BUILDING MATERIALS

Donaldsonville, LA

Donaldsonville sits at the head of Bayou Lafourche, where the bayou once met the

Mississippi River and helped connect communities all the way down to the Gulf.

With the river, bayou, rail lines, and sugar country surrounding it, Donaldsonville

grew as a place where goods, people, and ideas were always moving.

That history still shows in its downtown buildings, old homes, churches, and

neighborhoods. Maintaining them takes more than whatever happens to be

sitting on a shelf. It takes the right lumber, hardware, roofing, siding, paint

supplies, windows, doors, and practical guidance from people who

understand how South Louisiana buildings were put together.

Frost Lumber has been serving communities along Bayou Lafourche since 1882.

From Donaldsonville, it is a straight trip down the bayou to a lumberyard that

still believes knowing the material matters just as much as selling it.



A Lil’ Lagniappe...

Russell Lee took this photograph at the Donaldsonville state fair in November 1938. The

little fortune teller’s cubicle, with its stars, crescent moons, hand-painted lettering,

and wonderfully mysterious curtain, feels almost theatrical. It is the kind of scene

that could easily have disappeared without anyone thinking to preserve it.

Lee was photographing everyday American life for the Farm Security Administration,

and this small fairground booth became part of that record. It does not show

Donaldsonville’s grand architecture, political history, or river commerce. It shows something

just as valuable: how ordinary people gathered, entertained themselves, and added

a little mystery to an otherwise ordinary day.

Donaldsonville has always known how to leave a little room for the unexpected.