Caye Ribas’s historic city documents

It was just another house that Caye Ribas was renovating in the Garden District.

About 15 years ago, Ribas and his wife Nancy climbed up into the attic and discovered some interesting goodies. Caye spotted an unassuming leather briefcase and reached for it. Inside he found handwritten documents from the city of Baton Rouge in the 1940s. The owner of the briefcase was Fred F. LeBlanc, who served as mayor from 1940 to 1948. “I called the family first to see if they wanted to keep it,” Ribas says. They said they didn’t. Ribas decided to keep it for himself, and with further research, he roughly mapped out Mr. LeBlanc’s professional life. “He was first mayor, then the district attorney, then state attorney general and finally served as a Supreme Court justice for Louisiana,” says Ribas. Mr. LeBlanc carried the handwritten city budget, and in 1940, it was $657,255. He also had his campaign speeches, newspaper clippings and certificates recognizing his various positions held in the briefcase. One newspaper clipping that Ribas finds particularly interesting is from the front page of The Advocate. A woman was pursued by the city and brought into court for refusing to pay a parking meter fee of $1 because she overparked by 15 minutes. “That house was by far my favorite,” says Ribas.

Nuggets from Mayor LeBlanc’s budget expenses in 1940:

Chief of Police: $4,200

Painter: $960

City Park Golf Course maintenance: $3,500

Guy who ran Magnolia Cemetery: $3.20 a day

Coroner: $50 a month

Drainage department.: $33.75

Cost per front-foot to widen streets: $6.75