Laying it down

摘要

In 1956, the all-brick Front Street in downtown Natchitoches, the oldest permanent settlement in Louisiana and the Louisiana Purchase territory, was scheduled to be asphalted over. A group of determined women was not about to let that happen to the historic street. The group, which was probably the beginnings of the Association of the Preservation for Historic Natchitoches, laid down in the road to prevent the asphalting from taking place, Liz Davoli, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD) environmental impact specialist, told Roads & Bridges. "They wanted to preserve the street as part of the historic fabric of Natchitoches," Davoli said. "It had gone to the point where it was going to be under construction-this was the final way they could think of to protest." Over 50 years after the protest-and four years after a 2004 re-enactment to celebrate the 100th birthday of Front Street-the historic aspect of the road is just as important to residents.