Depot_Exhibit_Framework_2_0002.pdf

Interpretation of the Texas and Pacific Railway Depot / NPS Visitor Center For Cane River Creole National Historical Park Natchitoches, Louisiana

FEDCOLOGY: David Greenberg, President Jay S. Miller, Certified Interpretive Planner

Ornett Grind, Interpretation Specialist

Interpretation of the Texas and Pacific Railway Depot NPS Visitor Center

November 2021

Page Contents

2 Introduction 3 Purpose 3 Goals 4 Key Officials 5 The Research Process

6 Interpretive Framework for the T&P Depot – the NPS Visitor Center 6 Interpretation and Exhibits 7 Interpretive Themes

9 Exhibit 1 – Welcome and Orientation 9 The Orientation Pavilion

12 Exhibit 2 – Outside the Depot 12 Location 1 - The orientation pavilion 13 Location 2 - Wayside exhibits near the depot continue the story

15 Inside the T&P Depot 15 Exhibit 3 – The T&P Railway comes to Natchitoches 16 Exhibit 4 – Architecture of Segregation 16 Train Platform - Exhibit 1 18 Exhibit 5 – A Difficult History: From Slavery to Leadership 21 Exhibit 6 - The Colored Waiting Room

22 Exhibits on the Train Platform

24 Additional Interpretation

25 Bubble Diagram Description 26 Bubble Diagram

27 Suggestions for the Orientation Pavilion

28 Material available digitally

Introduction

Natchitoches, Louisiana is a small community with a wealth of history. It was established by the French in the 1714 at the western edge of French territory, near the crossroads of the El Camino Real, an east-west route through the New World to Mexico City, and the north-south corridor of the Red River. This crossroads quickly became a trading center between Spanish, French, and Native Ameri-cans. The Spanish and French exchanged the land several times until it became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

The land here was fertile and farms increased in size with goods being shipped to New Orleans on the Red River, and overland. Tobacco and indigo, became major crops and landowners relied on enslaved people to work the fields. Following the invention of the cotton engine (gin), cotton be-came highly profitable and soon replaced tobacco and indigo. The number of enslaved people here and across the cotton-growing regions of the United States increased dramatically as plantation owners became wealthier, increased their land holdings, and bought more enslaved people to clear land and work the fields.

On November 2, 1994, Public Law 103-449 (16 USC 410CC) simultaneously created Cane River Creole National Historical Park and Cane River National Heritage Area. This is the only instance of a National Park unit and National Heritage Area (NHA) being co-legislated to protect and preserve a region’s cultural resources and heritage. The 116,000-acre NHA complements the park by support-ing a community-driven approach to heritage conservation and economic development.

Oakland and Magnolia Plantations, the main buildings and grounds of which constitute the Cane River Creole National Historical Park, are prime examples of historic and modern plantation opera-tions. Both have been managed by the same families for over 200 years. Their main houses and many outbuildings, including some slave quarters, remain in situ.

These two plantation sites are remarkable resources that tell a long story of agriculture, slavery, freedom, sharecropping, mechanization, and life in the Cane River Region. However, there is cur-rently no park visitor center. There is no “starting point” where a visitor to Natchitoches can learn about these plantations, begin to understand the many stories they tell, and start their journey to visit them. To solve this, the Texas and Pacific Railway Depot (Depot), owned by the City of Natchitoches, has been leased to the National Park Service to serve as the visitor center for Cane River Creole National Historical Park. It will provide visitors with an introduction to Oakland and Magnolia Plantations and convey the African American and Creole history along Cane River.

The Depot was constructed in 1927 during the height of the Jim Crow era and was segregated with separate black and white entrances leading to separate waiting rooms of vastly different quality. The structure served as a passenger station and later freight station until 1982, when it was abandoned. Today, the structure, noted for its striking Italianate Renaissance architecture, remains one of the last segregated train stations within Louisiana and has a deep connection to the African American community.

As of October 2021, plans for the building’s adaptive reuse as park offices and visitor center are complete. Construction is expected to begin in December 2021 and be completed in about a year. The goal is for an exhibit firm to complete exhibit planning and fabrication while construc-tion of the building is ongoing and to install the exhibits as soon as possible once the building is open to the public.

Purpose This project presents the interpretive framework for the Depot, including themes, storylines, and exhibit concepts that will guide the exhibit firm through their design and fabrication pro-cess. The shared narrative offered here is inspiring and compelling and offers opportunity for stakeholders to see their story in the vision. The framework includes stories as told by individu-als who shared their experiences and added their unique perspective to the whole. The goal of the framework is to ensure all stories are told, particularly those related to the African American experience along Cane River, and that visitors understand events that continue to shape many lives today.

Goals

1. Build relationships with the community, particularly focusing on African American community members. Meetings were spread throughout various times and days of the week to allow access and gain trust with different partners over a longer period of time.

2. Update the community by reintroducing the Depot project as a NPS visitor center.

3. Invite community input on personal memories and stories to be told in the Depot exhibits.

4. Interpret the building architecture and its use as a segregated depot: The Architecture of Segregation.

5. Exhibits will focus on the depot’s story and meaning to the community.

Key Participants

NPS

Contracting Officer (CO):

Laurie Sherrod Email: laurie_sherrod@nps.gov

Contracting Officer Representative (COR):

Carrie Mardorf, Superintendent Email: carrie_mardorf@nps.gov

Technical Expert:

Barbara Justice, Chief of Interpretation Email: Barbara_justice@nps.gov

Heritage Area Technical Expert:

Rebecca Blankenbaker, Executive Director Email: rebecca@canerivernha.org

Contract team: Fedcology David Greenberg, President Email: David@Fedcology.com

Jay S. Miller, Certified Interpretive Planner Email: InterpComm@SBCglobal.net

Ornett Grind, Interpretation Specialist Email: OrnettGrind@outlook.com

The Research Process

The team met with the African American and Creole communities to encourage them to speak about their memories of the Depot, train travel, and other aspects of the railroad, and to learn about the effect the railroad had on the community and individuals. Their interests and stories were used to develop this interpretation framework.

A series of public meetings were held in Summer 2021 to reach out to the community, gather input, and provide a community forum to share their stories. The meetings were held in the Ben Johnson Center, a familiar and comfortable facility in the heart of the African American community. The public meeting schedule was as follows:

• January 20 - Project start-up phone call

• April 8-10 - On-site meeting at the Depot; met with Carrie Mardorf, Park

Superintendent, and Rebecca Blankenbaker, Executive Director of CRNHA;

toured the heritage area and the National Park sites

• May 25 – Evening community meeting at the Ben Jonson Center

• May 26 – Mid-day meeting with stakeholders and city leaders including the mayor

• June 12 – Depot Open House, “Coffee & Conversation” community drop-in

• June 19 (Juneteenth) - booth manned by NPS and Heritage Area staff – an information sheet was available for interested people to complete.

• August 23 – Depot open house and Union Pacific Steam Train #4014

The first series of meetings included an open format public meeting, followed the next day by a smaller stakeholder group of businesspeople and city leaders to provide more focused input. To engage more people in the process, the team hosted two Depot Open House events, which proved very helpful. The depot has been stabilized and closed to the public since the early 2000s. Opening the building provided an opportunity for the public to tour the building and attracted a crowd. While the community is familiar with the exterior architecture, several members of the public had not been inside the building for decades or at all. People were intrigued with being able to walk through the historic building. By the time of this event, the team had met many local people and knew them by name. Several community members expanded on stories they had told earlier. The open house also brought new faces and new stories.

The second Depot Open House event was held on August 23 in conjunction with the arrival of Union Pacific’s steam engine “Big Boy” 4014. The train is one of the largest steam engines built, and it was impressive as it pulled alongside the Depot. The depot was again open for tours, floorplans of the proposed renovations were on display, and the team was available to meet people and hear their stories as they explored the building and viewed train.

The research process also included gaining an understanding and appreciation for the resources of Oakland and Magnolia Plantations at Cane River Creole National Historical Park and the broader Cane River National Heritage Area. Approximately two days were spent exploring the rural landscapes and historic resources of the area. Additionally, the team spent time in the Special Collections of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches and found resources related to the Texas & Pacific Railroad, including photographs, letters, and tickets which will be useful in the exhibits.

With each trip to Natchitoches we met with park and heritage area staff, Carrie Mardorf and Rebecca Blankenbaker, whose knowledge, engagement, and direction were invaluable. In these meetings the team reviewed on-site meeting strategy, analyzed response, and revised the project focus.

Interpretive Framework for the Depot: the NPS Visitor Center

The following is an exhibit concept framework. The text here is not intended to be used as exhibit copy; rather, it provides direction and context that the exhibit firm is expected to use as a guide. It is a foundation for them to expand upon with research and creativity.

Interpretation and Exhibits The best interpretation is organized around an overarching theme. Themes stem from the site’s resources and the purpose statement and are written to guide interpretation and direct the visitor’s attention. In Cane River Creole National Historical Park’s Foun-dation Document, the purpose statement lays the foundation for understanding the site’s importance.

Cane River Creole National Historical Park: preserves and protects Oakland and Magnolia Plantations and, in partnership with Cane River National Heritage Area and its living communities, preserves the resources of the Cane River region and enhances the understanding of its peoples and traditions through research, interpretation, education, and technical assistance.

Specifically noted here Oakland and Magnolia Plantations, the significant and visible resources of Cane River Creole National Park. Included in the National Parks’ enabling legislation is a mandate to partner with the Cane River National Heritage Area, preserve the area resources, and enhance understanding of its peoples and traditions.

To support the purpose statement, the National Park’s Foundation Document identified nine interpretive themes. Interpretive themes are often described as the key stories or concepts that visitors should understand after visiting a park. They define the most important ideas communi-cated to visitors about a park unit. Themes are derived from, and should reflect, park purpose, significance, resources, and values. Interpretive themes are an organizational tool that reveal and clarify meaning, contexts, and values represented by park resources. Strong themes are accurate and reflect current scholarship and science. Themes help explain why a park story is relevant to people who may otherwise be unaware of connections they have to an event, time, or place associated with the park.

Interpretive Themes Nine interpretive themes are identified in the Cane River Creole National Historical Park Foundation Document:

1. Creole culture emerged from this region’s colonial roots as people adapted to each other in the New World environment. Manifestations of this active culture are evident in language, food, music, architecture, religion, agricultural practices, and settlements.

The term’s meanings have evolved over time.

2. The landscapes and structures of Cane River Creole National Historical Park were affected by the river and its changing course. The river system affected a continuum of change in agricultural practices, cultural heritage, and in the natural environment.

3. The lives of the diverse people associated with Oakland and Magnolia Plantations reflect the resilience, resourcefulness, dedication, and continuous interaction of families and communities along Cane River.

4. The institution of slavery and the act of emancipation have left indelible imprints on many aspects of Cane River life.

5. Changing labor arrangements, such as tenancy and sharecropping, at Oakland and Magnolia Plantations created challenges and opportunities in the aftermath of emancipation. With mechanization came the exodus of many people traditionally associated with these plantations.

Slave/tenant houses at Magnolia Plantation

6. The complexity, integrity, and completeness of the park’s extant vernacular architecture illustrate Creole resilience, resourcefulness, and adaptations to the environment and continue to influence contemporary regional architecture.

7. Religious traditions and spiritual systems are integral to the development and dynamics of the region’s cultures.

8. Agriculture is an integral part of the lives of the people along Cane River.

9. Military conflicts and operations from the 18th to mid-20th century have had a resounding impact on the region’s civilian populations.

Themes 3, 4, and 5 will be used to guide the interpretation story in the Depot.

3) The lives of the diverse people associated with Oakland and Magnolia Plantations reflect the resilience, resourcefulness, dedication, and continuous interaction of families and communities along Cane River.

4) The institution of slavery and the act of emancipation have left indelible imprints on many aspects of Cane River life.

5) Changing labor arrangements, such as tenancy and sharecropping, at Oakland and Magnolia Plantations created additional challenges and opportunities in the aftermath of emancipation. With mechanization came the exodus of many people traditionally associated with these plantations.

The role of agriculture (theme 8) and the plantation way of life will be seen through-out the exhibits.

We further define thematic messaging by introducing a theme statement for each exhibit concept.

Themes are more than an internal planning tool. A strong theme makes an important statement about the site. As such, the visitor should see or hear the theme and have the opportunity to grasp its message. Reading or hearing a theme statement helps the visitor understand the purpose of the exhibit and enables the viewer to organize what he is seeing around a central concept. This mental organization increases comprehension, understanding and memory. Themes may be used as head-ings, pull-quotes, or within the body copy as design dictates, but exhibit themes should be stated to the public in clear terms.

Main house, Oakland Plantation

Following, find the framework for exhibits outside and within the Texas and Pacific Railway depot. Ideally, visitors will first stop at the orientation pavilion outside and across the parkimg lot from the depot. From there the visitor walks to two wayside exhibits at the front of the depot, then enters the white waiting room.

Exhibit 1 – Welcome and Orientation

The Orientation Pavilion This framework proposes that a covered pavilion with seating be constructed across the parking lot from the depot entrance. This will house introductory exhibits that will be available 24 hours a day, and will allow exhibit inside the depot to focus on the history of the Depot, it’s architec-ture, and its impact on the surrounding commuity.

Theme:

In this crossroads of cultures, the landscapes and structures of Oakland and Magnolia plantations are the settings for stories of workers and owners who farmed this land for two centuries.

This theme should be in large print and used as a heading for these exhibits.

Exhibits in the orientation pavilion will provide background information about the two plantation sites managed by the National Park Service, an overview of the National Heri-tage Area, and will include clear maps showing locations and roads. The outdoor pavilion should answer the fundamental questions:

• Why should visitors visit these plantations?

• Why are these plantations unique?

• What are bicentennial farms?

• What is vernacular architecture?

• How do visitors get to the plantations?

• What is the Cane River National Heritage Trail?

• What will visitors do there? (i.e., hours of operation, cost, tour information)

There will also be an exhibit to introduce the depot and its architrecture.

Location: Across the parking lot from the depot.

A cover/shaded pavilion-like structure with some seating on the north side and three upright exhibit panels, each about 7 feet high x 5 feet wide, perhaps with reader rails.

These will be large, striking, and inviting.

In large letters we welcome visitors to the park Visitor Center and the Depot. Invite them to learn about the unique history in this “Crossroads of Cultures” where the Red River and El Camino Real intersected, creating a unique cultural mix of Native American, Spanish, French, and African Ameri-can heritage. Using maps and images, visitors will be invited to enjoy the drives through the Cane River National Heritage Area with stops at Oakland and Magnolia Plantations.

Conclusion: State what the visitor can do to best experience the National Heritage Area and the National Historical Park.

• Be emersed and enchanted by the stories and beauty of the Cane River Region, yet see the trials and tribulations, the struggle and perseverance, and the pride of accomplishment of people seeking freedom, respect, and justice.

• Enjoy this welcoming community of strength, perseverance, and creativity.

• Drive the historic routes through the Cane River National Heritage Area.

• Visit Oakland and Magnolia, bicentennial plantations, Cane River National Historical Park.

Maps and general information are available at several locations in Natchitoches, but true orientation to these park units is needed. In the pavilion exhibit, the following visitor issues will be addressed.

• Visitors are in the attractive, historic town of Natchitoches. The two NPS Plantation sites are not here, they are miles downriver. Getting from here to there can be a challenge.

• Visitors have a difficult time with site orientation and deciding how to best navigate the winding Cane River roads.

• Some visitors have difficulty finding site entrances and parking lots. The parking lot and visitor pavilion at Oakland are at the rear of the main house, which confuses visitors who expect to start at the front of the large plantation home. Some visitors park along Highway 494 at the Oakland Main House and in front of the Prud’homme Store. Others do not make it to the store, which is a valuable interpretive site, is staffed, and serves as the primary visitor contact point.

• Magnolia is not staffed and visitors often do not know where to begin and are not sure what buildings are open. Soon, new parking and wayside exhibits will help remedy this.

Goals

1. Visitors will understand this is the NPS visitor center and orientation point for Oakland and Magnolia Plantations. (One or two sentence welcome, NPS arrowhead)

2. Introduction to interpretation at the three NPS sites (Depot, Oakland, and Magnoia):

A) You are standing outside the Texas and Pacific Depot, built in 1927 at the height of Jim Crow segregation. This is the National Park Visitor Center. Take your time, look inside and outside and see exhibits about the resilience and resourcefulness of

Show plat of Oakland and Magnolia

— include parking and access overlay.

Caption it, noting the number of buildings that function like a city.

this community and how the coming of the T&P Railway changed their lives.

B) Oakland Plantation is one of the most intact plantations in Louisiana and the south with over 70 original buildings including slave quarters and the main house, owned and managed by a single family since the 1700s, and families who lived and worked at the plantations for generation.

C) Magnolia Plantation, also a bicentennial farm, is noted for its brick slave quarters and the rare, intac screw-type cotton gin.

3. Visitors will understand that a plantation is LAND, and will begin to grasp the complexity of plantation operation and the concept of a plantation being its own city.

Theme/heading:

A plantation is its own city. Sheds, shops, and storehouses recall the ceaseless tasks — from carpentry to tending livestock to chopping cotton — that supported plantation life.

A plantation is a community, a small city, where the many buildings and outbuild ings support crops, livestock, enslaved people, and the owner’s family. These include houses, barns, stables, blacksmith shops, store, homes, and hospital.

Activities such as wagon repair, plow repair, leather work, weaving, cooking, carpentry, masonry, and more took place on the plantation, and most was done by enslaved people.

Everything supported the crops. Crops to eat, crops to feed enslaved people, crops to feed livestock, and most importantly, crops to make money. The first money crops were indigo, and tobacco. Following the invention of the cotton engine (gin), cotton quickly became the money crop — and money was made!

However, none of this was possible without fertile land, the ability to clear the land, prepare the land, plant the land, and harvest the land – and that required labor. Enslaved people worked dawn ‘til dusk, year-round, to make plantations immensely profitable. With huge profits from cotton, plantation owners built larger homes, bought the finest goods, educated their children in the best schools, traveled the world, bought more land to clear, planted more cotton

— and bought more enslaved people.

4. Visitors will have an increased desire to visit Oakland and Magnolia plantations.

• Heritage Area map with routes and plantations clearly marked.

• A second map (as in the Samuel Guy House) showing the number of plantations along Cane River and noting each had river access, pointing out Magnolia and

Show plat of Magnolia — include parking and access overlay.

Magnolia Plantation has the best mapping. Use it here to depict the lrge number of buildings and emphasize the concept of a large plantation being its own city. This includes enslaved people being trained in a variety of skills and becoming valued craftsmen.

Define vernacular architecture with photo examples from the plantations.

Graphic treatment with caption:

In the 1790s Oakland was home to 38 enslaved people. By the early 1860s that number had increased to more than 160.

In 1787 Magnolia was home to 23 enslaved people. As Magnolia grew to become the largest plantation on Cane River under the LeComte/ Hertzog family, the number increased to 235.

Oakland, and noting the variety of owners of many cultures including women and free blacks.

• Marriages between planter families was common and land was often part of marriage contracts. Cherokee and other plantations along Cane River were once Prud’homme plantations.

Exhibits may speak about plantations in general, but specific examples will come from plantations here, and mostly Oakland and Magnolia as those are the NPS sites. Exhibits will note Melrose as it has tours, and is a major attraction near the NPS plantations in the Cane River Heritage Area. The driving route map and/or accompanying photo captions will name plantations that visitors will pass along the way. For example: Cherokee Plantation, established in XXXX by XXXX family.

We want the visitor to realize the immense number of plantations here, and the subsequent wealth of the area. This to be contrasted with the sudden change following the Civil War.

Exhibit 2 – The Depot - Outside

Theme The Texas and Pacific Railway Depot at Natchitoches was an architectural marvel that brought pride to the community, yet that same architecture enforced segregation of people and cultures.

Location 1: The orientation pavilion (See exhibit 1, above.)

Care is being taken to protect the view of the depot. The visitor should have an unobstructed view of the design and proportions from this distance. As they walk toward the building details within the architecture begin to stand out. (See the parking proposal at the end of this document)

Goals

1. Introduce the depot story. Visitors will see the depot as a National Register property with striking architectural features

2. Visitors will be able to name three elements characteristic of the architectural style.

3. Interpretation will dispel myth of timbers being from the Santa Maria.

4. Visitors will realize this striking depot, built in the heart of Natchitoches’ African American community, was a source of pride and prestige, yet was designed to enforce segregation.

5. Visitors will be able to identify three ways the Depot’s architectural design supported segregation.

The depot story begins as part of the welcome and orientation signage 12 across the parking lot from the depot. This will be identical in size to those beside it, but on the south side of the pavilion, separating it from the others to signify a change in subject. From here the visitor can easily look to his right to view the depot.

A map will show the Texas and Pacific Railway route from New Orleans to Shreveport, with an inset showing the entire T&P Railway network noting stops that will be mentioned in later exhibits. The panel will also show the 1914 Sanborn Insurance Plat of Natchitoches showing the rail lines and noting the three depot locations with their dates of operation. Exhibit text will discuss those depot sites.

The exhibit will call attention to the building’s architecture using distant and close photos. The T&P Railway did not have one style of depot as many railroads did, rather, they built unique stations at significant stops on their routes. Text will note the Italianate Renais-sance Revival style and ask the visitor to turn and look from this distance and take in the character of the entire depot. Text will:

1) Ask visitors to note the proportions of the building.

2) Point out large architectural elements visible from this location.

3) Point out the Colored entrance and waiting room on the right, the white entrance and waiting room in the center, and the larger baggage area to the left. People, black and white, proceed to their side to buy tickets and wait. When the train arrives, they exit the back of the building onto the elevated walk beside the tracks from which they can step into passenger cars, all while separated by color.

4) With photos, call attention to smaller details the visitor can look for and identify as they walk toward the building.

Location 2 – Wayside exhibits near the depot continue the story

Goals:

1. Visitors will look at and appreciate the detailed architectural elements of the depot.

2. Visitors will understand that the architecture, although beautiful, had a purpose:

segregation.

3. This depot was, and continues to be, a symbol of its times.

As visitors cross the parking lot to enter the depot they will see two wayside exhibits, 18 x 48 inches, designed to have a low profile so as to not block the view of the depot, and placed in the area just before the start of the ramp leading to the entrance. The exhibit to the left will feature construction and architectural elements of the Italian Renaissance Revival style. Visitors can see architectural details clearly from this close location. Architectural terms and style names will be identified and visitors instructed to look up and around.

NOTE: Placement of these wayside exhibits is suggested to lead visitors to the entrance ramp and to emphasize the shift in tone from the beauty of the depot to segregation. Exhibit locations will be adjusted to accommodate that traffic pattern and will be placed where they are easily seen and where they can direct the visitor’s gaze to the architectural elements discussed.

NOTE: a wide and well-marked pedestrian walkway will be painted across the parking lot to increase safety and to direct visitors to the wayside exhibits near the Depot.

The wayside exhibit to the right will be closer to the entrance to the Colored waiting room and will continue the concept of the architecture of segregation with the question: How do we view architec-ture? Note the date of construction, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws. Ed Ward’s quote, These walls meant something, introduces a floor plan showing elements of segregation: separate entrances, waiting areas, water fountains, restrooms, and separate exits leading to separate passenger cars.

Note the African American cars are near the front of the train where smoke and cinders are heaviest.

Architectural elements of the Italian Renaissance Revival style decorate the white entrance.

The Colored entrance.

Inside the Depot (See bubble diagram)

Description Fully accessible ramps lead to the entrance – the white waiting room. This is an impressive, large room with a high ceiling with dramatic wooden beams said to resemble the beams from Columbus’ flagship, the Santa Maria. Walls have a glazed ceramic finish and there are win-dows or doors on almost every wall. This is an impressive space, but wall space for exhibits is non-existent.

To enter the depot/visitor center, visitors pass through the boldly decorated and arched entryway into the white waiting room. To the right is a family restroom, and on further is the ticket window and office which will become a volunteer information office and small gift area. Across the room are windows and doors leading to the loading platform. The left wall has a door into the baggage area. This ends the public area. The remainder of this wall is available for exhibits except that this is a historic structure with tile walls. Exhibits should not be attached to the walls. There are electrical outlets along the walls, but plans show only two in the floor to provide electricity to free-standing exhibits.

• Up-lighting will highlight the beamed ceiling.

• The wall opposite the ticket window (seen in the photo here) will hold three vertical banners of different colors, each depicting stages of the African American experince.

Banner #1 - slavery, showing working in cotton fields; Banner #2 - attending an itegrated school, indicating the importance of integration and education; Banner #3 - showing today’s business leaders. The Ed Ward quote would be appropriate here.

Exhibit 3 – The T&P Railway comes to Natchitoches Location – Entrance to the white waiting room

Theme:

The railroad came to Natchitoches because the people wanted it; they needed it.

An introductory statement echoes the welcome from the pavilion outside: Welcome to Cane River Creole National Historical Park, etc. Your gateway to Oakland and Magnolia Plantations. Both are bicentennial farms (define) and are some of the most complete plantation sites in the US, etc.

A traditional pendant sign calls attention to information and gift shop window ahead.

Exhibits continue the architectural and T&P Railway stories begun outside.

The more detailed exhibits inside relate the story of Caspari and the college, the TAP line and the first depot near the college, then merging with the T&P Railway and the second depot, and bringing us to this depot. Included are:

• Importation of Chinese workers from Cuba to build the railroad, as told by Nicole Gray. Some Chinese stayed and intermarried bringing a new culture to the Cane River region.

• The 1914 Sanborn Map shows the tracks. The locations of the three depots can be identified. It explains the “mystery” of the location of the tracks leading to the second depot (now City Hall).

You are standing in the 1927 Texas and Pacific Railway Depot, a product of the gay nineties and the roaring twenties. The rich were getting richer and railroads were making America move. The Texas and Pacific stretched from New Orleans, Galveston, Texarkana, Dallas and across Texas to New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California. The railroad provided connections to St. Louis. Chicago and Los Angeles. This was “the golden age” of railroads and passenger service. From where you’re standing you could travel in style to almost anywhere!

— But the 1920s weren’t roaring for everyone.

Exhibit 4 – The Architecture of Segregation Location: North wall

Theme:

The meanings of this building begin with its striking architecture, but with a closer look you discover deeper meanings that separated people then, and continue to echo today.

Goals

1. Visitors will grasp the unspoken significance of this building and the many meanings it holds.

2. Visitors will see this building and the African American community in a new way.

You are standing in the white waiting room. It is large and opulent with a dramatic high ceiling with hand-hewn beams and a “light story” of windows. On the opposite side of the ticket agent office is another waiting room – the Colored waiting room. It is nice enough, until compared with the white waiting room.

African American waiting room and ticket window.

The White waiting room, Ed Ward’s quote is a strong concluding message for the 3rd banner:

“There is progress being made in the positively evolving present that helps offset the heaviness of the past.”

During the era of segregation, the law required separate but equal service. The architecture of this building ensured that Black and White people were kept separate. Each side has access to ticket sales, restrooms, seating, and the boarding area alongside the tracks. Even there, separa-tion was maintained and people boarded separate, segregated passenger cars. They traveled in style – even so, people of color rode in the front passenger cars where engine smoke was heavi-est. (Colored waiting room characteristics will be discussed on an exhibit in that room. Here we are just noting the separation.)

The ticket agent has windows in each side, sells tickets to people on each side, and directs people to the train platform through doors on their side of the building. Black and white passengers load into different passenger cars and stay segregated throughout their journey in southern states and a few others - until the train passed from the south into northern states.

Most places in the south were segregated. Natchitoches was no exception, white families living in one part of town and Black families living on this side of town. When the T&P Railway made the decision to build this station here, in the Black neighborhood, it brought great pride because investment in this area was seldom seen. The depot has many meanings for this community.

1. Pride: This station was on the west side – was part of OUR community (Ed Ward). It brought people and beauty and status to OUR community.

• Identify the community and businesses in the area

-The Dew Drop Inn was on Tabie (?) Street -Dud Nora CafÈ was on 5th Street -Prittle Carvel Funeral Home was on 45th -Howard Lumber Company was nearby -The Brown Bomber Hotel was a few blocks away -Ashbury UMC church is over 100 years old and just around the corner.

-A woman, Vinnie Mitchel, sold meat pies from a basket at the depot.

2. Hope: A better life: the railroad provided jobs, and was a way out (Ronald’s escape). The train represented hope of finding a better way of life. It traveled to Chicago, California where resi-dents could find work then send for their families. Work opportunity diminished in Natchitoches due to mechanization. The train symbolized hope and perhaps freedom for some.

3. Security: Private, secure mail (Ed Ward story). The train was independent of the city, or state, or the south. It carried the US Mail securely and privately, without it going through local hands.

Mail drop at night – sent to various Federal agencies and the NAACP. Edward Ferrell spoke about Ben Johnson having a basement, he was a true activist and used the midnight train as a

The exhibit will show the T&P Railway or the Southern

Pacific route map, a ticket, and more.

secure mail drop. (However, the train stopped here at midnight. Walking home could be scary. They man who told this story used the phrase walked with trepidation.)

4. Service: Bringing soldiers home — alive and dead. (Claire, Ben Johnson, Ed Ward)

5) Freedom: This exhibit begins here, and is continued on the train platform.

Include:

1) Maude Antee’s story: riding to New Orleans

2) Maude and Gwendolyn at age 13 riding alone and feeling safe with porters watching over them.

3) Roland’s story of escape

Train Platform, Exhibit #1 - Freedom (listed here, separately from the other train platform exhibits to show continuation of the above storyline).

Descrition:

On the loading platform visitors will find a wayside exhibit in the size and style as those in front of the depot: 18 x 48 and low so as to not block the view. Visitors can exit the waiting room to stand on the loading platform. Here they are standing on the escape route where people left to visit friends, or left the south for good joining the mass migration to California, St. Louis, or Chicago. They would wait here, then, at mignight, step onto the train and into a new life.

Exhibit 5 – A Difficult History: From Slavery to Leadership

Location – The white waiting room

Thread Plantations --> Slavery --> Sharecropping --> Mechanization --> The path out --> Leaders today

Themes

1. Many cultures came together in this intersection of roads and river.

2. The institution of slavery and the act of emancipation left indelible imprints on many aspects of life in the Cane River region.

3. The lives of the diverse people here reflect the resilience, resourcefulness, dedication, and continuous interaction of families and communities along Cane River.

4. These difficult times called for perseverance, determination, and hope.

Adele Lattier Scott’s high school memory of taking the bus to Jackson, MS, and catching the train to Chicago. When they crossed the state line from Ten-nessee into Illinois, they stopped the train to integrat the cars.

African Americans could sit anywhere in any passenger car.

She remembers being shocked at seeing her first mixed couple here.

See the notes from conversation with Gwendolyn Antee and Sylvia Morrow about shopping, entering back doors, etc.

Goals

1. Visitors will appreciate the cultures found in the Cane River region.

2. Visitors will gain an understanding/appreciation for the difficult climb from slavery to community leadership.

3. Visitors will see how various factors kept African American families poor and unequal.

4. Visitors will see that perseverance and determination led to today’s leaders.

In general terms, these exhibits begin where the pavilion exhibits about plantation began, with plantations and slavery, noting that great wealth was made from the land through ownership of people. Where the Pavilion exhibits were specifically about the NPS plantations, here we broaden the scope to segregation laws across the nation, while keeping an eye on local events.

The crossroads of Natchitoches: Native American, Spanish, and French people were the earliest in this region, and though politically opposed, here they knew that to survive and succeed they must work together. From this, a Creole population grew: people descended from a mix of Colonial French and Colonial Spanish before the region became part of the United Stated in 1803. After the Louisiana Purchase, Americans came into the area. Soon, enslaved Africans were brought to the region to work the plantations. Today this area reflects each of these cultures and descendants take pride in their heritage.

Following the Civil War, the land was intact, but the landowners had no work-ers. The land was everything - but the land was nothing - without manpower to work the land, plant crops, harvest crops, and build wealth. Lincoln’s Emanci-pation Proclamation had freed the slaves, in 1865 the 13th Amendment prohib-ited slavery, and in 1868 the 14th Amendment granted “full and equal rights of citizenship” to all exslaves, but they had nowhere to go nor means to support themselves. Many freed slaves stayed on the plantations they had once worked and in the same houses they had lived in as enslaved people, and worked the same fields for the same plantation owner.

A new economic system arose, a partnership to provide laborers for the land and to share profits from the harvest – sharecropping and tenant farming. Many white and black people almost instantly became tenant farmers or sharecrop-pers – they worked the land and paid 40% to 60% of the crop or profit to the landowner. This became a complex system of loans and advances that made wealth for the landowners, but kept tenant and sharecropping families in poverty. This entire system depended on bringing in a good crop.

Slave/tenant house and landscape, Oakland Plantation.

Steam traction engines could move into a field and speed up harvesting, but with the invention of the internal combustion engine farming practices changed rapidly. Where a man and a mule could work 40 to 60 acres, a man and a tractor could work hundreds. As mechanization increased vast human labor was no longer needed. Tenant farmers and sharecroppers were displaced across the south. With nowhere to go, they moved into nearby cities and overwhelmed the job market. Neces-sity drove them to large cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. This great migration changed the popu-lation dynamic of the South, and separated families.

Laws Following the Civil War, the Federal Government, through the process of reconstruction, worked to reestablish local and state governments, stimulate business, and provide education and assistance to freedmen – freed enslaved people. The freed slaves were given the right to vote, and they did, elect-ing African Americans to local and state offices and actively taking part in community decisions.

The south was not pleased with this and, after the strong Federal influence of reconstruction sub-sided, whites began to institute laws that restricted voting and reduced the ability of blacks to par-ticipate in government, even to be in the same place with whites.

• Black Codes were strict state or local laws that detailed when, where, and how formerly enslaved people could work and how much they could be paid. These were legal ways to put Black citizens into a form of indentured servitude, control where they lived, keep them poor, and even take chil-dren away for labor.

• In the 1870s Jim Crow laws began to be passed in the former Confederate states and some others.

These mandated racial segregation in all public facilities: separate populations, separate jobs, sepa-rate restrooms, separate water fountains, separate schools. Often referred to as “separate but equal,” it was never equal.

• 1890, Louisiana, The Separate Car Act required all railroads operating in the state to provide “equal but separate accommodations” for white and African American passengers, and prohibited passengers from entering accommodations other than those to which they had been assigned on the basis of their race†Jim Crow laws already specified that black people could not ride with white people, but colored people could ride with white people.†For the first time a law distinguished between “white,” “black,” and “colored” (people of mixed European and African ancestry - Creole).

• 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson, The Louisiana Separate Car Act went to the U. S. Supreme Court. This was the first major inquiry into the meaning of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause which prohibits states from denying “equal protection of the laws” to any person within their jurisdictions.

Although the majority opinion did not contain the phrase “separate but equal,” it gave constitutional sanction to laws designed to achieve racial segregation by means of separate and supposedly equal

Elvin Shields story - grandfather, left for a better life in California but returned by train every few years to visit family.

public facilities and services. This ruling supporting segregation served as a controlling prece-dent until 1954 when it was overturned by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

The post-World War II era saw an increase in civil rights activities in the African American community, with a focus on ensuring that Black citizens were able to vote. This ushered in the civil rights movement. Many Jim Crow laws were enforced into the 1960s, but slowly they began to be challenged and struck down.

In 1948, President Harry Truman ordered integration in the military, and in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that educational segregation was unconstitutional, ending the era of “separate-but-equal” education. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which legally ended the segregation that had been institutionalized by Jim Crow laws. And in 1965, the Voting Rights Act halted efforts to keep minorities from voting. The Fair Housing Act of 1968, ended discrimination in renting and selling homes.

This is a long story of strength, perseverance and determination. Today, with Federal laws in place to protect equal access to voting, housing, education, and all gatherings, the African American population is again actively participating in local, state, and national government.

Exhibit 6 - The Colored Waiting Room

The entrance to the depot is through the white waiting room. Visitors will not use the original entrance to the Colored Waiting Room on the parking lot side, but will enter the Colored waiting room from the train platform after seeig the exhibits in the white waiting room. To exit, visitors will return to the train platform and go through the white waiting room or turn right and follow the sidewalk to the parking area.

Public restrooms are in the Colored Waiting Room. There is a locked door leading to stairs to the utility area in the basement. There is a ticket window, but no door to the ticket agent’s office.

This room will be used for audiovisual presentations and will be available for meetings. It will be set up theatre style so that videos related to the plantations, the Heritage Area, the Depot, or the exhibit topics can be shown.

Two exhibits be located here. There is flexibility for their location depending on the organization of the room for video presentations.

Conclude with examples of successful African American politicians and busi-nessmen from weth Cane River region, including :

Ronnie Williams, Jr., Mayor Sylvia Morrow , first Black city council-woman Ed Ward, Entrepreneur Other professors, businesspeople, etc.

There is progress being made in the positively evolving present that helps offset the heaviness of the past.

- Ed Ward

Conclude this section with this quote from Ed Ward - even use it as a heading or large pull quote.

We recommend the National Park and or the exhibit firm host a Depot Photo Day, asking residents to bring their photos for on-the-spot copying.

Sadly, there are few photographs of the depot, and none of any rooms. Stock photos of passenger car interiors and porters are plentiful and would be appropriate.

Exhibit 6a: The first may be reader rail style so as to not be attached to the ceramic glazed walls and to not be intrusive. This room, though considerably smaller than the white waiting room, has quality and style of its own. This exhibit will point out the architectural and service elements while remind-ing the visitor that whites were not allowed here, nor were blacks allowed on the other side of the wall. Everything here was for blacks only: seating, restrooms, ticket window, door to tracks, and a section of the track platform. When boarding a train, they entered a Colored-only passenger car.

Exhibit 6b: The second exhibit will stand beside the door to the train platform, or on the train platform just outside the door. This is a Black family of four or five eager to board the train heading to a big city (LA? St. Louis? Chicago? - but not a southern destination). These may be life-cast figures (best) or flat, full color, cutout figures, with luggage and maybe holding a wrapped gift. The copy or audio tells a story of eagerness and excitement for riding the train. Having done this before, they can talk about the niceties and comfort of the passenger car, and hope the Pullman porter is the same nice gentleman as last time. If on the train platform, to add another element of the station to the story they could be chatting with the baggage handler. They wonder who will be waiting for them -grandma and grandpa? Will aunts and uncles be there, too? Mom made her special pecan pie or pralines, either with Natchitoches pecans that the family gathered and shelled, a gift for grandma’s birthday. Audio helps tell the story and is an ADA aid.

This is a modern revisiting of the escape stories and the great migration: the older generation left the Cane River Area for a better job and a better life, now children’s family is going to visit. The time period, clothing, conversation, is set in the latter years of passenger service to Natchitoches.

Exhi…