I would like to correct the post from TomBarnes concerning the history of the Baton Rouge Hilton (now the Baton Rouge Mariott).
The hotel was not built by T. D. Bickham, nor did it go in and out of bankruptcy a "couple of times". The hotel was built in the middle 1970's by a company controlled by Jules B. Leblanc, III. Mr. Le Blanc and his family, at the time, were a politically well connected family. His father, sister and one brother were all lawyers and members of a old time prominent Baton Rouge family. Mr. Le Blanc still resides in Baton Rouge and practices law.
The Hilton was one part of a planned commercial development called Corporate Square. In addition to the Hilton the development included a small upscale mall, several office buildings and the Louisiana National Bank's (now Chase) operations center. Mr. Leblanc's company filed bankrupty and the mortgage holder of the hotel ended up with the property.
My late father, T. D. Bickham, Jr., through a closely held family coroporation, purchased the hotel from the mortgage holder in 1980. Eventually this family coroporation purchased several more properties in the develepment including the mall, two of the office buildings and some vacant land adjacent to the hotel. The hotel underwent extensive rennovations after the Bickham purchase. With the exception of the first year of operation under the Bickham ownership, the hotel was quite profitable.
My father died in 1982 and the family continued to operate the hotel for many years thereafter. It was only sold when the family was made an offer that we could not refuse due to the amount of profit that was to be made on the property. The new owners (a management company) immediately sold the property to another party and it became the Mariott shortly thereafter.
Over the years the Bickham Company sold off the other properties in the Corporate Square development with the exception of the vacant land adjacent to the hotel which is still owned by the Bickham family.
