By Jessica Gorman

In the summer of 1941, the order came for construction of the Louisiana Ordnance Plant in Webster Parish. By the middle of August, Doyline was already experiencing great change brought about by the plant.

Doyline very quickly became a “boom town.” Houses on the north side of the railroad tracks, now part of the plant, had been converted into offices for the Silas Mason Company. One newspaper account states, “The buzz of saw and the thudding of hammers are heard in every direction as new business and residential buildings of frame construction are rushed to completion. Almost every structure in town is getting some sort of new trimming. Old merchants have begun to enlarge their stocks, and new merchants are going into business.” “Virtually overnight Doyline has emerged from a quiet sleepy town into a place buzzing with business and filled with newcomers. The metamorphosis is evidenced by the new structures which have been and still are springing up and by the crowded stores and business places.”

Some of these new businesses were identified as a movie theater in the building between the E.O. Cooper and W.A. Gamble residences. J.G. Perritt was moving his drug store to a new building and the old one was soon to become a grocery & dry goods store. The town was expecting its first laundry to open in a new building between J.A. Cawthon’s store and the Blount service station while an Auto-Lec store was opening in the Cawthon building. A new general store was being built by G.T. Brewer and a café had opened in the old one. Another café was being built by W.S. Andrews on College Street and two new barber shops had opened on Main Street. A new 24-hour railroad depot had been constructed on the site of the old one and the post office had added new post offices boxes.

Housing was needed for new residents of the area, workers at the plant, and those who had previously resided on the plant property. Mrs. M.L. Thompson had a two-story apartment building built next to the school. Mrs. Mattie Broyles converted a building into a boarding house. Edgar Smith built five new houses which were being leased to Silas Mason employees. The school board had to build a new home for the principal at Doyline to replace the teacherage that had been located on the plant property. Four trailer camps had been established for plant workers. A barracks-like structure was being built and many residents had taken boarders into their homes. Others were living in tents.

Even with the influx of new residents, some of those whose homes had been lost to the new plant chose instead to move away. And while residents welcomed the increase in economic activity, there was a major issue looming on the horizon, the planned closing of what was then Highway 183, now Highway 164. Closing of the highway, which had also become part of the plant property, would have a tremendous effect on the residents of Doyline.

(Jessica Gorman is Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, and an avid genealogist.)