Shreveport is the third-largest city in the state of Louisiana. It was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company. This company aimed to develop a town at the juncture of the newly navigable Red River and the Texas Trail, linked to the newly independent Republic of Texas. Shreveport served as the Confederate capital and headquarters for the Trans-Mississippi forces of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Railways arrived by 1900, and river commerce, hampered by silt, declined. When oil was found in 1906, the city boomed.
Below are some fascinating photos that show what Shreveport looked like in the 1990s. In the mid-1990s, the coming of riverboat gambling to Shreveport attracted numerous new patrons to the downtown and spurred a revitalization of the adjacent riverfront areas. Many downtown streets were given a facelift through the “Streetscape” project. Traditional brick sidewalks and crosswalks were built, and statues, sculptures, and mosaics were added to create a better pedestrian environment.
