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Louisiana's coast may be eroding and business, homes and entire towns may come and go, but one man and his 73,000 plus followers are making sure what may be gone is not forgotten.
Jason Sexton, founder of the Facebook group Abandoned Louisiana, said, "At first I started the group to talk about towns that had been washed away by hurricanes. The group was to be about towns that no longer existed, and then people started posting pictures of 'abandoned' places in Louisiana, so I let it go in that direction."
"I had a lot of ancestors and family that once lived in the Atchafalaya spillway, and some of those towns were flooded and are no longer there. They're just GPS coordinates on a map now."
Sexton, of Grosse Tete, started the group April 6, 2014.
"It was something to do in my spare time," he said. "I was laid off. I had other friends with groups — and I'm a member of those groups — but none of them took off quite like this one. I thought the group would be something for my friends and family to join, but it just exploded."
Sexton said he posts from time to time, and his first post was of an old store in Grosse Tete that had burned down.
"I came across a picture of the store online," he said. "Mostly locals were posting in the group at first, and the store was a popular hangout."
Posts in the group range from crumbling plantation homes and forgotten cemeteries to deserted churches, shuttered businesses and old barns. Photos from Camp Clairborne, a WW II U.S. military camp west of Alexandria, are some of the most regularly posted. Other spots are so far off the beaten path that there is no longer a path to the areas, including Civil War era brick forts along the southeastern coast of the state, many victims of saltwater intrusion and others completely taken over by marsh vegetation.
Some of the places posted are truly abandoned. Others are simply empty and unused or are part of estates or possibly caught up in some sort of litigation. Some of the property owners are looking into ways to fund a restoration, and others hope that someone may come along wanting to purchase the property and restore it. One thing is clear though — abandoned or not, the members of this group want places to be remembered. The group members' love of the places posted can been seen in the comments. Some photos show old homesteads, and descendants recall spending time there as children. Others reminisce about simpler times and days gone by.
In some posts, members are going back in their printed photo albums to locate and post pictures from a time before cell phones made it simple to show something to the world moments after a photo is taken. Pass Manchac Lighthouse, in Tangipahoa Parish, the remnants of which were destroyed in Hurricane Isaac in 2012, and LeBeau Plantation in Arabi, which burned in 2013, are just a few of the places that were gone before people were constantly sharing things instantaneously.
Every day, group members share memories in the comments section of the posts and many express their desire to see old buildings and homes restored or repurposed. Some members post that they will be passing through an area and want to know if there are any "abandoned" spots to see along the way. Posts from the group are liked and shared around the world.
A search of the group's page turns up several posts in and around Church Point. One of the most posted local spots is the old Canal Plant, located northeast of Church Point on La. 178, and the old Church Point Wholesale warehouse on Main Street is also posted regularly. The La Sibille Store at the intersection of La. 343 and La. 356 is a ways out of town, but it has been posted quite a few times, too. Lewisburg also has several popular posts, including a structure that was once reportedly a bar called Bourques.
One resident of Church Point who can certainly appreciate a love of old structures is Harold Fonte, curator Le Vieux Presbytere, a building that may have ended up on Abandoned Louisiana if not for some historic-minded citizens of Church Point. The structure was built in 1887 by Father Ebey for a cost of $600, and it was built to house priests. The building is open to the public one day a week, and local artifacts are on display in the structure's rooms.
"The building was added onto over the years, and it was used until some time in the 1960s," Fonte said.
Fonte said that in the 1990s, the church parish was going to raze the building because it wasn't being used, but the structure was spared and moved to its current location, off church property.
"It cost $20,000 to move a building that cost $600 to build," Fonte said, laughing.
Fonte said that a grant for more than $200,000 was later secured to restore the building, and a professor from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who specializes in bousillage oversaw the restoration of the building.
Fonte is currently in the process of having a cultural district established in Church Point through the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development. The designation will be the first step in the process of eventually establishing an enterprise zone and a historical district in the town. Fonte said such designations would include tax incentives and exemptions, including some for those who are seeking to improve historical properties in the district.
"There are several old homes near the Presbytere, and many of the historic homes in town are kept up," Fonte said.
"I am happy to be participating in this regrowth," he added.
Growth has also been the name of the game with the Abandoned Louisiana group.
In just over four years, the group has grown to 73,975 members as of June 29. In a month, the group averages about 53,000 active members, and Sexton adds about 3,500 members a month. In a month there is also an average of about 102,000 engagements, which includes comments, posts and reactions, and this number breaks down to about 400 posts, 12,000 comments and 90,000 reactions.
"It's going fast," Sexton said. "It started off slow at first, then it took off. I add a couple hundred people, and then they invite their friends. When there got to be so many posts, I needed someone else to help monitor the group. The group is almost like a second job. "
In stepped moderator Sarah Galbreath from Abbeville. In the age of social media, Sexton has never met Galbreath, but he said she was a random member he added to the group in its early days. Either Galbreath or Sexton filter through each submitted post, making sure it adheres to the group's guidelines before it is allowed in the group's newsfeed.
Sexton said he does not condone trespassing to get photographs for the page, and in the group's guidelines, he urges those who do want to photograph a spot to get permission from the property's owner before stepping onto the property.
"Often someone knows someone who knows someone that owns the property (to get permission)," he said.
Other group guidelines include:
• The location must be in Louisiana and you must include at least the town or parish it is in.
• If a place is not abandoned but is over 100 years old and of significant historical importance you may submit original photos. This means photos you personally took. These may or may not be approved based on the historical significance and the amount of information you provide. Do not post links to places that are not abandoned.
• Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures.
When he's not monitoring the group, Sexton, a self-described history lover, is a project manager at Iberville Glass in Plaquemine.
"I like history," he said. "I look online for stuff."
"With the Facebook group, I got to pick everyone's brain, and it got out of control (with how quickly the group grew)," he added, laughing.
Sexton shared some of his most beloved abandoned locations, including an old sugarcane mill in Rosedale.
"I'd been interested in it since I was a kid," he said. "There's even an old tractor parked out in front of it. It's one of those heavy brick structures. There's one in Maringouin, too. It's all overgrown, and you can only see the smoke stack 'til you get closer to it."
"I have so many favorite posts," Sexton continued. "A lot of the posts are really amazing. There are plenty of professional photographers in the group, and they do some great work with the photos they post. There are so many pictures — thousands and thousands."
"There are so many posts in the group, I don't even get to see them all," he added, laughing.
Sexton said he usually does his Abandoned Louisiana exploring on his own.
"I just got a digital camera, and I hope to get out there and do more posts," he said. "I would love to organize group outings."
"A lot of times, people post about places that are no longer there. Some people have photos of those places, and those that don't have photos get to see that place again. That's what I find really cool. I'd like to see the group keep growing, and I encourage people to start conversations in the group."