The LSU campus was still a relatively bucolic location in 1947, a little over a year after World War II ended. “Victory Gardens,” also known as “war gardens” and “food gardens for defense,” were still being maintained in the areas around campus. In this view the field across Dalrymple Drive from the Sigma Chi fraternity house appears to be still planted in corn. The Phi Delta Theta house had yet to be built inside East Fraternity Circle but the sidewalks were in place and the University Lab School did not exist across Dalrymple Drive.

Returning war veterans, taking advantage of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944—known more familiarly as the G.I. Bill—began to flood the campus south of downtown Baton Rouge. Housing for all the returning veterans was a major concern but it seems automobile ownership and the resulting traffic was not.

Much has changed on the LSU campus since 1947. The victory gardens are long gone, buried under the International Cultural Center and the United Methodist Church. A new street, West Lakeshore Drive, would open up the area on the western edge of University Lake to become known as Sorority Row and create a three-way intersection with Dalrymple and Isaac Cline. In the intervening fifty-five years the increase in motor traffic on campus has created a problem at that intersection.

Today the University is doing its best to reduce automotive congestion on campus. The installation of a new traffic circle at the intersection of Dalrymple Drive, West Lakeshore Drive, and Isaac Cline Drive, directly in front of the Sigma Chi house, is one example of that effort. The new traffic circle will allow continuous flow of traffic by removing the bottleneck created when drivers attempt to turn left from Dalrymple Drive onto West Lakeshore Drive or from West Lakeshore onto Dalrymple in either direction.

Fonville Winans Aerial Photographs of Baton Rouge, Fonville Winans Collection, Mss 46051205
View in the Louisiana Digital Library

About this collection
Baton Rouge experienced the onset of rapid growth in the post-World War II years: a number of housing developments were built, in one case as a result of modified war-era pre-fabricated building production facilities; businesses expanded on their exsting sites or built new sites; new public, private, and parochial schools rose, and; a new public hospital went up. New housing was also going in around the City Park, Erie, and University Lakes. Many of these homes were being built by Standard Oil Company (now ExxonMobil) management and other prominent businessmen.

Baton Rouge photographer Fonville Winans shot at least thirteen rolls of 35mm black & white film in 1947 between the months of February and June, inclusive, from his small private airplane. Information in his shot log indicates he intended to sell copies of the images to businesses documented in the images. Fonville Winans noted in the shot log which images sold and which did not, though we have no definitive proof if these notations are complete. For the most part, Winans flew along the most developed streets in Baton Rouge such as Plank Road, Scenic Highway, Choctaw Street, Florida Street, and Florida Boulevard. He occasionally flew over and photographed areas that were being developed in 1947, such as the Melrose Subdivision – just north of Florida Boulevard and east of North Foster Drive – and the area near the intersection of Florida Boulevard and Airline Highway, which, in 1947, was an “open” area on the verge of development.  One roll of film is entirely devoted to images of the current Louisiana State University campus and vicinity.  Post by Mark E. Martin