Jan

Dixie Brewery

By Tess

Opened in 1907, the old Dixie Brewery in Mid-City is an amazing hunk of industrial ruin. After flooding in Katrina, Dixie relocated their corporate offices, and have allowed other companies to brew smaller batches of Dixie Beer under license.

The Brewery sits inside of the planned LSU/VA Hospital complex footprint and although LSU has admitted that the building has significant architectural and historical value, the building’s future is far from certain. LSU has said that they would like to rehab the building and maintain the building, but reading between the lines it’s easy to tell that the future of the building is going to depend on just how much of a PIA it is to LSU.

In the meantime, families in the hundreds of houses in the proposed hospital’s footprint are scrambling. The hospital- despite what LSU/VA wants people to think- is not a done deal, yet these residents who’ve poured their time, money and souls into rebuilding their neighborhoods are receiving what amounts to eviction letters.

Ironically, LSU doesn’t actually have the money to build a new hospital- but they do have enough cash to buy up these properties and knock them down, leaving yet more empty land in the very center of the city (duh- this neighborhood is called Mid-City) to get overgrown with weeds and sit fallow.

Meanwhile, literally across the street from where they want to build brand shiny new buildings, sits Charity Hospital- LSU’s existing hospital, 1 million (!) square feet of shuttered bedspace that’s been deemed structurally sound and an excellent candidate for renovation. It would cost far less (in time, money, and architectural loss) to rehab Charity, but nope, they’re not interested.

Sorry, got off on a tangent there. This was supposed to be strictly about Dixie, but now that Dixie’s future is tied with this proposed project, I just couldn’t help myself.

More pictures of Dixie here.
Pictures of Charity Hospital here.
Videos of the Mid-City site here.