Looking back, looking forward – Mapping the layout of a city over time

As Baton Rouge continues to look at ways to reshape its infrastructure to fit a complete streets model, it might be helpful to look back at how the city grew to where it is today. The US Geological Survey has historical maps of the city dating back to 1908, when areas like Southdowns and along Highland and Perkins roads were little more than swamplands and fields.

Recently, the USGS made those maps available online in a tool that overlays available historic maps on what’s essentially a navigable Google Maps-like platform. You can go to a location, pick a historic map, and scroll around, increasing or decreasing the opacity of the older map to see how the street grids have changed.

These maps might provide some context while we anticipate some major developments in the works that are poised to change how we view certain neighborhoods and thoroughfares across the city.

Take for instance the Model Block project on Government Street, which is currently under construction. The project involves several businesses between Bedford and Ogden drives being revamped, including the old Darensbourg building, which will lease out three suites on the first floor and house Ritter Maher Architects upstairs.

The Greenway Project, which began construction at Expressway Park in June, will create a biking and walking path to link City Park with downtown via the green space beneath the I-10/I-110 split.

Maybe in several decades we’ll look back on the maps that feature these new improvements and see how they’ve led to smarter decisions on how we utilize space in Baton Rouge.

Thanks to Center for Planning Excellence for the link to the USGS historical map tool.