What happened to Cedar Grove after the automakers folded

The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood.

In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove.

In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage.

In this, the third article of the series, Dr. Gary Joiner examines how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended.

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – When Ford and other large automakers commanded the market, the Louisiana Motor Company collapsed, and the Bain-Beaird Company took over the impressive factory in Cedar Grove in 1924.

Hollace Harrison Bain’s sheet metal works in Shreveport opened in the late 1800s. Later, J. B. Beaird (an oxy-acetylene welding expert) and his brother C. E. Beaird joined forces to open a modern welding plant. By 1918, the business was located in a new brick building.

The company operated under the name Bain-Beaird Welding Company and specialized in custom welding on locomotive frames, boiler patches, oil and sawmill machinery, large fly wheels, automobile cylinders, parts, and more.

Standard Oil Company placed one of the first two orders after Bain-Beaird Welding Company opened, and things worked out splendidly for the businessmen afterward. During their first decade in business, the Bain-Beaird Welding Company began acquiring other Shreveport companies.

They also bought the Empire Steel Construction Company and the Shreveport Boiler and Tank Works and moved to Cedar Grove in 1924.

Bain was also on the board of directors for a new chain of grocery stores in Shreveport that reduced costs by not delivering or allowing charge accounts.

In 1925, the manufacture of oxygen and acetylene welding equipment began.

Bain was also on the board of directors of “Help Yourself” Groceries in Shreveport, a grocery that cut costs by not delivering groceries and not allowing citizens to open charge accounts—as had been common practice with previous grocers in the city.

Bain-Beaird split off the oxygen and acetylene business in 1929. The company reorganized and became the J.B. Beaird Corporation. The same year, it acquired the Latex Iron and Steel Works, Inc.

The company was successful and innovative. Even during the Great Depression and World War II, the company prospered. The nation needed oil. Caddo and Bossier’s parishes had it, and Bain-Beaird built machinery and milled and fabricated high-precision parts.

Bain-Beaird Welding and Machine Company was also active in Cedar Grove’s community, hosting Four Square Bible Classes at Shreveport’s City Hall. Rev. H. L. Johns of the Methodist Church of Cedar Grove led the study class.

During the Cold War, Beaird fabricated and machined components for the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launcher and ground support equipment for the Titan and Minuteman missiles.

In 1956, the company began fabricating rail car tanks and, in the 1960s, started making turbine silencers, heat recovery equipment, and cryogenic vessels for storing liquefied gas.  The Cedar Grove complex continued until Beaird moved to the Slack Industrial Park in 1964.

South of 63^rd Street lies Allen Mill Work, whose large footprint remains as Cedar Grove’s lone survivor of its heyday.

Population pressures within the city limits began to cause issues by the early 1920s. Mayor Payne and the City Council decided to annex land that doubled the town’s size.

Parts of what would later become South Highlands and all of Caddo Heights, Morningside, Oakmont, Woodlawn, Home Gardens, Woodhaven, Sherwood Park, and Bayou Point were in the plan.

Cedar Grove would extend west to Mansfield Road and north to Southfield Road/Hollywood venue, becoming “Imperial Cedar Grove.” But Mayor Payne met with massive opposition due to taxation and infrastructure needs.

Cedar Grove’s annexation plans failed in 1924, and three years later, in 1927, Cedar Grove became a part of the City of Shreveport.

Sources:

The (Shreveport) Times, Nov. 26, 1943

The (Shreveport) Times, Mar. 12, 1922

The Shreveport Journal, Aug. 24, 1924

The (Shreveport) Times, Feb. 3, 1918

The (Shreveport) Times, Feb. 19, 1918

The (Shreveport) Times, Feb. 2, 1918

The (Shreveport) Times, Aug. 1, 1962

The Shreveport Journal, Feb. 1, 1918

Shreveport Journal on October 26, 1921, page 51.

Eric J. Brock, “Beaird Co. Going Strong at 80,” Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, February 21, 1998.

Brock, “Cedar Grove Was First a Town On Its Own.”

“Cedar Grove Plan To Extend Limits Meets Opposition,” Shreveport Journal, June 9, 1923, pp. 15