In the early 1950's the Lions Clubs of Covington and Slidell got together and published a color brochure praising the attributes of St. Tammany Parish. It contained a wealth of information on the various topics of interest to visitors and newcomers. Here is what it looked like:
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On the above map a community called "Bradley" was on U.S. 190 between Covington and Goodbee.
Here is the text found on the brochure:
Welcome to beautiful St. Tammany Parish, LA
Scenic Beauty
The beauty of St. Tammany Parish is the beauty of the forest, still largely primitive; of bayou and river that thread through vistas of semi-tropical foliage, carpets of grasses and moss draped oaks; of flowers and shrubs and palms that mingle in wild, colorful masses. Set in pleasing wooded areas are all of the Parish's population centers, and joining them are excellent paved and surfaced highways. Plant life in St. Tammany is semi-tropical. This enchanted land - simple, rustic, variegated, verdant through all the seasons, is fitted for practical as well as pleasing living.
Agriculture
Superior location, mild climate, generous rainfall, and soils of great variety that respond to kind treatment, is a blueprint for assured success in St. Tammany Parish agriculture. A wide range of fruits and vegetables, including delicious strawberries, melons, satsumas, peaches, pears, come from the parish's 100,000 tilled acres, along with the grains, legumes, hays, grasses, cotton, yams, and the beef and dairy cattle, hogs, sheep, all types of poultry and horses that found out the picture of ideal general farming.
Tung Industry
A gift to America from China is the magic tung not. It produces an oil of a thousand uses in industry. More than a decade ago the cultivation of the tung tree was ventured in St. Tammany Parish by a few daring pioneers. It quickly developed that her the tung is "at home."
Today, thousands of acres of highly productive tung groves are to be seen on the higher, better drained, red soil areas of the Parish. With the great demand for the oil in America, tung culture promises handsome rewards. Much land adapted to tung planting is still available in the parish at prices astonishingly low when the ultimate profit coming from intelligent development is considered.
Churches
In St. Tammany's towns, villages and rural areas are churches for Catholic and Protestant congregations. Places of worship are readily available to even remotest rural dwellers. Church activities bring their benefits to all communities of the Parish. All denominations share in the activities that embrace parochial schools, Sunday schools, Bible schools, young people's societies, women's organizations, and the Boy and Girl Scouts organizations sponsored by the churches.
Health and Climate
Research has developed that the air in this part of St. Tammany is similar to that existing in two other "Ozone" areas in the globe. One is in the Hartz mountains in Germany and the other is in Arizona. To such areas, on the advice of physicians, repair those suffering from maladies of the heart, the lungs and the respiratory system.
The vital statistics tell the story: the parish death rate 9.0 per 1000; Louisiana 10.0; United States 10.9.
For better health, longevity, contented living - St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Characteristic of the Ozone Belt are splendid pine forests who towering, ever-singing trees give off a fragrant balm, and artesian waters of real purity and pleasing taste. There are also medicinal springs that yield waters acknowledged to have high therapeutic value.
State Park
One mile from Mandeville, 10 miles from Covington, is one of America's great natural parks. Fontainebleau, once the palatial plantation dwelling of the Louisiana colonial cavalier Bernard Marigny de Mandeville. This park of some 5800 acres is just being developed into a recreational spot and wild life preserve, with facilities for visitors and vacationists.
Banks...Homesteads
For home construction or business development, for trade or commerce, general farming, stock raising, manufacturing, for the small enterpriser or the war veterans seeking a new start in life. St. Tammany Banking and Homestead interests stand ready to serve with ample financial resources and co-operative assistance.
There are building and loan associations and bank facilities in three centers.
Industry
St. Tammany Parish is industrially active, progressive, alert. In Slidell and Madisonville are shipyards where various types of the small craft are constructed. In Covington are two large plants where valuable products, such as tar, pitch, turpentine, and wood preservatives are recovered from the stumps, limbs and roots of the pine tree. In the parish are numerous sawmills and wood-working plants, a tung-nut crushery and oil extractor, and numerous smaller businesses enterprises.
Near New Orleans, the air-hub of the Americas, there are airports at Covington and Slidell.
The parish has the raw materials for substantial industries in plastics, plywoods, fisheries, and clays. In Slidell are large plants that manufacture superior types of brick, tile and other building products.
Schools
Adequate schooling of the young is the public's solemn obligation. St. Tammany Parish has acted in Public Education's best traditions in providing elementary and high schools. Scattered throughout the parish are fourteen public and nine parochial grammar schools, and three public and three parochial high schools. A fleet of 33 modern steel buses places high school as well as grade school education within reach of every child in the parish.
St. Tammany - The Land of Opportunity!
Covington
The parish seat of St. Tammany is a well-ordered, homey city of 4000 set on the banks of the Bogue Falaya, a clear water, sandy bottomed river, and treasured remnants of a once great virgin forest.
Covington has splendid, friendly homes that stretch mile after mile along paved, shaded streets. Reflecting the satisfaction of the populace are floral gardens and trails who massed blooming at intervals creates dazzling, indescribable beauty.
Covington is situated on U. S. Route 190, La. 7, and La. 34, about 60 miles north of New Orleans. It is preferred by many Louisianians for restful vacation, for summer residence, for health and repose, for leisurely retirement and for its environment where all things combine to make life pleasant.
Covington is served by railroad and bus lines, is reached by navigable stream, is 8 miles from Lake Pontchartrain, and gives the sportsman and vacationist ready access to splendid hunting, fishing, boating, bathing, camping, motoring.
In suburban Covington is a residential wonderland that has come to be admired all over America. Palatial dwellings, many with beautifully landscaped grounds, line the suburban roads for miles. The beautiful Bogue Falaya and Tchefuncta Rivers, where sandy-bottomed "swimmin' holes" are set in shady areas, bound Covington on two sides.
Slidell
Gateway to New Orleans, Slidell is 11 feet above sea level and has a population of 3600. Deep waterways to the sea. Southern and G. M. & O. railroads, and Bus service augment travel facilities for its citizens and visitors. Jackson Highway, Mississippi Valley Scenic Highway, Appalachian Highway, and Colonial Highway all converge on Slidell over Old Spanish Trail 90.
Two reinforced concrete bridges spanning Lake Pontchartrain at edge of Slidell connect the latter city with New Orleans, 30 miles distant. Average temperature in Slidell is 69.3 degrees; 54.5 for January, and 82.3 for July. 100 degrees - never. 32 degrees is rare.
Slidell is St. Tammany Parish's easternmost town and has adequate grammar and high school facilities. Its churches serve all denominations.
Industries include the largest continuous brick kilns in the South, a large creosote treating plant, agricultural lime crusher, (state-owned), and cattle, pulp woods, and pine timber. Dairy products and slaughter houses have been added during the past three years.
For rest, recreation, and sport, Slidell and its environs offer fishing in lake, rivers and even bayous, swimming, sailing on Lake Pontchartrain, yachting, hunting in winter for ducks in marshes or deer and squirrels in Honey Island (nearby). Artesian water and ozone air combine to make life just a little more pleasant in Slidell.
Covington or Slidell Lions Club Sponsors of this Brochure
