A worthwhile trip through the corridors of local history is in store for those who visit the Mandeville Trailhead Museum, located on the west end of the Mandeville Trailhead complex next to Tammany Trace.
The museum at the trailhead (the actual address being 675 Lafitte Street) is open Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Monday through Wednesday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The one-room museum offers an entertaining and informative overview of Mandeville history, its people, and its promise. The displays are quite detailed, combining pictures with text, telling the stories of the people who made the community a shining example of how high ground, convenient access (via boats and trains), and plain old innovative initiative can make a place special.
There are videos to watch, models to marvel at, and interesting tidbits about community life that you will find nowhere else. Here are some pictures of the exhibits.
A model of the "water slide" that used to be off the Mandeville lakefront.
It winds through some of the lesser known aspects of Mandeville history, from the original plans to its transition from a lakefront resort town to a quiet bedroom community of New Orleans (as a result of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway).
