Rapides Parish
1327 Third Street
Alexandria, LA
This modest Queen Anne revival-style cottage in Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, was the birthplace of writer Arna Bontemps, a major figure in the African American literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. Bontemps identified strongly with his childhood home, even though he lived there for only four years. Bontemps always considered himself southern, referenced the home in his writing, and referred to his childhood home in Alexandria as "back home." Bontemps’s widow and his biographer felt unequivocally that the author’s childhood home in Alexandria should be the location to represent him in the National Register of Historic Places.
Photo: Birthplace of Arna Wendell Bontemps
– Courtesy Arna Bontemps Museum
