Keegan House - Robeline, LA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Sign also stated there was both a church and an antique store located on property. It was after buisness hours on my visit, so I did not get a chance to go inside. Home was easy to locate, RIGHT next to the Robeline Post Office.
Found a good amount of history about the house. Home was once a 3 story railroad town hotel. A Really good history comes from the register application, I located here

Railroads changed the face of Louisiana and were a very important force in the economy throughout the historic period. Prior to the heyday of railroading, much of the state was a wilderness. But beginning in the postbellum years, construction of railroads opened much of the state to development, making possible the "great Louisiana lumber boom" and creating railroad towns such as Ruston, DeRidder and Robeline. Between 1880 and 1910 over five thousand miles of mainline trackage were laid in the state. Resources directly associated with railroading such as depots, roundhouses, machine shops, warehouses and railroad hotels, though once numerous, have not survived in great numbers. Although the area around Robeline was settled in the antebellum decades, the town of Robeline did not come into being until the arrival of the New Orleans and Pacific Railroad in 1881 (later the Texas and Pacific). That same year the townsite was platted and a post office established. On February 1, 1883 the town was chartered, and the first meeting of the town council was held in March. An 1890 book, Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, refers to Robeline as a "modern railroad town," noting that James E. Keegan had moved his plantation home from three miles away "into the new town." As noted previously, the house appears as Keegan House Hotel on a 1892 Sanborn map, the first available. It faced the railroad tracks about 125 feet away. Without the above background, one might wonder why Keegan would go to such trouble to move a large house. It seems clear, however, that he moved it specifically to be in the new railroad town of Robeline and opened it as a hotel to take advantage of opportunities brought by the railroad. It certainly was not unheard of in Louisiana for people to move buildings from areas bypassed by the railroad to those that were not. In fact, there are at least two instances of whole communities relocating. Today the Keegan House is the best surviving resource to represent the railroad history of Robeline. The depot is gone and even the tracks have been removed. There are a few surviving historic commercial buildings which reflect the prosperity made possible by the railroad in a general way, but the Keegan House has the most compelling, direct association. The exact date range for the house's use as a railroad hotel is not known. On the 1899, 1904, 1909, and 1914 Sanborn maps it is labeled simply "Keegan House," although it seems clear that it was still a hotel. (It appears as a listing in the index, which is for businesses and public buildings and not private residences, and there is a notation about it having an office.) For the purposes of this nomination, it seems reasonable to use c.1890 as the beginning date for the period of significance and c.1915 as the ending date. The house may have continued in use as a railroad hotel after this date, but this cannot be documented.

Street address: 143 Chaplin Loop Robeline, LA USA 71469 County / Borough / Parish: Natchitoches Year listed: 1995 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1850-1874, 1875-1899, 1900-1924 Historic function: Domestic. Sub - Hotel, Single Dwelling Current function: Domestic. Sub - Secondary Structure Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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