Pearl River Train Station

This photo shows the Pearl River train station in the early years of the 20th century.

 

 

Remembering the Pearl River Train Depot

Rudolph Penton, a man with a vivid memory at ripe age of 75, recalls many days of yesteryears.

Pearl River was quite  different in 1906, according to Mr Penton. Shinglemill Road was a railroad track. Says Mr. Penton, "The Pearl River Sawmill was up by the end of Shinglemill Road."

Later on a Shinglemill was established. "My uncle worked up there. We used to go and see him. All the people who worked there had a two room house, even if the families had six or eight children. That was the company quarters, right along the railroad track."

The East Louisiana Railroad came on one side of the depot of Pearl River up Shinglemill Road and the other the New Orleans Northeastern, which is Southern now, came on the other side of the depot.

And back in those days, they had no bridges across the lake nor across the swamp. Everybody had to ride the train. There wasn't any buses. On a Sunday excursion from New Orleans, people would load that train down to spend a vacation up this way."

"All the trains had to stop in Pearl River to get water, for the steam engine. They would pump the water from Pump Slough. That's how Pump Slough got its name.

The trains would stop in Slidell to get water and in Picayune to get coal. But when East Louisiana was running, they had no water in Slidell.

Pearl River has certainly changed."

 

 

The Pearl River Train Depot in 1933

Train Station Building

In the mid 1960's Pearl River had a small train station. Here are two pictures from the St.Tammany Rails Page of the AlphaRails.net website. Click on the images to make them larger. 

"Evidently passenger trains or some sort once stopped in Pearl River, judging from the small covered waiting area." Photo taken by Chuck Graham in August, 1965

"The other end of the station has what looks to have been a freight room. Now it's likely used for maintenance of way and signal storage." Photo taken by Larry Tuttle in August of 1967.

Source: http://www.alpharail.net/histpix/louisiana/StTammany-2.htm

You may also want to visit Page 1 of the Tammany Rails section of the AlphaRail.net website. CLICK HERE to go to that page maintained by Larry Tuttle. 

The Pearl River train stop was originally called Halloo.

Text from the above newspaper article from 1883:

Covington. Oct. 20, 1883

THE FIRST TRAIN.

Halloo, LA., Oct. 15, 1883. 

EDITOR - ST. TAMMANY FARMER-

The first passenger train on the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad passed my store this morning, at half-past 11 o'clock, bound South. From outward appearance, the coaches are very fine.

Yours, etc., W. B. PORTER.

The "Racket reporter" of the Times-Democrat refers to the arrival of the above train in the city, as

follows:

The first through train over the New Orleans and Northeastern road arrived in the city Monday evening at 6 o'clock, bearing the following party of officials: Messrs. G. Bouscaren, chief engineer; R. Carroll, general superintendent; S. Whinnery, division engineer of the New Orleans and Northeastern Road, and H. Colbran, general freight agent of the Alabama and Great Southern Road.

Mr. Bouscaren informed the reporter that the special train arrived at West Pearl River early on Monday, but was there delayed for a while until the track was raised, to allow the passage of the train over 

the false work. The track and bridge gangs worked all Sunday night in order to have everything in proper shape for the first through train, and succeeded.

Mr. Bouscaren said that all the way from Meridian to this city he found the track to be in excellent condition, with the exception of about 20 miles, which will be brought up to the standard by the 1st of November, when regular freight trains will be put on the road. The reporter was also informed that the run from Point-aux-Herbes to People's Avenue, a distance of 12 miles, was made in 15 minutes, but so smooth was the track that the officials did not realize that they were traveling at the rate of 50 miles an hour.

"We can always make up time," said Mr. Bouscaren, "because we have got the track to do it with. All the work that has been done is of the very best kind, and there is nothing to prevent us running as last as we wish."

The New Orleans and Northeastern Road is a part of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Railway system, and connects at Meridian with the Vicksburg and Meridian road, and with the Alabama

and Great Southern for Chattanooga.

End of 1883 article

From the town of Pearl River website comes this information:

The community that is today Pearl River was originally known as Halloo, a moniker it reputedly garnered from loggers yelling to one another as they labored along the nearby Pearl River. The town was founded in 1859. Early Halloo was a small railroad town, located at the junction of the Northeastern and Poitevent and Favre’s East Louisiana Railroads. 

In 1886 a train station was constructed at the site, and two years later Samuel Russ Poitevent (June 4, 1852 – June 3, 1904), established the first store in the village. The community’s name was first changed from Halloo to Pearl, later to Pearlville, and eventually Pearl River, in 1888, after the train station built in the town.

On July 13, 1898, the 200 citizens of Pearl River voted to petition the state of Louisiana for incorporation as the “Village of Pearl River”, a request which was granted nearly a decade later, on May 24, 1906, by governor Newton Crain Blanchard, with G.W. Fuller as the first mayor. The village slowly modernized over the course of the next half century, acquiring the land for a courthouse in 1935 and a town hall ten years later. 

Pearl River Junior High was opened in 1963, but the building was made into a police training academy in 2005. In 1964, the village insignia was replaced, as the newly minted “town” laid claim to 1,500 residents, a designation that lives on today, in the town of about 2,500. In 1968 Pearl River High School was established on Taylor Drive with Mr. Rowley as principal.