DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / May 5, 2000

PAULINA – Just short of being a full century old, the old Laiche house on the corner of Lucky Street and River Road in Paulina was torn down, most of it being set ablaze.

“There were three houses on the property; now they’re all gone,” said Isabella Laiche Roussel, the last of three sisters raised in the home.

Her parents, Lawrence “Sweet” Laiche and Lena Laiche, were married Feb.

14, 1900 and bought the house, having it rebuilt at it’s Paulina location on Sept. 15 of that same year. The house had gone to her oldest sister, Elise B.Laiche, who’s family decided to have the lot cleared.

“I hate to see it go, but once they’ve got somethin’ in their head to do, there’s no changin’ it,” said Isabella.

The house is being torn down, and soon with no parish record of its destruction the only proof of its existence will remain with those who lived within its wall or saw it standing.

So many of St. James Parish’s old homes are disappearing in the samefashion, said members of the St. James Historical Society.”At times we’ve counted over a hundred homes over 100 years old just between Convent and Paulina,” said Joe Samrow, chairman of the Historical Society.

With poorly kept records of the existence of the houses and no permits required for their destruction, the Historical Society is distressed as each disappears without a trace.

“Even if the parish required a $5 demolition fee, at least we could keep track of where they were before they were destroyed,” said one member.

Though the Laiche house was rebuilt only 99 years ago, the materials and style of the construction was from a much older house. Mud and sugarcanetops were packed in the wall between old hand hued boards and nailess joints.

As the house came down books signed by Elise B. Laiche fell forgotten fromthe attic.

The books, brittle and ragged from neglect, said much about the home’s long passed residents. Among the worm-eaten collection were books in Frenchteaching Latin as well as Latin history books.

“Everything in church was in Latin back in those days, so we had to learn it,” said Isabella.

One book, the “Manuel de Prie’res” published by the Sacre’ Coeur de Jesus in Paris, 1828, bore the crest of the Sacred Heart Convent from the parish.

“It was probably Elise’s first conformational book,” said two local preservationists and historians. “Yeah, I remember the book; I’ve got twomore inside,” said Isabella. Three books for the daughters, she added.In another book, an 1842 publishing of “The Marriage Ring: or How to Make a Home Happy,” Elise’s signature shows an older more mature hand. Followingthe books Elise had possible stored away one could almost read the stages in her life, from first communion to marriage and on, if the rest of the books had not fallen from the rafters page by page.

“I wish I had wrote down all my mama and papa told me,” said Isabella. “Whenyou get older everything seems to disappears out of your memory.”The Historical Society agrees with that sentiment, seeing St. James Parishhouses follow in the same vein, disappearing without being written down and remembered.

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