The former ML Bath Company, at 610 Market Street, is now under contract.  The buildings that make up ML Bath total more than 43,000 square feet on one of downtown’s busiest streets.  Plans call for the properties to join a growing creative industry/creative ecosystem  in Shreveport.  Watch the eBlast for more information.


The ML Bath buildings in the 600 block of Texas Street have been a part of the downtown landscape for 101 years; the office business that they housed was even older.

A hand colored photo of the grand opening of the building at 610 Market St. in November 1922.

The patriarch of the ML Bath business, Michaelis “Mike’ Lewis Bath.

M.L. -Michaelis Lewis or ‘Mike’- Bath started his office supplies and furnishings store in 1905 and by 1921, the company had moved to their Market Street location. A Mason, member of both the B’Nai Zion and Agudath Achim Jewish congregations, Rotarian and war-time member of the American Red Cross, Lewis was regarded as a strong proponent in the growth of Shreveport. He died unexpectedly in 1945 but the business named after him continued to thrive.

An ML Bath office scene, 1920s.

Market Street scene, 1950s. ML Bath is between the Continental American Bank and Peterson Chrysler Plymouth.

The buildings that make up ML Bath total more than 43,000 square feet on one of downtown’s most traveled roads. There are two buildings- a 4-story and a 2-story that was built in 1932, both with basements.

The building sits in Downtown’s CBD subdistrict in the Unified Development Code, and could be rehabbed for a number of different uses including art galleries and studios, above the ground floor apartments or condos, hotel, offices, retail stores and more.

The buildings are being offered for an asking price of $649,000. See the LoopNet listing here.

 

Janie Landry
Author: Janie Landry