A Part of Shreveport History

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  The Year was 1910. When Peter Youree was named president of Shreveport’s Commercial National Bank 125 years ago, he had seen a lot. He’d been wounded in the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War, he married Betty Scott and fathered two children, he founded Shreveport’s first waterworks and streetcar system, and he served as president of the Caddo Parish Police Jury. What he hadn’t seen was a skyscraper gracing the Shreveport skyline, and that was something he very much wanted to see.

 His dream was “to build an office building for Shreveport that could match anything in New Orleans,” historian Eric J. Brock wrote. In 1910, Youree made his 19-year vision a reality when he commissioned the Commercial National Bank building at the corner of Market and Texas streets. 

   Featuring ornate marble and terra cotta accents, Brock noted that the 10-story structure was one of the “major buildings of the South” at that time. It was reinforced with steel and cost a then-hefty sum of $500,000 to build. The two-story lobby was a vision in marble with intricate Greek key-patterned iron railings bordering the mezzanine and elegant brass elevator doors emblazoned with a “CB” monogram.

 This grand building paved the way for the development of downtown Shreveport. The Commercial National Bank building was followed by construction of a new public library in 1923, the Strand Theater in 1925, and the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in 1929.