Elizabeth Cosslett Favre   Elizabeth_Cosslett_Favre.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0

Newspaper Article in Crowley Newspaper. Written about Mrs. E. C. Favre nee Elizabeth Cosslett.1916, Crowley, Louisiana

SERVED FIRST CUP OF COFFEE HERE

 Mrs. E. C. Favre, Pioneer Crowley Lady, Celebrating Seventy-Eigth Birthday Today

 Mrs. E. C. Farve, one of the pioneer ladies of Crowley, and one who is among the most popular women in the city, is today celebrating her seventy-eighth birthday by entertaining a number of her friends at her home on Third Street between Parkerson avenue and Avenue F.

 Mrs. Favre, who in spite of her great age, is well preserved and enjoys the best of health, has the distinction of being the first lady to serve a cup of coffee in Crowley.

 When the city of Crowley was founded thirty years ago by Mr. W. W. Duson, Mrs. Favre was the first to realize the need of a coffee house here, and she established a small coffee house and lunch counter on Parkerson Avenue on the site now occupied by the People's Restaurant. Here she served the first cup of coffee ever sold in Crowley. Parkerson avenue at that time was little more than a mud hole, with few buildings, no sidewalks and with but little traffic, yet Mrs. Farve did a thriving business, for in those days many strangers visited the town, and none were long in learning of the excellent refreshment provided at the little coffee stand conducted by the charming Welsh Lady who had pre-empted the coffee business of the then frontier town.---- Mrs. Farve, a native of Wales, lives alone in her fine residence on Third street, having no children and no relatives in the United States. She has, however, a host of friends in the city, many of whom are her guest this evening, and she has been the recipient of many beautiful gifts in token of the esteem in which she is held by the people of this city, who hope that she may live to enjoy many more anniversaries of her birth.

The following is an excerpt from “Crowley   The First Hundred Years (1887 -1987) “ written by Dorothy B. McNeely                                         page 83


1887-1987

FAVRE-MILLER (1887)

117 West Third Street


    This one and a half story frame, Queen Anne cottage with imbrecated shingles has a history as long as the town’s.  William and Elizabeth Cosslett Favre came to Crowley in the fall of 1887, having come to the United States from Cardiff, Wales in 1870, and spent the intervening years in New Orleans.  they were among the first to arrive in the new town of Crowley to shop for business and residential lots.

    Their residence on West Third Street was built before January 21, 1888.  Five years later Mr. Favre bought the small residence next door to his home, moved the two buildings together to make a larger residence and added a porch to the front.

    Mrs. Favre was the first to realize the need for a coffee house here and she opened a lunch counter and coffee shop on Parkerson Avenue, in the general area of the Cinderella building.  In that location she served the first cup of coffee ever sold across a lunch counter in Crowley when Parkerson Avenue was little more than a mud hole and with few buildings and no sidewalks.

    In 1892 the Favres built an opera house building on Parkerson and Third Street.  The second floor of the large three story building was known as “Opera Hall”.  It was the scene of many traveling theatre company productions, organization meetings and large gatherings.  The ground floor was occupied by various mercantile establishments.  George W. Bellar’s Photo Studio was on the third floor.  Bellar took the only surviving picture of the “Favre Opera House” in 1892, possibly on its grand opening.  Bellar was Crowley’s first photographer and unfortunately only a few of his photographs have been found.  The Favres turned the second and third floors into a hotel in 1899.  The building was sold to Paul Eckels in 1918 and until 1957 it was the home of Eckels Drug Store.  The old landmark was demolished in 1857 and replaced with a one story brick building, now the home of Family Shoe Store.

    Mr. Favre killed a man in his saloon, on the first floor of the Opera House building.  He was convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison, served his sentence and died in Crowley in 1902.  Mrs. Favre died at her home in 1918 and at her death it was said that she was one of the wealthiest residents of this city.  She lived to be eighty years old.

    The building now belongs to Fritz Muller.  It was Dr. A. B. Cross’ office for many years.