Monroe working to restore Cooley House

A renowned historic assets in Ouachita Parish, at the time endangered, is little by little remaining restored. 

The rarest surviving illustration of Prairie-style household architecture in the South, the Cooley Household at present faces structural problems that have positioned it on the state’s most endangered sites record. Electrical and plumbing programs are negligible and no for a longer time provider all places of the household. Sizeable improvements have been produced to the property to match the unique style. 

The property is substantial to the local community of Monroe and the endeavours to restore it will have to be in-depth and meticulous, in accordance to Louisiana Rely on for Historic Preservation government director Brian Davis. 

“We want to make positive that we do this restoration as accurate and right,” Davis said. “We you should not want to mess this up mainly because it is these a uncommon fashion of prairie architecture. Most of the architecture of this design is designed up in Chicago or that kind of location so its extremely unusual that this design be down south.”

The house was originally designed in 1908 by internationally acclaimed architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin for area businessman Gilbert Brian Cooley. Cooley was the owner of the Monroe Steamed Laundry, which as soon as sat wherever the River Pavilion amphitheater is now situated. He led attempts to build a tuberculosis sanitarium in West Monroe, which opened in 1937. The facility later transitioned from a tuberculosis medical center to turn out to be G.B. Cooley Lifetime Expert services, which will help people with developmental disabilities.