Madisonville's Community Center

 In early 1973, town officials in Madisonville began drawing up plans for a new community center and town hall. Click on the image to make it larger. 

The old community hall being torn down

The new town hall that was built

Theodore Dendinger Cemetery

 In the late 1950's a new cemetery was established off La. 21 north of Madisonville. It became the Theodore Dendinger Sr. Memorial Cemetery. The five acres of land was formally donated in 1962 and has been in use ever since. 

At the front of the cemetery are three massive oak trees. 

Click on the images to make them larger. 

In 1979 the Madisonville highway alongside the cemetery was widened, prompting numerous local preservationists to keep an eye on the trees, wary of what had happened during a state highway widening project in Mandeville. That was where the "Chinchuba Oaks" were secretly cut down one Mardi Gras. Next Tuesday is the 46th year anniversary of that  eye-opening event.

Here are some recent photographs of the oaks in front of Dendinger Cemetery. 

See also these links:

The Chinchuba Oaks and Mardi Gras Day

The Oak Trees of 21st Avenue 

Trees Green Up For Spring 

A Monumental Oak Tree 

City Hall Oak Tree 

Post Oak 

Seven Sisters Oak - 1982 Cover Tree 

Vintage Court 

Live Oak Trees Recognized 

Lakeshore Drive Tree 

The Tree on the Wall 

St. Tammany Loves Oak Trees

Tree Branch Avalanche

Maritime Museum Update

 The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum in Madisonville is newly renamed the Maritime Museum Louisiana, and I stopped by the facility this morning to take pictures of the new signage. I visited for a few minutes with Jim MacPherson, the executive director of the museum, and he caught me up with a few of the ongoing activities.

The new name for the maritime museum

The top of the Pass Manchac Lighthouse is now on display 

A plaque identifying the Pass Manchac lighthouse enclosure will soon be installed. 

The lighthouse keeper's cottage from the Tchefuncte River lighthouse is located just east of the museum on the bank of the river. 

A new roof was just put on the old lighthouse keepers cottage. 

The lighthouse keeper's cottage that used to be located on the point of land just west of the mouth of the Tchefuncte River (shown below with lighthouse in the back left) is a little easier to get to these days.

The view across the river of Marina del Ray

In front of the musem are flags indicating the change in the name, and an old cannon. 

MacPherson said that the museum currently is hosting a kids' summer camp, with 60 participants from around the area. The facility is also installing an "aqua-ponics" system which will feature ponds containing finned fish, shellfish, and a marsh grass growing operation.

See also:

Maritime Museum Unveils New Jahncke Shipyard Model

Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum

Don Sharp Visits Maritime Museum

The Madisonville Lighthouses

Lighthouse Keeper's Cottage Restored

Rumsey Exhibit Debuts at Museum

Madisonville School Students Prior to 1910

 Over on the Madisonville LA Historical Facebook page, Iris Lulu-Simoneaux Vacante posted this old school picture. It shows the Madisonville School pre 1910, and the students were identified  by Annie Pennington Koepp. Click on the image to make it larger. 

Madisonville School Students circa 1910

Bottom Row (left to right) Eva Pennington, Mae Watts, Ted Gentilucci, Hazel Heughan, Lillian Richards, Edith Badeaux, “Nannie” Jane Dutsch, Filmore Chatellier, Ralph Chatellier Sr.

2nd Row ((left to right) Helen Badeaux, Myrtle Gallehon, Hannah Phillips, Stella Heughan, Aline Gentilucci, Ola Galatas Lawton Heughan, Valera Galatas, Myrtle Galatas, Dorthea Behrens, ? Harry Galatas, Ernest Galatas (4 more ?)

Steps and Balconey ((left to right) Adrienne Dendinger, Annie Oulliber, Vernon Heughan, Annie Caldwell, Clinton Galatas, Miss Vera J. Norman (teacher), Pauline Ballam, Bertha Warning, Jessie Dutsch, Irene Stevens, Violet Heughan, Inez Caldwell, Denia Chatellier, Etta Stevens, “Bubba” Bechac, Wallace Ballam, Viola Wager, “Honey” Dutsch.

The Houltonville Pavilion

 Pineland Park upriver from Houltonville was a fun place in its day. It was on the east side of the Tchefuncte River, a little upstream from Madisonville. It featured a large dance hall, a restaurant, amusement places, boat houses, and vacation rentals. A ferry took people across the river in the days prior to the building of the bridge. 

Pineland Park Advertisement

In a letter to the St. Tammany Farmer in 1974 Charles J. Mugnier of Madisonville recalled that Pineland Park was several riverbends upriver from the town and was the terminal for the paddle-wheeled passenger boat The New Camelia.

That vessel brought folks from Milneburg (Pontchatrain Beach) in New Orleans each Wednesday and Sunday to Mandeville, Lewisburg, and Madisonville. 

Further down river from Pineland Park, and closer to Madisonville, was Houltonville, also known as White City. Its large gathering place was called "The Pavilion" while the building next to it was a general merchandise establishment, or company store for The Houlton Lumber Co.

The lumber company operated a huge sawmill employing most of the population of Houltonville, according to Mugnier. "This company, similar to many such company owned communities in the Southern states, paid workers in "script," which consisted of cardboard discs in denominations of one cent, 50 cents, and $1 pieces (equivalent to U.S. Coins of similar value.)"

The company employees had a special name for the funny money, referring to them as "squizzlums," Mugnier said. 

The Pavilion

The Pavilion operated for many years until the sawmill closed down around 1915 or 1916.The businesses associated with it were a restaurant, a saloon, and sleeping accommodations. "There was also a dance and  entertainment hall for mill workers," Mugnier said.

Music was popular, and the instruments included harmonicas, piano, and guitars. Mugnier stated that "the favorite drink quaffed by the merrymakers was red wine, spiked with grenadine, called "Sweet Lucy."

There was also a butcher shop furnishing beef, lamb and pork meats, all of which was slaughtered, placed in public cold storage and fully processed by the owner, Mugnier went on to say. "It might be said at prices of 25 cents per pound for the choicest steak, with pork and lamb at even lesser cost," he noted. 

The entire business complex was owned, operated and managed by Eugene Mugnier, the  brother of Gus and Henry Mugnier, who operated the renowned Crescent Hotel (also known as the old Mugnier Hotel) located on the lakefront in Mandeville. 

Eugene Mugnier, to say the least, was a most enterprising individual, Charles stated. "He also, in conjunction with the Pavilion, operated the restaurant and saloon for many years on the steamboat New Camelia," Mugnier explained. 

See also:

Beau Chene Subdivision History

Christmas Boat Parade

 The Madisonville Christmas boat parade brought out a large number of folks along the riverfront. 

Click on the image to make it larger. 

Madisonville Video Photos - Part One

 In 2010 Rusty Burns put together an extensive collection of old photographs depicting the Madisonville area, all to be scanned and placed in production of a video to be shown at the 2011 Madisonville Town Bicentennial Celebration. 

The video contained dozens of old photographs of the shipyards, the buildings and the people of Madisonville over the past 100 years. The Tammany Family blog is presenting those photographs in a three-part blog series. Here is part one. Click on the images to  make them larger. 

The Madisonville steamer ran between Madisonville and New Orleans across Lake Pontchartrain for several years, then was used in military service in 1943, and later as a tourist boat in New York harbor taking people to the Statue of Liberty. 

The New Camelia docked at Madisonville and went all the way up to Old Landing near Covington. It was one of the more popular lake excursion vessels. 

St. Catherine's Catholic Church

To view the complete video that Rusty Burns prepared, it may still be available for viewing at the following link: 

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Tomorrow we will look at more photographs from the Burns video, these pictures to deal with the Tchefuncte River lighthouse and the Jahncke shipyards. 

See also:

Madisonville Video Photos - Part Two

Madisonvile Video Photos - Part Three

Tugboats Clog The Tchefuncte River

Madisonville Mayors  

Madisonville in 1850

Building the Madisonville Bridge in 1935