Lake Charles City of history

In 1885 Allen Perkins purchased approximately 37 acres of land between the Lake Charles lakefront and Ryan Street from the Sallier heirs.

Grover Cleveland’s first termThe surplus and the tariffThe public domainThe Interstate Commerce ActThe election of 1888

The Benjamin Harrison administrationThe Sherman Antitrust ActThe silver issueThe McKinley tariffThe agrarian revoltThe PopulistsThe election of 1892

Today to commemorate this part of history, Chef Andrew Green opened 1910 Restaurant and Wine Bar.

On April 4, 1911, the Police Jury decided to build a new courthouse on the old site.

Adjacent to the town of Sulphur, it is a port of entry on a 34-mile (55-km) deepwater channel (completed 1926) and is linked to the Gulf of Mexico via the 20-mile- (32 km-) long Calcasieu Lake.

McNeese State University was established (1939) in the city, and Sam Houston Jones State Park is 12 miles (19 km) to the north.

Toni Jo became the only woman executed in Louisiana’s electric chair. It is said that the courthouse is haunted by the ghost of Toni Jo Henry who was sentenced to death for murdering Joseph Calloway in a car-jacking that involved a plot to break her husband out of jail in 1940.

The execution took place in the Calcasieu Parish Courthouse in 1942.

World War IIThe road to warThe United States at warWar productionFinancing the warSocial consequences of the warThe 1944 electionThe new United States role in world affairs

The peak Cold War years, 1945–60The Truman Doctrine and containmentPostwar domestic reorganizationThe Red ScareThe Korean WarPeace, growth, and prosperityEisenhower’s second termDomestic issuesWorld affairsAn assessment of the postwar era

In 1967, a Parish Government Building was completed to house the various offices of the Police Jury.

With the creation in the mid- 1980's of the Chennault Industrial Airpark in Lake Charles, aircraft refurbishment and maintenance has become an important component of the local economy, and continues to grow.