Thriving Community Was Once

Part of Louisiana’s Capital City

  By Sarah Forman

 

Where is Roppoloville? Has anyone ever heard of Roppoloville?

 

Believe it or not, in north Baton Rouge, with its center located at the intersection of Plank Road and Weller Avenue, there was once a lively, self-sustaining community called Roppoloville.

 

In the 1890s, Arasimo Roppolo had no idea that his moving across the Atlantic Ocean from Poggio Reale, Italy to Louisiana would have an impact on our area’s history.   He and his brother Vito came to America as teenagers.   After a few years of odd jobs around Louisiana, they finally settled in Baton Rouge.  As soon as they saved enough money, the boys returned to Sicily to bring their sisters over.

 

Arasimo returned to the area and opened a mercantile store.   “We always thought of that old general store as the first Wal-Mart,” said Victor Roppolo who is Vito’s grandson and Arasimos’s great nephew.   “It had everything from tractor parts to fresh produce, meats, vegetables and even clothing.”

 

The general store on the corner of Plank and Weller is still in use.

Entrepreneur

After opening the general store, Roppolo aided the development of the community by opening other needed establishments.   He soon opened a filling station that also sold tires, auto parts and he employed a mechanic.

 

Next, he opened a pharmacy called Dileos Roppoloville Pharmacy at the corner of Plank and Weller.   In the pharmacy was the areas U.S. Post Office Branch, officially called the “Roppoloville Branch” in the U.S. Postal Book.   It remained a branch of the postal system until it was merged with the Istrouma branch in a governmental downsizing program many years later.

 

Located right behind the pharmacy was Roppolo’s laundry and dry cleaning business, and across the street from the general store was a barber shop and other local offices.

 

Home Grown

Just off Weller Avenue was a large building full of feed and seed; some of it for sale and some for Roppolo to use on his farm.   Roppolo’s farm was located on Airline Highway where it intersects with Prescott Road.   Cultivated year round, the garden supplied the general store with fresh produce daily.

 

The feed and seed building was occasionally utilized by the state as a voting precinct location.

 

At the intersection of Weller and Acadian there was a cement pond.   It was approximately 20’ x 40’, and it was full of alligators.   “I don’t know the exact reason for my great uncle owning this pond, but word has it that no one got very far out of line in the area,” explained Victor Roppolo.

 

Victor Roppolo, Arasimo Roppolo's great nephew lives in the Baton Rouge area.

Working with Wagons

Mr. Roppolo had a contract with the Esso Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the forerunner of today’s Exxon Refinery.   Mr. Roppolo’s mules would pull wagons full of products unloaded from the barges from the side of the levee all the way to the plant.  

 

“Almost every day at 6 a.m. the crossing at Plank and Prescott was blocked to allow the mules to head to work.   The intersection was blocked again in the evenings so the mules could return to their field just about a block behind the general store,” said Roppolo.

 

The workers and the team drivers were given housing by Mr. Roppolo and had buying privileges in the general store.   At the end of the month their expenditures and their wages would be settled-up.

 

World War II

Just before World War II, Roppoloville was really shaping up into a thriving area.

 

“The United States military thought it was necessary to install a fighter and medium bomber unit in the area to protect the Esso, Ethyl, U.S. Rubber and Alcoa Aluminum plants.   Each played a big part to the war effort at the time,” said Roppolo.   Harding Field and Air Base was located two or three miles north on Plank Road.   Today Harding Field is known as the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.  

 

During this time, Roppoloville was home for around 3,000 soldiers, and Arasimo Roppolo saw this as another opportunity to make his town grow.   “There was a bus stop that was the designated transfer point connecting the airbase and downtown Baton Rouge.   My great-uncle thought it would be a good idea to build a big pavilion right off of the road behind the pharmacy as a shelter from the rain and bad weather while soldiers and airmen waited for the bus,” said Vic Roppolo.

 

An Untimely End

Some of Arasimo Roppolo’s family members opened businesses in the area to help it grow as well.   The Roppoloville area was a booming community throughout the ‘30s and up until the ‘50s when the senior Roppolo met an untimely death.   “My grandfather was traveling back from his farm on a cold rainy night when he was struck by a vehicle and knocked into a rain filled ditch, where he passed away,” said Roppolo.

 

Arasimo Roppolo’s accomplishments were tremendous and all of it was the result of hard work and perseverance.   He was sorely missed by his family and the many people in the Roppoloville community.  

 

Today there are no blood relatives of Arasimo Roppolo living in the area once known as Roppoloville. But proudly standing now for decades is the old Roppoloville General Store that once was the beginning of it all.

 

And now you can say you have heard of Roppoloville, just in case anyone ever asks. 

Map of Roppoloville:

1. General Store

2. Mr. Roppolo's house

3. the cement pond

4. Auto repair shop

5. Dileo's Roppoloville Pharmacy, with the post office inside; shelter for the transfer point behind pharmacy

6. Laundry and Dry Cleaning

7. Geo Dell's Ice House

8. Barber shop

9. Doctor's office

10. Dayton Drugs