Baton Rouge has some of the most beautiful older neighborhoods in Louisiana. From the oak-lined streets of Beauregard Town to the Craftsman cottages of Drehr Place and the colorful shotgun houses of Spanish Town, owning a home in one of these areas is a point of pride for a lot of residents – and a lot of homeowners want to update their bathrooms and interiors without getting tangled up in the historic review process.

Here’s the good news: if the update is on the inside, in most cases it isn’t reviewed at all.

Baton Rouge’s Historic Districts

Baton Rouge has eight neighborhoods listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Spanish Town, Beauregard Town, Roseland Terrace, Main Street, LSU, Drehr Place, Kleinert Terrace, and Southern University.

There’s an important distinction between a federal historic designation and a local one. Federal designation is primarily honorary and enables property owners to apply for historic preservation tax credits on qualifying work, but it doesn’t restrict what you can do with your property day-to-day. Local designation is where regulatory review comes in – Spanish Town and Drehr Place both have locally designated historic district status with formal design guidelines on file through the East Baton Rouge Parish Planning Commission. Not sure which applies to your home? The Planning Commission can tell you: 225-389-3144, or see brla.gov/2577/Historic-Districts.

What the Certificate of Appropriateness Actually Covers

If your home is in a locally designated historic district, any exterior change visible from a public street requires a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) before work begins – that covers things like exterior window replacement, siding, and visible additions. Full details are available at brla.gov/2984/Certificate-of-Appropriateness.

What it does not typically cover: interior renovations that aren’t visible from the street. That’s an important distinction for anyone updating a bathroom, closet, or living space inside a historic home.

Interior Glass and Mirror Upgrades You Can Make Without Review

Because they don’t change your home’s exterior appearance, the following upgrades generally fall outside the COA process entirely:

Custom Mirrors

A custom-framed mirror – through partners like Precision Frameworks and Larson Juhl – can be built to match your home’s existing trim, moulding style, and period details. Beveled and antique-finish mirrors also pair especially well with historic interiors.

Shower Enclosures

Updating an old, leaky shower to a frameless or semi-frameless glass enclosure is one of the most common historic-home bathroom upgrades we see – it modernizes the space while respecting everything else about the room’s character.

Decorative Glass

Cabinet glass, glass shelving, and glass backsplashes let you bring some of the era-appropriate detail work back into kitchens and bathrooms without touching the building envelope.

If You Do Need Exterior Glass Work

If your project does involve exterior glazing in a locally designated district, we’re happy to provide documentation on glass specifications to support a COA application, and to make recommendations that respect the character of your home.

Our Approach

We work on homes across Baton Rouge, including in and near its historic neighborhoods. Contact Big River Glass to talk through custom mirrors, shower enclosures, or decorative glass for your historic home.

Historic district information sourced from the City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge at brla.gov/2577/Historic-Districts and the Historic Preservation Commission.

Big River Glass serves Baton Rouge and surrounding communities including Gonzales, Zachary, Denham Springs, Baker, and Central, LA.