After Eighteen-Month Remodeling Project

One of Zachary’s Oldest Homes Enhances Today’s Quality of Life

Some people say the stress that comes with building a new home or undertaking a major remodeling project can be the death of a marriage, but Rhonda and Frank Landry’s experience does not support that theory.

The Landrys say the 18-month project it took to create their beautifully remodeled older home at 4603 42nd Street in Zachary was a labor of love that actually strengthened their family’s commitment to each other and to one of the finest old homes in town.

“I guess you could say it all started the first time I came to Zachary with Rhonda back in 1973,” Frank said, who is from Hathaway (just above Jennings in southwest Louisiana) and a longtime Exxon employee. “We drove by this house and she said she would like to own it one day.”

The Rhodes Store

The story of the home goes back to J.A. Nelson who bought a tract of land from N.M. Hughes in 1925. Nelson divided the property into a subdivision named West End and built a house. A few years later Nelson sold his home and four lots to James H. Rhodes.

Mr. Rhodes was prominent. He owned the only department store in Zachary, and he was president of the Bank of Zachary. The Rhodes Store lasted into the 1960s.

When she was growing up, Rhonda lived down the street from the Rhodes’. “Mr. Rhodes passed away in 1968, and Mrs. Rhodes would invite me to have coffee with her on her glassed-in front porch,” Rhonda said. “I just fell in love with the house that Mrs. Rhodes updated in 1960 after she and Mr. Rhodes married in 1953.”

That first remodeling effort created one of the many things the Landry’s had to deal with when they began to update and modernize in December of 2003. It was the Pepto-Bismol pink tiled master bath that was the height of style in 1960, but has since become outdated.

First Female Legislator

Rhonda’s mentor Doris Lindsey Holland Rhodes was an interesting person in her own right. She was the first woman to serve in the Louisiana Legislature. Her first husband was state Sen. Thomas Holland, and when he died in office, she was elected to fill his seat. She also was elected to two terms in the Louisiana House of Representatives.

“She wore beautiful, expensive clothes, and I guess I became intrigued with the house because of her,” Rhonda said.

After the Landrys married in 1973, Exxon transferred them several times. They wound up back in Zachary and back in Rhonda’s old neighborhood in the early 1990s.

“In 1991, I walked down the street to talk with Donald Charles “Chip” Peroyea who was Mrs. Rhodes grandson and who was living in the house at that time,” Frank recalled. “I told Chip that if he ever wanted to sell the house we might be interested. He called me in 2003 and said they would be moving.”

Old Scenic Highway

Of course, by that time the Landrys purchased five acres on Old Scenic Highway, and they had been working for a year on the plans for a large home for themselves and their three sons.

“We were just about to pour the slab for a new 3,500-square-foot house,” Frank said. “But the price on the old place in town was right, and we knew we wanted to own the home. There was just no way could we turn it into a rent house, so we bought the place and went to work.”

In the early 1970s Mrs. Rhodes’ son had moved in with her and they had added a second bath at the rear of the house. The Landrys extended that into an indoor laundry room. Next came a set of steps leading to a second story “camel back” master bedroom suite above the carport with attached outdoor kitchen and pool.

Solid Wood Walls

“Every idea was Rhonda’s,” Frank explained. “The floors are all original, the walls are solid wood and we covered them with sheetrock so we didn’t need insulation. It is really cozy. Dealing with the old fireplaces was interesting and challenging, but we managed. We have no regrets, we love the place, but it is for sale.”

Rhonda, who is in the insurance business in Zachary, has a degree in Fashion Merchandising and Interior Design from LSU. For ten years she owned a boutique in town called L’Amorie and later she had The Apple Tree.

“I just felt this house was meant to be mine,” Rhonda said. “We kept the old transoms and the old push button light switches. We never really collected antiques or anything, but this is our home and there is a lot of history here. That is something you don’t get in something new.”

Sense of Pride

The sense of pride the Landry’s feel for their beautifully remodeled home comes through loud and clear. They’re aggressive, can-do folks with an appreciation for quality from another time. Their story is told in the home’s beautiful white damask drapes that Rhonda saved from the dumpster where Frank had put them.

“When I saw the drapes in the dumpster I just could not let all of that beautiful silk damask fabric go,” she said. “I had to do something.”

Each drape has a tag sewn inside saying they are from Kornmeyer’s. Rhonda had them carefully cleaned and repaired. Some could not be saved, but those that hang in the home today are as beautiful as they were when they were first installed in the 1950s.

For the Landrys it’s all about taking something from the past and using it to enhance their quality of life in today’s modern, fast-paced world.