Mix Store and Post Office, New Roads Louisiana

Date added: March 29, 2025

Do you have an update on the current status of this structure? Please tell us about it in the comments below.

Thomas Mix was born in 1853 in Plaquemine, LA, and was raised in New Roads. He was not formally educated, but was very successful and became a land owner with farming operations, ran a cotton gin and saw mill, and operated the Mix Store and Post Office. His home, which he shared with his wife and ten children, stood to the right of the store, but was demolished in 1955. Today, the store remains the only reminder of the center of the community of Mix.

The store was built in 1890 and several articles were written celebrating its construction. On January 25^th, 1890, the Pointe Coupee Banner wrote:

"Mr. Thos. Mix, after several years devotion to agriculture, is about to return to his first love, and will soon be found among the ranks of those devoted to mercantile pursuits. To that end Mr. Mix is now erecting upon his plantation, which is some four miles from New Roads, a large and commodious building which he will stock with foods in time for the coming commercial year. The BANNER extends its best wishes to him in his new adventure."

A month later, the store had officially opened as the Banner reported that "Mr. Thos. Mix has opened his new store with a full line of general merchandise. We understand that our jovial friend Johny Enright is in charge." Thomas Mix incorporated an apartment in the back for Mr. Enright's (and any future store managers) families.

In addition to serving the community's mercantile needs, the store also was used as a public meeting place. In July of 1890, it was announced that an anti-lottery meeting would be held at the store on the 3^rd of August at 3:00 pm. A report was then printed after the meeting was held stating that Mr. C.H. Lebeau was elected president at the Democratic Anti-Lottery meeting and Thomas Mix was elected secretary. These two men, along with six others, were elected to the Baton Rouge convention.

On July 18^th, 1904, the Mix Post Office was established. It is unknown if the post office window was immediately installed at this point, or if it came at a later date. The post office operated in the building until February 9^th, 1973.

While many rural stores such as this went into decline shortly after World War II, the Mix Store continued to be used up until at least 1973. With the advent of the automobile and more range for shopping, the Mix Store added gas pumps so that locals could purchase gas at the store (it is unclear when the gas pumps were removed). This was likely key to helping the store survive into the 1970s as it was no longer purely just a general store. In 1930, the store was taken over by Edwin David. David would later serve as postmaster. Prior to that, Mathilde Goserand and Thomas's son, Kent, served as postmistress and postmaster.

Although Pointe Coupee is one of Louisiana's oldest parishes (organized in 1807), its current parish seat of New Roads was not established until much later. The community began as a tiny hamlet with a mission church (St. Mary's) located on False River, an oxbow lake created between 1713 and 1722 when the Mississippi River cut a new channel. The town takes its unusual name from this location. Documents from the 1820s refer to "Chemin Neuf' (New Road) and to St. Mary's church being located at "the New Road on False River." In 1847, one year after a fire destroyed the original courthouse on the Mississippi, an act was passed authorizing the relocation of the parish seat. The upper floor of a residence in New Roads was offered as a temporary home, and later that year a permanent courthouse site was purchased. By 1856 the community apparently had six houses and two stores as well as the courthouse. Soon these establishments were joined by a coffee house, hotel, and sawmill. The first post office, known as "False River, Louisiana," opened in 1858 but closed in 1861.

The small community grew in spurts after the Civil War. The first "boom" occurred in the 1880s as the result of the abandonment of the nearby town of Waterloo. New Roads' main thoroughfare, which paralleled False River, acquired a number of one-and two-story business and office buildings at this time. Although a few specialty businesses (including a drug store, hotel, blacksmith, jewelry store, Chinese laundry, saloons, and millinery shops) operated in town, the business district was apparently dominated by general mercantile stores carrying a variety of goods. The second growth spurt began with the arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railroad (1898-1899). Because the company laid its tracks some distance from the lake, the town grew to the north to meet them. The railroad made possible the introduction of large industries, including a brickyard, cotton gins, ice and light company, lumber company, cottonseed oil mill, and a bottling works. In addition to its role as the parish seat, New Roads today serves as the commercial center for a large agricultural parish. Because of its location on False River, it also ranks highly as a recreation area. Finally, the town is well known throughout South Louisiana for its annual family-oriented Mardi Gras celebration.

The community of Mix developed just to the southwest of New Roads and centered on the Mix Plantation (demolished in 1955). Mix was named for Alexander Mix, who came to Pointe Coupee Parish from Philadelphia, PA. His grandson, Thomas, would be the man who built the Mix Store and Post Office.

It is helpful to understand the circumstances under which rural stores conducted business and the types of goods they provided. Only mercantile establishments serving the general public operated before 1865, as planters were responsible for providing the needs of their enslaved workers. However, several types of rural stores, differentiated by type of ownership and customer, operated in Louisiana after the Civil War.

In areas where plantation agriculture dominated the economy, the plantation store was the norm. With the end of the Civil War and the loss of slave labor, planters were forced to find other means to get their crops planted and harvested. In Louisiana's cotton-growing parishes, the plantation system shifted to a practice known as share-cropping, in which a landless farmer worked a portion of the planter's land for a share of the crop, generally one-third. However, this system was not suited to sugar-growing parishes. There, planters hired gangs of laborers who were given housing on the plantation and a small weekly or monthly wage. The amount of this wage depended upon whether or not the planter also provided food for the worker. Although wages were occasionally paid in cash, script and credit vouchers redeemable at the plantation store were often used. Because the planters feared that their laborers might leave before the crop was in, they often withheld part of these wages until the end of the year. Like share-cropping and paid gang labor, plantation stores were a phenomenon of the post-bellum period. In many cases, the stores were owned by the planters themselves, but sometimes an ambitious entrepreneur would set up business in an area surrounded by several plantations. The timber industry, which came to Louisiana in the 1880s, brought a different kind of rural store to the state. This was the company-owned and controlled commissary, located within a company-built town. Many times its customers were a captive audience, for workers were often paid in script which could be redeemed only at the company store. The final type of rural store was that run by independent entrepreneurs in non-plantation rural communities. These businesses served whatever population happened to live nearby. Despite the type of ownership involved, all of these stores provided a wide variety of goods, ranging from manufactured clothes to foodstuffs to tools to patent medicines, in short, everything the rural householder could want.

It should be noted that both plantation stores and rural stores serving a wider population are now extremely rare. The end of the sharecropping system and the increasing popularity of the automobile (which allowed its owner to acquire goods in nearby towns) brought about their decline. Through the years, the majority of rural stores have either been demolished, allowed to deteriorate and fall down, or in some cases removed from the property. Those that survive are usually closed, vacant, deteriorated, and face an uncertain future.

In Pointe Coupee Parish, only one of the plantation stores, the Alma Store in Lakeland, is still in operation. There are a handful of stores, like the Mix Store, that are still standing. One other example in the northern part of the parish is the Jacoby Store, which dates to 1898.

Building Description

The Mix Store and Post Office is a c. 1890 one-story commercial building that sits in what was once known as the Mix community, just outside of New Roads, LA. The Mix community was officially annexed to be a part of the City of New Roads in the 1970s so up until then, this store was the center of the community. The property includes a shed, which is a small piece of a former larger outbuilding, the rest was taken down because it was in terrible condition and unsafe. Formerly part of a large plantation, the Mix Plantation, the store features many original elements including wood windows, wood French doors, wood siding, wood floors throughout the interior, and original wood shelving and counters in the store. The rear section of the building has a small apartment that was for the store manager and his family. One of the original sets of French doors was altered to house a window at some point once the store added the post office. That window has since been replaced with a new set of French doors to match the other two. This is the main alteration to speak of.

Detailed Description

Located about 5 miles from downtown New Roads, the community of Mix was centered around the Mix Plantation. This large 2 story plantation included a gin and the store. The setting for the plantation and store was initially much more rural than it is today as it was a purely agricultural community. Today, it is still fairly rural, but includes many more residences in the area as this part of the parish near New Roads is now very popular because of False River (actually a lake) for boating, fishing, and recreation.

Originally, the store looked much as it does today. When a post office was added in 1904, one of the sets of French doors was altered to a window so that patrons could just walk up to the store and get their mail through the window.

The wood siding had been covered with asbestos (since removed) and the post office window can be seen on the far left. The original wood siding was intact under the asbestos. Other than that, the building was intact to its construction date of 1890. Work was done to remove the asbestos siding, which revealed that the post office window was an alteration.

The current owner began extensive work to stabilize the building and return the facade to its original design. The following description discusses the building as it is today after this stabilization and rehabilitation work has been done.

The facade features three sets of French doors that lead onto the front porch. Two sets of the doors are original and the third has been milled to match. They are six-panel doors. The porch is supported by four simple rectangular columns. The entire building is clad in wood siding. The front gable end has a rectangular vent. The roof is metal.

The north elevation has three single 6/6 windows on the store section and two sets of two 2/2 windows on the rear section, which was the store manager's family's apartment.

The rear west elevation has a small rear porch that has a door providing entrance into the apartment. There is also a set of double windows matching the others previously mentioned.

The south elevation has two 6/6 windows on the store section of the building and two sets of two 2/2 windows on the apartment section as well as a third set of smaller windows that are located in the kitchen of the apartment.

The interior of the apartment features four rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The interior of the store features original shelving along the side and rear walls. The floor is wood, the walls are painted wood boards, and the ceiling is bead board. The counters remain in place as well. There is a small side room on the right side of the store that was used as storage.

There is a small wooden shed on the property. It is only a piece of a former historic building. The rest had to be demolished as it was falling down and this is the only portion that remains.