Images of the FAMILY Title   |   Introduction   |   Images of the City

Click on the images to view a larger version
Lucie Fishing, 1899-1900
Lucie Bartlett Allison (1887-1907) was Alexander Allison’s younger sister. She died before her twentieth birthday in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (where this photograph was taken). The Allison family owned property in the town and spent a good bit of time there. Alex’s parents are both buried there.
Cat Island, 1899
Allison took several photographs aboard the boat that carried him and his family from Bay Saint Louis to Cat Island, one of several barrier islands off the Mississippi coast, at the end of the 19th century. This island view shows his brothers Andrew (1879-1960) and William (1876-1962) with Helen Jones, a family friend who made the trip with the Allisons. Today, the western part of the Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore; the remainder is in private hands. A portion of the Island was lost during Hurricane Katrina.
Lighthouse at Tchefuncte River, 1900
The original lighthouse on Lake Pontchartrain at the Tchefuncte River, built in 1837, was destroyed during the Civil War and rebuilt shortly thereafter. It has undergone several restorations over the years and is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina damage. Now the property of the town of Madisonville, the lighthouse is operated by the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum.
Breath's Store after the 1915 Storm
When the unnamed 1915 hurricane hit Bay Saint Louis on September 29 it killed at least one person, washed away the beach road, and destroyed all of the wharves and bathhouses—and most of the buildings--on the beach front. The debris shown in Allison’s photograph is probably the remains of the dry goods store operated by Rita Breath and her teenage daughters Josephine and Ernestine.
Elizabeth in the Tub--316 Millaudon Street, 1915-1916
Elizabeth Dickinson Allison (1915-1986) was Alexander Allison’s eldest daughter. She later married John M. Law. The Millaudon Street house, though altered, is still standing.
Elizabeth with Books--316 Millaudon Street, 1917
Elizabeth in Costume, with Lucie--1013 Milan Street, May 1922
Lucie Frances Allison (1919-2008) was Alexander Allison’s younger daughter. She spent most of her life in Los Angeles, California, and died there just a couple of years ago. The house now standing at 1013 Milan Street is probably the same structure, though considerably changed since the 1920s.
Lucie and her Bear--1013 Milan Street, 1922
Pogo, our Cat, with Elizabeth and Lucie--1013 Milan Street, 1923
The Salem United Church of Christ, at the corner of Milan and Camp Streets, is in the background.
Lucie's Birthday Party--Milan Street House, June 2, 1924
Lucie was five years old when Allison took this photograph of her and her party guests.
Bathing--Pascagoula, Mississippi, 1925
Bessie Devall Dickinson Allison (1884-1972) with her daughters.
Dean and Marjorie, Mardi Gras, 1926
Marjorie is identified in another photograph as Marjorie Andrews. It is almost certain that the young boy shown here is Dean Andrews, Marjorie’s brother and later a local attorney (he served for a few years as an Assistant District Attorney in Jefferson Parish). In 1965 he organized the International Jazz Festival of New Orleans, five years before the birth of the present-day New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Dean Andrews made an even bigger name for himself a couple of years later when he managed to get businessman Clay Shaw embroiled in Jim Garrison’s investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Andrews died in April 1981.
Mardi Gras; a Neighborhood Crowd--Milan Street, 1932
Lucie (wearing glasses and standing at the right) and a group of neighborhood children masked for the big day, February 9. That may be Bessie Allison standing at left behind the youngsters.
Elizabeth and Lucie--Milan Street House, 1937
Lucie, Father, Alex, Bessie over Elizabeth and David--General Pershing Street House, August 1941
Actually, that’s Elizabeth, Father, Alex, and Lucie standing over Bessie and David. Richard David Law, the son of Elizabeth Allison Law and John Melvin Law, was born in Harris County, Texas on June 10, 1941. He died in New Orleans, September 1996. The Allison house at 2300 General Pershing Street, with some changes, is still standing.
Lucie and Some of our Soldier Guests--General Pershing Street House, 1941-1943
Bessie Allison worked at the New Orleans USO center on Dryades Street in 1943. The servicemen shown in this—and other Allison photographs not included in the exhibit—may be individuals that she met at the center. Or they may be soldiers that Lucie Allison met after her enlistment. Either way, the Allison family, like many others, provided a temporary home away from home for a number of servicemen during World War II.
Bessie and Alex--General Pershing Street House, 1943
Bartlett Home, River Side Prytania Street--Urania Street to Polymnia Street (1854)--Mother Born in One of these Houses,1944
Allison’s mother, Elizabeth Bartlett Allison (1854-1936), was born in one of the houses (since demolished) shown in this photograph. The entire square is now occupied by the 1750 St. Charles Condominiums.
Alex Goes to Baptist Hospital--New Orleans, 1944
We’re not sure why Allison went to the hospital in his seventieth year; we do know that he lived for another twenty. Southern Baptist Hospital opened at Napoleon Avenue and Magnolia Street in 1926. After decades of service, major renovations, and some definite ups & downs—not the least of which was the devastation caused by the post-Katrina flood—the institution was purchased by the Ochsner Health System. The original building, shown in this photograph, is scheduled to reopen as a Senior Living Center in 2013.
PFC Allison Leaves for Asheville--L&N Railroad Station, 1945
On March 11, 1943, after three years of college and some secretarial/stenographic jobs, Lucie Allison enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps. Allison photographed his younger daughter just before she boarded a train for Asheville, North Carolina. She is standing on the sidewalk across from the L&N Railroad Station at the foot of Canal Street. Overhead is the pedestrian walkway that provided access to the Algiers Ferry Terminal from the rest of Canal.
Andrew, Father, Alex, Christmas, 1945
This photograph was taken in Bay Saint Louis, probably on the Allison property. Andrew was a Presbyterian minister, working as a missionary in China; he retired a few years later. Father (Alexander Allison, Sr., 1851-1947) had quite a remarkable story. He worked as a bookkeeper for the New Orleans Cotton Exchange and later for several local law firms. He participated in the “Battle of Liberty Place” of September 14, 1874 as a member of the Crescent City White League. His sister-in-law was married to the author George Washington Cable, through whom he met Mark Twain and Joel Chandler Harris. In 1898 Allison, Sr. bought the house at 614 North Beach in Bay Saint Louis, and the family’s Mississippi years began.
In Front of Episcopal Church--after the Hurricane, September 1947
Allison’s photograph documents some of the damage inflicted by another unnamed hurricane on the town of Bay Saint Louis. The 1947 storm killed at least six people as 100 mph winds and a twelve foot tide sent giant waves over the seawall, destroying all but two of the stores on the Bay side of Front Street. Numerous residents were left homeless, including the grandmother and aunts of Louisiana Congressman T. Hale Boggs. Those elderly ladies survived by taking refuge in a neighbor’s attic after their own home was destroyed.
LSU--Mike in his Cage, December 4, 1954
This is Mike I, the original LSU Tiger mascot. Although both Allison and his daughter Elizabeth were graduates of Tulane, Lucie enrolled at LSU in 1934. Perhaps they were visiting her old campus when Dad snapped this photograph. Mike I, by the way, was nineteen years old at the time; he died in 1956. It’s Mike VI who is now roaring at LSU home football games.