Hanson Lumber Company Owner's House - Garden City, LA
N 29° 45.935 W 091° 28.002
15R E 648238 N 3293796
Also known as Aycock House. Located on Louisiana State Highway 182, in the small community of Garden City.
Waymark Code: WM7X19
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 12/15/2009
Views: 5
Very beautiful home, located in a grove of Oak trees. It was hard to get a good photo of the front, also got some great photos of the rear, which show its size.. The home was for sale at time of this Waymarking. Garden City was once a lumber community. I found this really good history on the town, from the Louisiana Register Application for the home, located
here.The The Hanson Lumber Company Owner's House is of state significance in the area of industry
because it is one of a limited number of resources left to directly represent the great Louisiana
lumber boom. The period of significance spans from c.1900, the date of construction, to 1943, the
fifty year cutoff. Garden City remained a lumber company town, the building continued in use, and
the lumber industry remained an important historical force in the state, all past the fifty year cutoff.
Industrial lumbering was one of the major historic forces in the development of Louisiana,
and indeed the entire South. In fact, it was about the only bright spot in an otherwise weak post-Civil
War economy. Until the 1880s, Louisiana's vast forests were largely untouched. It was then that
large-scale industrial lumbering began in earnest. During the so-called "Golden Years" of the
Louisiana lumber boom (c.1905-c.1925), 4.3 million acres of timber were cut, with Louisiana
consistently ranking second in the nation in production.
With the lumber, and the money made from lumbering, Louisianians embarked upon a
furious pace of building. Indeed, much of the state's building stock dates from the heyday of
lumbering. Thus, in a general sense, the Queen Anne Revival cottages and bungalows found in
many towns represent the lumber boom and what it did to the state. These are its largest, although
not its most important legacy. More important are the relatively small number of cultural resources
directly associated with the industrial production of lumber. These include lumber company towns,
company commissaries, owners' and managers' houses, and company built public buildings such as
schools and churches.
Unfortunately, very few lumber boom related resources survive compared to the number
that once existed. In many cases lumber company buildings were dismantled and moved out of the
state when the timber played out. In other cases buildings in abandoned lumber communities simply
collapsed after years of neglect. It should be emphasized that the Louisiana landscape was dotted
with sawmills during the "golden years" of industrial lumbering. For example, there were over
seventy sawmills within a forty mile radius of Alexandria. There were also scores of company built
towns such as Garden City. However, there are only about twenty-five or so lumber boom related
resources remaining in the state. This estimate is based upon the Division of Historic Preservation's
survey files and general staff knowledge. This number includes individual buildings built by this or
that particular lumber company and seven lumber company towns which survive in varying degrees
of integrity. Among these rare survivors, the Hanson Lumber Company Owner's House is
particularly interesting because many lumber companies were owned by Northerners and
Midwesterners who did not reside in Louisiana.
The planned community it represents was founded by Albert Hanson, a lumberman from
nearby Franklin. He established a cypress lumber company in that town in the 1890s. Needing room
for expansion and desiring to build a town for his workers, Hanson purchased property near Franklin
c.1900 and began construction. Historic photos show Garden City to have been an attractive, tidy
town with mainly two story houses along an elongated loop. At the head of the loop stood the office
and a two story commissary and at its center a large school. The owner's house was located across
the street from the office and was clearly the grandest residence in town.
Albert Hanson died in 1908, but his descendants retained ownership of Garden City until
1924 when it was purchased by the F. B. Williams Cypress Company of nearby Patterson. Around
1927, May Brothers leased the lumber company from F. B. Williams. During the Depression,
Garden City was sold to Clarence Aycock and Nicholas G. Huth, with the May Brothers continuing to
lease the property until the mid-1950s when operations ceased. For a few years after the Hansons
sold the company, the nominated residence may have been used by a manager or the like rather
than the owner. After Aycock and Huth purchased the town, the Aycocks resided in the house and it
is known by their name today.