Lemann Store
314 Mississippi St., Donaldsonville, LAThe Lemann Store is locally significant in the area of architecture for the following reasons: (1) It is typical of masonry and cast iron commercial structures throughout the East, South, and Midwest in the second half of the nineteenth century, including relatively small urban centers like Natchez or Madison, Indiana. Commercial rows in this style have been preserved in New Orleans. (2) The building was and remains conspicuous for its size in Donaldsonville (population of about 7,000 in 1970). Its scale and architectural treatment are unusual for small-town stores in the region, or indeed for the country at large. It is clearly the landmark of Donaldsonville's central business district, having by far the broadest facade frontage and a palatial system of bays, pilasters, and shallow arch fenestration along the Mississippi Street facade. (3) The dormer features are rare for Italianate commercial fronts. (4) The covered sidewalk is a typical regional element, now however a rare survival. In fact, there are only two remaining commercial cast iron galleries in Donaldsonville, of which the one at the Lemann Store is decidedly the finer.
Although the business actually began in 1836, the present building dates from 1878. A new notice in the Chief (Donaldsonville weekly newspaper) on February 10, 1877, records the purchase of the land by Bernard Lemann from Emile St. Martin, and the removal of debris from buildings recently destroyed by fire. The Chief reported on June 23 delivery of a "large quantity of bricks" and on October 6, 1877, that the building "has reached an altitude greater than any other in town, and workmen are constructing the roof." Finally, on February 2, 1878, the Chief reported that "the finishing touches are being put to the Lemann Block... The apparatus by which the building is supplied with gas was tested... The street lamps at either corner illuminated the entire neighborhood."
The ledger of 3. Lemann & Bro. for February March 1878 has an entry for payments to James Freret, the architect. In Donaldsonville, this could only be for architectural services. On the same and following, pages are noted payments to Arnold Romain, brick mason, for work on the Crescent Block. Freret (1839-1897), of a distinguished family of architects, was the first New Orleans architect to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the designer of numerous important buildings in New Orleans, most of which have since disappeared. A commercial facade by him on Tchoupitoulas Street (1884), to be incorporated into the Piazza d'Italia complex, is Italianate in style and has a kind of kinship with the Lemann Block. His other work in Donaldsonville was the present Ascension Parish Courthouse (1888).
The warehouse addition facing Crescent Place was constructed circa 1894-1895, according to an account in the Daily Times, Donaldsonville, 1898.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.