Roque Brothers Store
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The Roque Brothers Store was built around 1925 and is typical of many twentieth century plantation stores. At one time, every plantation had a store or commissary, few of which remain standing and none of which are still in use. With the building of better roads and the advent of mechanized cotton farming, plantation stores became a thing of the past. Roque Brothers Store is owned by the heirs of Emmett Roque, who established the store.
Mr. Emmett . . . used to butcher his own meat. . . . He carried a full line of everything. All the people around here, this is where they would come and do their buying. They'd buy their groceries and their clothes, like khakis and khaki shirts, stockings, underclothes, material, and all that sort of stuff. . . . They got supplies from, I used to hear them call them the drummers. Such and such a drummer was coming today - that's the man with the khakis, or the guy with the shoes, whatever line of shoes he carried. And these folks would come and he'd place his order. I can remember the store would be full when all this stuff would come in. Oh, that was a job to get it all stocked. . . . Back in those days, that's all a lot of people had. . . . I know I've heard my daddy talk many a time about they just didn't have the transportation to go in and out of Natchitoches, and if they went to Natchitoches, it was in a buggy or something and it took them all day. They said that you had to use these little stores.