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N. S. Allen
LIFE
Nathaniel Sykes Allen
was born in Ellicott City, Maryland on August 7, 1829;
his father was William Allen. He went to Marshall,
Texas at the age of thirty and became a successful
architect. He enlisted in the Confederate Army and
served for four years, emerging uninjured. He rose to
the rank of major and commanded the Texas 14th Infantry
by the end of the war. In 1870 Allen moved his family to
Shreveport. He was an enthusiastic musician and
organized a band, which disbanded with the outbreak of
the 1873 yellow fever epidemic. Allen and his family
were some of those that fled the city, and when they
returned, he reorganized his band. He had enough men to
form a six to eight piece orchestra for the Tally Opera
House. He gave up practice in 1913. He contracted
pneumonia in July of 1921 and suffered with it until his
death on July 6, 1922. He was buried in Forest Park
Cemetery after services by Rev. Dr. Jasper K. Smith,
pastor of First Presbyterian Church.
CONSTRUCTIONS
He constructed over
300 structures in the area between 1829 and 1922, but
nearly all of them have been torn down. Five buildings
known to have been built by Allen still remain:
Slattery House
2401 Fairfield Avenue
The Slattery House has been
determined to be a design of N. S. Allen, who was paid
$35 for designing the blueprints. The Garrison Brothers
built this home in 1903 for John Bernard Slattery with
designs from local architect, N. S. Allen. This is one
of only five known Allen-designed structures remaining
in the city. In 1924 at the age of eighty, John Slattery
built the city’s first skyscraper as a testimony of his
belief that Shreveport would have a great future. The
structure still stands at 509 Marshall Street.
Line Avenue School
1800 Line Avenue
In about 1890
Shreveport gave money to build the first free school in
the city. A little red schoolhouse was built at the
corner of Elizabeth and Olive Streets. (Later Professor
C. E. Byrd bought it and renovated it as his home.) The
Line Avenue School, originally known as the Texarkana
Annex School, replaced this schoolhouse when N. S. Allen
built it in 1905 for $20,000. The red brick structure is
done on the Richardson Romanesque style, which was named
for H. H. Richardson of Louisiana. There are four
classrooms per floor with a central hexagonal space.
Later on a basement was added, and buildings for the
cafeteria, auditorium, and additional classrooms were
constructed. Line Avenue operated until 1964. The
building was slated for demolition in the summer of
1979, but Northwestern State University bought it in
March of that year for use as part of their nursing
department.
Antioch Baptist Church
1057 Texas Avenue
N. S. Allen built this church
in the Romanesque Revival style with red brick trimmed
in white. The church features a fan-shaped seating area
with the altar along the long wall. A semi-circular
balcony faces the apse, resting on cast-iron Corinthian
columns.
Logan Mansion
725 Austin Place
Architect N. S. Allen, who took part in the
excessiveness of The Gilded Age, designed and
constructed this Queen Anne home in 1896 or 1897 for
brewer and ice supplier, Lafayette R. Logan, who lived
here from that time until 1916. This area was then a
fashionable and ritzy neighborhood, although few of
these lavish houses remain. The Logan Mansion has a deep
wraparound gallery with triple-turned columns, curved
balusters, a small upper balcony with horseshoe-arches
and spindles, and an asymmetrical roof with Queen Anne
gables, a dormer, and chimneys. To the side is a
porte-cochere. The interior contains carved woodwork,
leaded crystal windows, five fireplaces, beveled glass,
tracked doors, parquet floors, and a grand staircase
surmounted by a spindle screen. The parlor has a curved
glass window and original gold inlay tile blocks on its
fireplace. Mid-America Media established KCOZ FM 100
here in December of 1976, buying the mansion for
$23,000. It had last been used as a Sunday school
meeting place for one of the local churches. The station
renovated the exterior and the first floor interior. The
home has undergone alterations.
Texas Avenue Odd Fellows Hall
900 block of Texas Avenue
The upper floors of this structure remain unaltered, and
the three-link chain and the I.O.O.F. initials of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows remain visible. This
building, which N. S. Allen built in about 1899, served
the Odd Fellows, a fraternal and philanthropic
organization.
References
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