DESMOND (JOHN) PAPERS

Mss. 4792

1954-2003

Biographical/Historical Note

A native of Hammond, La., award-winning Baton Rouge architect John Desmond's buildings shaped much of

the city's public image. He graduated from Hammond High School in 1937, attended Southeastern College for

one year, and then attended Tulane, where he earned a degree in architecture. After his service in the Navy

during World War II, he earned a master's at M.I.T. and worked for a firm in New York and for architect A.

Hays Town in Baton Rouge.

In 1952 he opened an architectural practice in Hammond, the first architectural practice in the Florida parishes.

His firm included Jack Davis, Bill Burks, and others, and they served as School board architects in Tangipahoa

Parish for about 20 years. In the early 1960s, the firm enjoyed a dual practice with an office in Baton Rouge for

10 years. Then, in the early 1970s, Desmond closed the Hammond office. His firm has been known as

Desmond, Miremont, and Burks, and later Desmond and Associates. Baton Rouge buildings he and his firm

designed include the Louisiana Naval Museum, the Bluebonnet Swamp Interpretive Center, the Louisiana Arts

and Science Center, the Louisiana State Archives, Louisiana State Library, Pennington Biomedical Research

Center, the LSU Union, and the Centroplex. Several local churches and buildings at Southern University in

Baton Rouge and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond are also his designs. In addition to public

and religious buildings, Desmond also designed several residences in Louisiana, the Florida parishes, and

surrounding states. His designing John Schwegmann's home led to a long association with the Louisiana-

owned grocery store owner, and Desmond consequently designed all the Schwegmann grocery stores in New

Orleans and the surrounding area, and in Baton Rouge.

Desmond also taught architecture classes at Louisiana State University and Southern University and is the

author and illustrator of Louisiana's Antebellum Architecture. He retired from private practice in 2002.

3