Boarding Houses, Hotels and Bakery in 1893

 Here are advertisements for some of the many hotels and boarding houses in the Covington area, plus a bakery, in the year 1893... 

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Good Old Days On The Lake

 In 1970 an article appeared in the St. Tammany Farmer telling about one person's recollections of excursion boats crossing Lake Pontchartrain back and forth to New Orleans. Here is that article. Click on the images to make them larger and more readable. 

Here is the text from the article:

Good Days On The Lake Recalled

C. Allen Favrot, a resident of Covington and New Orleans, nostaglically recalls the good old days when paddlewheel steamers made excursion trips daily between New Orleans, Mandeville, and Madisonville. Recently he brought The Farmer an article about the SS Camellia, also known as the SS New Camellia. written in September. 1937.

The article says the vessel., a famous fun boat, along with others of her era. "share a common quiet grave in the Tchefuncte river near' Madisonville. Their grave is marked dramatically.

Sticking out of the water near the tree-shaded west bank of the Tchefuncte is what is lett of the boat: a leaning wooden walking beam , support, and parts of a piston, smoke stack and paddle wheel. "Below the surface can be seen shadows of the outline of the deck. At low water, a person in a boat can lean out, put one arm into the water, and touch the deck."

This ship was identified as the New Camellia, and the site is just south of Jahncke shipyard at Madisonville. However, a spokesman at Jahncke said the ship was picked up and moved six- or eight years ago.

The Camellia was renamed the New Camellia when it was rebuilt shortly before 1880. Originally, the paddlewheeler was built in Wilmington, Del. in 1852 and christened the Zephyr. It is estimated she was brought South in 1862, during the War Between the States.

After the war, she was purchased by a New Orleans cotton merchant, August Bone, and renamed the Camellia. Under that name, she was active in Gulf and Lake Pontchartrain trade. After being rebuilt in about 1879, she became one of the most famous of the lake excursion boats.

Damaged by a 1915 hurricane, she was still in service as late as 1917.

Tied up at a Madisonville pier after she was taken out of service because of old age, she quietly and unobtrusively sank one day in 1920. While docked at Madisonville, the New Camellia was utilized to accommodate shipyard workers, that business having started booming with World War I. As she grew more decrepit with age. the "boarders" abandoned ship, and a short time later, the New Camellia slipped gradually down into the river.

Another excursion boat, the SS Pleasure Bay, caught fire at Madisonville, was towed away from the wharf, and sank, sometime back in the 1920's.

Madisonville Mayor Eddie Badeaux, when a youngster, worked aboard the SS Madisonville, an excursion steamer. It went out of service here in 1935, he recalls, and was taken to New York City, where, according to Badeaux, it was still in use as a sightseeing boat a few years ago. He does not know if it still exists. The SS Madisonville was originally named the Hanover.

The boats had large dining rooms, spacious dance halls and top orchestras. They carried hundreds of passengers to St. Tammany beaches and woodlands for picnics, outings. swimming parties. etc. The departures from New Orleans were usually from Milneburg or Spanish Fort.

Other lake-faring boats included the Southland, Charles Dolive, Minnie 13, Margaret and Susquehanna. The lake crossings started early in the 19th century, and ended sometime in the mid or late 1920's. And with that ending went a delightful era of light-hearted fun and gaity, when the livin' was easy. and geared to the tempo and speed of the paddlewheelers.

It must he recalled that automobiles were fairly scarce in the 1920's, and there were no bridges connecting the Orleans side of the lake to the north side. Slow-moving ferries operated at Rigolets and Chef Menteur connecting poorly constructed roads. The old Watson-Williams bridge at Slidell was only a dream and the Causeway was an "impossibility" folk didn't dare dream of.

Following the steamboat excursions came the old NOGNRR's week-end pleasure junkets to all St. Tammany points, from Slidell to Folsom, carrying hundreds of passengers at special round trip rates.

That, too, eventually ended, along with all other train passenger service.

So the era of the passenger trains, like that of the lake and river steamboats, passed into limbo. Which recalls the present fight to save the SS Delta Queen Mississippi river paddlewheeler running from Cincinnati to New Orleans as a passenger vessel. It has been outlawed because it's wooden super-structure is considered a fire hazard.

St. Tammany Farmer Newspaper

August 1, 1970

For more information see these links:

The Life and Death of the New Camelia Lake Steamer

Former Mandeville Resident Recalls Early Days

Picnics Popular

 It would not be too far-fetched to say that many of today's residents of St. Tammany Parish  probably had grandparents or great grandparents who, in their first visit to the north shore of the lake, came here for a picnic of some sort. It was a common thing for New Orleans residents to board a boat or train and come to Covington, Abita Springs and Mandeville for a picnic, either for the company where they worked, or a regional church or civic group gathering. 

St. Tammany offered several locations ideally suited for picnics, on the lakefront, along the rivers, or out among the pines. There were company picnics, Sunday School picnics, fraternal organization picnics, and public school picnics, in addition to the hundreds of individual family picnics held each weekend during good weather. 

Shops advertised special picnic packages, everything you needed for a wonderful picnic, and the local hotels and resorts offered picnic grounds. Jackson Park in Mandeville was especially popular, as was the Abita Springs pavilion. There were "moonlight picnics," and Fourth of July picnics were a favorite. 

Here are some articles from the St. Tammany Farmer with more details. 

Jackson Park was located on Coffee Street in Mandeville. There they had concerts, picnics, and dances on a big pavilion in the middle of the park.

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See also these links:

Family Fun At Columbia Landing

Company Picnic in Madisonville - 1923

Bayou Lacombe Picnic

Oldtimer Recalls Downtown Covington Pre-1920's

 In August of 1922, one of Covington's "oldtimers" shared this account of his small town, its people and its merchants. He speaks of Mrs. Tate's school in the downtown area, the raising of silk worms on mulberry bushes where the Southern Hotel is now, the residences along New Hampshire Street, the New Orleans commuters, and the costumes of the day. 

Here is the article in full:

OLD COVINGTON
St. Tammany Farmer August 5, 1922

by The Oldtimer

"Once again I find myself strolling along the streets of the old town, hoping to meet some old remembered face, but none appear to give me welcome. At last I come to the corner where once stood the large and busy wheelwright shop once owned by Nathan Page. In its place I now see an up-to-date dry goods store in whose large glass windows are displayed many beautiful things so dear to the female heart. 

"On the opposite corner, once familiarly known as "Heintz's Corner," from the fact that it was the lounging place of many old cronies who loved to meet there and discuss the topics of the day while enjoying the "rest" and comfort afforded by the hard but hospitable old bench.

 "The store, a general merchandise store, was owned and operated by Mr. Chas. Heintz, who' was also the postmaster. Gone is the old bench, also the postmaster, and in their place appear the large department store of Frank Patecek.

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"All the old buildings on what was once known as "Up Street" when we started out to do any little errand, have disappeared, and the street is now known as Columbia street.

"Passing on, at last, I come to an old familiar friend peeping out from between the Patecek building and the F. G. C. Auto Shop, and away back from the sidewalk, as if aware of its antiquity, is a little house once used as a school, and presided over by an elderly lady named Mrs. Tate. 

The F.G.C. Auto Shop Advertisements

"She was not an up-to-date teacher, as she wore her skirts long enough to hide her feet and her bearing was dignified. She won the hearts of all her pupils for she had a fund of humor, and the scholars she turned out showed the thoroughness of her training. She rests now in the cemetery in Amite. 

"Passing on by the courthouse, a much finer building than the old one, and a credit to the town, I see where once was a large brick house, the home of the Italian consul, Mr. Rocchi, whose wife was said to have realized a large fortune raising silk worms. In its place I see a large and flourishing looking bank, the Commercial Bank & Trust Company, and on the opposite corner an old friend greets me—the former home of Judge Martin Penn. 

"But this large family has all disappeared. Judge Penn passed away at the beginning of the Civil War. Poor Benton, who was a favorite with all who knew him, met a tragic death while espousing the cause of his cousin, Martin Penn, son of Alexander Penn. 

Wehrli House

"Across the street, where once stood the little law office of Geo. Henry Penn, son of Judge Martin Penn, is the Wehrli home. The little office has been converted into a pretty home and is owned by Mr. Louis Wehrli, who also owns the fine garage at the corner. Mr. Wehrli is the grandson of Mr. Pechon, once a well known family in Covington, some of whom I bear are still living. 

"Across the street and back of the Commercial Bank is the beautiful Southern Hotel, built on the mission style. On the grounds where the hotel now stands, once was a forest of mulberry trees, on the leaves of which Mrs. Rocchi once raised her silk worms.

"And now we come to the corner where three well known families lived. First, on the corner, was the home of the Brenans, consisting in the mother, father and three sons and one daughter. The father, who was a notary, did business in Now Orleans, returning home every Saturday, as did most of the men in those days, for there was not enougn 'business in the little town in those days to support their families. 

"The intercourse with New Orleans was carried on by steamboats which made the trip three times a week. The eldest son of the Brenan family, a tall, handsome fellow, measuring six feet in his stocking feet, enlisted at he age of 16 in the Civil War. He enlisted in the Crescent Regt., Co. K., Sumpter Rifles, but being so young, and raised a "home boy," he could not endure the hardships, and soon succumbed to homesickness, that most dreadful sickness of all. 

"Of the mother of this family I must make special mention. A native of  Philadelphia, she came to Covington in her early married life, in search of health, which she surely found, for she lived to the age of 88. Her costume, though picturesque, would be a marvel to the present day, for her skirts were full and a long underwaist was covered by a saque around the bottom of which was a ruffle. Around her neck she wore a white kerchief fastened in front with an old-fashioned brooch. Beneath her full skirts peeped two feet shod in snow white stockings incased in neat slippers. 

"The crowning glory of this quaint costume was the little lace cap, from under which looked forth two merry black eyes. Full of hospitality which they dispensed liberally, she could have dined the president or peasant with equal ease. The two other sons, familiarly known as Tim and Doan, lived until a few years ago, and now the sister lives all alone, not in the old home, for where that stood is the pleasure grounds of the Southern Hotel. 

"Miss Matilda Brenan, or Miss Tillie, as she is generally called, lived on the corner opposite her old home in a nice place built by her brother, Tim. She lives alone, surrounded by works of art, and with the companionship of books. Some day I will call on her."

AN OLD-TIMER

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Here's another "Oldtimer" recollection

In the article above, the Oldtimer visits the St. Tammany Farmer office when it was at the corner of Bostson Street and Lee Lane

The Wanderer newspaper

See also:

Grandpa Remembers Old Covington

The Early History of Lewisburg

Frank Patecek's Store

Heintz was Abita Springs Mayor in 1904

 The Heintz family has served St. Tammany residents in a number of ways, as doctors, attorneys, the parish coroner, a state representative, the postmaster, the police chief, a drug store proprietor, constable, mayor of Abita Springs and a school board member. In 1973 the St. Tammany Farmer ran this article:

Heintz was mayor of Abita Springs in 1904

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Other articles about Heintz family members over the years:

A list of roads paved throughout the parish and the years they were paved

Fred J. Heintz was an attorney, state representative, and early in his career, a juvenile officer.

School Board Member Beth Heintz and husband Dr. Lud Heintz in 2013

Covington High Coach Jack Salter with School Board Members
Jack Loup, Beth Heintz, and Michael Dirmann