A Day in West Baton Rouge

Before starting your day trip adventure, stop by the West Baton Rouge Tourist Information Center at Exit #151. Trained Tourist Counselors are on hand waiting to assist you with information and directions to your planned adventure spots. Also be sure to pick up information on our local hotels, for a relaxing evening when your day is complete.

• 8am – Your adventure begins at the Mighty Mississippi River Overlook, which offers a breath-taking panoramic view of the Mighty Mississippi River and Baton Rouge. A wonderful place to relax and watch the sun rise. The area includes a pedestrian promenade with special architectural paving, gazebo, viewing benches, a View Finder with details on the view, and ornamental street lighting. On this site a ferry operated between Port Allen and Baton Rouge from 1820 to 1968. Located on the Levee at the end of Court Street in Port Allen.
• 9am – Take a stroll across the street to Scott Cemetery, the burial place of African Americans in West Baton Rouge’s history, the cemetery dates back to the 1850’s.
• 9:30am – How about brunch on the courtyard of Court Street Café’. Enjoy shrimp & Grits, french toast, omelets or your favorite fried seafood po’boy.
• 11am – After all that great food head to the West Baton Rouge Museum. This Museum is the only museum in the nation that features the history of sugar agriculture from slavery times through the Civil Rights era. The historic structures at the Museum illustrate life on a sugar plantation from the antebellum period (1830-1860) through Reconstruction (1870-1880) to the Civil Rights Era in the 1960’s all set on the same plantation, Allendale.
  
  • The four-acre campus includes 7 historic structures – the Aillet House, ca. 1830, a French Creole cottage that illustrates a small sugar planter’s home; the Allendale slave dwelling, ca. 1850; the Allendale Cabin, ca. 1870, a dwelling for the newly freed slaves; the Allendale Plantation Cabin, ca. 1960, a one-room Acadian style made of old cypress. Each of the historic structures contain furnishings and utensils of that time period, and museum guides describe life in sugar country; the Abroth Plantation Store, this cypress and pine structure was opened in 1880 and moved behind the new levee following the 1927 flood. This store building operated for 100 years before closing in 1980. The store was moved to the West Baton Rouge Museum campus in 2009. The Arbroth Store interprets rural plantation life between the two world wars (1914-1945), a time when riverboats brought travelers, goods, and entertainment to the area; the Juke Joint, this building was an army surplus building repurposed as the Boy Scout Hut for Troop 38 in Port Allen. In 2017, the building was donated to WBR Museum and turned into an interpretative exhibit, performance venue, and education space. Some of the local Blues musicians featured in this juke joint are Slim Harpo, Silas Hogan, Lazy Lester, Raful Neal, Sr., and the Neal family. The Neal Family donated the upright piano, the jukebox, guitars, and other memorabilia exhibited in this building. Other works of art displayed are metal sculptures of dancers and musicians by local artist Ronald Trahan; the Barn, this building, constructed in 2014, features several demonstration areas including a Blacksmith Shop, a Woodworkers Shop, a Spinning, Weaving, and Textiles Room, and a Pottery Room. Sugar cane farming and milling implements, harvest tools, plows, seeders, tack equipment, tractors, and a Model A Ford are displayed in the large, open center room.
  • The Museum itself, located within the parish’s Old Greek Revival style courthouse, features south Louisiana history and art exhibitions. One highlight of the Museum is a 1904 22-foot working sugar mill model that shows the process of sugar production from sugar cane to raw sugar.
• 2pm – Next on to the Addis Museum, located in the old Bank of Addis building, the museum houses a collection of photographs, memorabilia and exhibits of Addis’ history as a railroad town. Addis was a railroad junction on the transcontinental route connecting New Orleans with the West Coast. Built in 1920, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is the only original central business district structure remaining. The museum includes exhibits on the importance of the railroad to Addis, Mardi Gras and Military history with items from local veterans. The Addis Museum is open from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. every fourth Tuesday of the month. Special tours can be scheduled by calling the ADDIS TOWN HALL at 225-687-4844.
• 3pm – Option 1: Visit St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. This Gothic Revival style church was built in 1907. Today it is the home of an active Catholic congregation, and is just yards away from the Bourgeois House. The adjacent church cemetery dates to the 1830’s, when descendants of Acadian exiles, first established the church. A rectangular wood frame church, it features Victorian influence in the mixture of lancet and Tudor-type openings, along with the use of shingles at the central door pediment and brackets to support side door sheds.
  

  Option 2: Have a cold beverage at Morley Marina. According to the story, Horatio Morley came to Louisiana from Michigan in 1907, starting a cypress logging business in what would become known as Morley, Louisiana, near today’s Brusly, in West Baton Rouge. A generous gift of a Model T from Morley’s friend, Henry Ford, would spell his doom. A car wreck killed Morley and his uncle-in-law, George Coswell. Without Morley guiding his business interests, the company and the town soon dried up.

  All that is left of Morley’s town, however, is definitely not dried up! This bar/restaurant/marina on the Intracoastal Canal n “Back Brusly,” near one of the only public boat launches in the area, is frequented by locals and those lucky enough to find it “on the river, on the way” in West Baton Rouge. Any given Sunday evening, the dance floor is filled and the music and conversations are flowing. Other days are just as lively, with boats docked along the marina’s edge and fishermen stopping in to boast about the latest catch. Find out more about Morley Marina and visit us in West Baton Rouge.

• 5pm – Enjoy dinner at the award winning Cou-Yon’s Restaurant, where the “Smoked Meats and homemade BBQ sauces blend legendary South Texas BBQ flavors and Cajun flair for zesty, mouth-waterin’ goodness that will keep you comin’ back”.