Castleberry Boarding House - Port Vincent, LA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

I have passed this house thousands of times, and NEVER knew the history, or even that it was here. The gate is always opened, but I never seen any people. Easy to photograph, it is on a quite street, and a nice church parking lot across street. The yard is upkept and the house look as if it is in fine condition. I could not find alot of info about this home on the internet, so I'll list a brief history from the application I located here .
The earliest recorded settlers in the Port Vincent vicinity were Spaniards who owned large grants of land in the area before 1800. Merchant and schooner owner Vincent Scivicque donated a 60 by 90 foot plot to serve as a community cemetery in 1824. Later, he built a small chapel on the cemetery site. For a while, the community was apparently named Subique's [sic] Ferry. The first post office opened in 1833 and the first sawmill in 1855. Between 1872 and 1881 the village served as the Livingston Parish seat. Organized efforts to obtain settlers were evident in 1873, when the local newspaper published a map of the town laid out in squares and lots. The map referred to the town as Port Vincent, and a new Port Vincent post office opened the following year. (Two other post offices, each with a different name, had superceded the 1833 facility.) The first newspaper was sold and moved to another town, but its editor soon started another. Primary and secondary resources describing Port Vincent are rare, but historic photographs document the existence of at least two stores, and a copy of a historic newspaper advertisement documents a third. In addition, one local historian records that, during its heyday, the community supported a brick and stave mill, at least one sawmill (and possibly more), a cotton gin, a warehouse, boat docks, schools, churches, boarding houses, and other businesses. Today, its primary function is as a weekend resort for persons enjoying water sports.
The Castleberry Boarding House was one of Port Vincent's historic businesses. The building had housed a store and had served briefly as the Livingston Parish Courthouse before its conversion into a residence for boarders. It became a boarding house after local resident Andrew Collins purchased the building c. 1900 as a gift for a young woman named Bessie Castleberry. It was apparently Miss Castleberry and her mother who remodeled the building, adding more sleeping rooms for paying guests. The business prospered, hosting traveling salesmen, professionals (such as dentists) who brought their skills to the town as needed, local businessmen without homes of their own, and vacationers. It also apparently served as a center of social activity for the town. The business operated until 1935, when Bessie Castleberry married Francis Henry McCulla and the couple converted the building into their private home.

Street address: 18290 Cooper Street Port Vincent, LA USA 70733 County / Borough / Parish: Livingston Year listed: 2001 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event Periods of significance: 1900-1924, 1925-1949 Historic function: Domestic. Sub - Hotel Current function: Domestic. Sub - Single Dwelling Privately owned?: yes Season start / Season finish: From: 01/01/2008 To: 12/31/2008 Hours of operation: From: 9:00 AM To: 5:00 PM Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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