America of these killers, “The Trap” aims to tell the true story of their demise.

Two of the three men had personal connections to the story, being related to Prentiss Oakley, a Bienville Parish deputy sheriff who was part of the ambush party. While their interest in the new book comes in part from the familial connection, there’s thousands of other Americans who research and study the Barrow gang and even worship them.

Imagine, adoring two people linked to the murders of 13 men, 12 of them law enforcement officers.

My own interest comes from the couple’s connection to Ruston history and my law enforcement background. About a year before the ambush, Barrow and Parker and Clyde’s brother Buck and Buck’s wife Blanche kidnapped two Ruston residents.

In American crime lore, few duos evoke the same blend of romanticism, rebellion, and tragedy as Barrow and Parker. Ambushed and killed on a rural Bienville Parish road in 1934, they were just 25 and 23 years old. Nearly a century later, their names remain etched in American memory—not merely as criminals, but as cultural icons. What is it about these Great Depression Era outlaws that continues to captivate the public imagination?