Come see Erika’s drive to church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Erika is a licensed therapist and photographer. Click here to see her amazing work.
Erika says:
“I live in Baton Rouge, LA. Like any town we have our pluses and minuses. Pluses: rich cultural history, diversity, great food. Minuses, the school system, and the summer heat/humidity. We have 5 wards/branches and a temple here in Baton Rouge. It takes about 20 minutes to drive the 11 ish miles to our stake building/ temple/church. Last Sunday my husband drove while I snapped. These pictures are more rural than the majority of Baton Rouge because we take the back roads to church. It’s shorter and I enjoy the drive more.”
Is it my eyes, or does your ward building have PURPLE TRIM????
Thanks for sharing, Erika!
It’s pretty purple-ish, Claire. It’s a pretty cool/unique looking building. I’ve never seen another one like it.
I love seeing the different settings for the churches, as well as getting to know the people involved with the blog better.
I see that the building has the standard steeple that all the buildings in Utah have. Did they add that somewhat recently, like in the last five years or so? I heard that they were being put on all the buildings that had the free-standing steeple-like poles.
@Paula, the steeple was there when we moved there in 2000. I never heard anyone say it had been added on after the fact. ?
It really is a pretty big building. Has some character that others lack.
Nicely done, Erika.
Of course, the trim is purple– it’s LSU country, after all! The steeple’s been there from the beginning. Heather, do you have something specific in mind when you refer to character? I don’t like that it has the “track” design which means the chapel has not windows, no natural light. The newer ones don’t have the track so there were able to incorporate windows—although no one ever opens the drapes!
The best thing about it is the setting: it’s just in the most gorgeous part of town. And it wasn’t supposed to be there. Over the years we lived in BR, there was always talk of a new stake center and lots of other locations were considered. When, in the very late 80’s, the “guy” from the Atlanta Area office came to find the land, the SP took him to a number of locations which he turned down, one after the other. Finally he asked if there was nothing else. The SP there was one more but it was 7 acres and, at the time, the church would only buy a max of 4. They went to see it and the Area guy said, “this is it, let’s go talk to the owner.” they did and bought it. It backs to the Bluebonnet swamp so the stake center was built on the high ground.
Disclaimer: this is a first person account, not hearsay. Following the groundbreaking, I was standing on the high ground with the SP–Larry Richardson from Gonzales– and he said to me, pointing at the lower ground in the back, “there’s enough room there for a small temple.” I looked at him like he was crazy. This was 1989, 6 years before GBH became president and there was NO talk of small temples.
We moved away in ’95 and, in ’98 the Baton Rouge temple was announced. That night I called Larry and said, “you’re not a false prophet.”.
At the time the stake building was built, the church budgeted $25,000 on landscaping but they spent $75,000 on that one to enhance the natural beauty of the land.
Oh, I definitely think it has more character than your average LDS ward building. The purple for one, and the trim in places, is not what you usually see.
Great back story! I’d never heard that before!
I’ve never heard that story either. Thanks for sharing it Martine. Larry Richardson is actually on a mission with his wife right now. I believe in Africa.