Olegreg -- I'm so glad you got the mural! I was afraid it was lost forever.

I have been going into the Bellemont the last two weekends in a row, and am going back tomorrow with Colleen from AbandonedBatonRouge. The other owner of the demo company, Charlie, took me on a tour on Mother's Day and we went looking for the mural and couldn't find it. There was a section that we couldn't get to because the roof was falling down and that sounds like exactly where it was. I have a suggestion for what to do with it:

The EBRP library has a Baton Rouge Collection on the 4th floor of the River Center branch, and they have a huuuge storage area full of old papers, magazines, city directories, scrapbooks, firemen's logs, and any other artifacts people want to donate for posterity's sake. Talk to Melissa Eastin and tell her Becky Ford sent you. She knows about what we're doing over at the Bellemont and I'm pretty sure she would be thrilled to have the mural!

I'm donating a large, old black and white photo that was in a rotten frame in the lobby, along with some other things that Pat and Charlie let me take. It has water and mold damage but she says they may be able to remove it. I don't know if they can fix the mural, but they would give it a loving, permanent home.

I did a huge set of pics that's up on Flickr if anyone is interested. Some of the places I took pics of on the 13th are already demolished. I was interviewed tonight by Rick Porche of WAFB about some of the historical research I've done on the hotel, along with just some general questions about what I thought about the state it was in, how cool it was at one time, etc.

He also told me that the Great Hall IS going to be demolished after all -- the original plan was to leave it. They're tossing around the idea of making it some kind of gated community. (Show of hands on who thinks that's a good idea??)

He also interviewed the Patrick and a couple who had worked at the hotel for about 15 years who were there yesterday sifting through the rubble, looking for some kind of mementos.

Pics on Flickr: LINK /

I have more to upload and Colleen will be making an update to ABR with hers after her trip into BR this weekend.

Again, kudos, olegreg! So glad that the mural is safe and sound (well, safe, anyway). ;)