The Cadillac man’s home
Published 4:10 pm Monday, June 19, 2017
1002 Seventh Street, home to Bruce Shawa
The house at 1002 Seventh Street seems to collect antique enthusiasts: First, Mary Ellen LeBleu Little, next Bill Collins and now, Bruce Shawa.
Shawa purchased the home in 1994 from Bill and JoAnn Collins. It was built around 1902.The Collinses totally redid the house when they purchased it. Bill did much of the work himself, according to Bruce.
It took three years. Bill added the stained glass. He also moved an exterior wall rather than take down a stately live oak. He collected antiques to furnish the house, too many to keep when the family made its move.
“When Bill told me he was selling the house because he was ready to embrace a simpler lifestyle, I didn’t fully appreciate the sentiment at the time,” Bruce said. “Now I do.”
Bruce continues to add more to the need-to-do list than he can mark, “done.” He’s a full-time industrial plant employee who enjoys collecting antiques to furnish his over one hundred year old home. He enjoys it so much he’s opened a Beaumont antiques shop. His house is a staging site while he’s repairing items or deciding whether he wants to keep the collectible or take it to his shop. Antique and collectible clocks are in abundance in this anachronistic dwelling. Shawa also collects Cadillacs.
“I’ve like Cadillacs since I was a child,” he said.
The Roman Health Spa chandelier is shown above reflected by the Jean LaFitte mirror that hung in the Lebleu home.
Currently he has a 1954 Eldorado and two 1993 Fleetwoods.
“One of my friends claims I need to be in treatment,” Bruce said, grinning.
Before The Collinses owned the house, it was the home of Mary Ellen LeBleu Little (1893-1978). Mary Ellen LeBleu Little is the daughter of Joseph and Leonise LeBleu. Joseph LeBleu was the son of early Calcasieu parish pioneer Arsene LeBleu. Mary Ellen’s mother lived to be over 100 and told stories about how her family entertained Jean LaFitte. Online histories about Arsene LeBleu support this connection.
Mary Ellen Little was said to have brought the gargantuan ornate mirrors to the Seventh Street home that hang in the Shawa dining and living room. The mirrors are purported to be from the third floor ballroom of the Arsene LeBleu Chloe home, gifts from Jean LaFitte.
Bruce Shawa discovered, through conversations with the late Reid Tyler, that Mary Little was quite the collector.
“I heard that Mrs. Maurice Muller (wife of Muller Department store owner/operator) and Mrs. H.C. Little (Mary Ellen) were in competition when it came to wanting to outdo the other,” Bruce said.
The Swarovski crystal chandelier in the dining room is from the Roman Health Spa once owned by Don Spano. Dining room sconces are from what was the DiGiglia Shell Beach Drive home. The butcher block in the kitchen is from an old Lake Charles Bar and Lounge.
Bruce Shawa loves antiques, especially the ornate and especially pieces tied to the area’s past and/or past “characters.” He has been collecting since the 70s, perhaps spurred on by the spirit of Mrs. Little. She might even be the ghost glimpsed by one of Bruce’s friends one afternoon.
The photo shows one of the Shawa home fireplaces. This one has a white Italian Carrera marble mantle front, French antique clock and tapestry.
“We were all sitting on the porch,” Bruce recalled, “and one of my friends asked if I had a ghost because she had just seen it flit by the fireplace. I just rolled my eyes.”
If there is a ghost, Bruce seems happy to share space with it and with his many antiques. He wouldn’t dream of living anywhere but one of the city’s older neighborhoods and fell in love with his home as soon as he saw it.
One of his friends had purchased the house next door and was restoring it. Bruce was around a good deal during the restoration. A “For Sale” sign went up at the Seventh Street house. Bruce looked at it on Thursday and bought it on Tuesday.
“I had been admiring its architecture and couldn’t wait to see the inside. When I saw the grand foyer, the layout and the giant claw foot tub in the bathroom, I was sold, Bruce said, “and I wasn’t even in the market to buy.”
We like to think we choose our home, but some stories must make us wonder if it’s possible that certain homes are searching for just the right owner?