1992 Theater Plan For Courtrooms

 In 1992 a proposal was made to convert the Star Theater in Covington into courtroom facilities to ease overcrowding in the St. Tammany Parish Administrative Complex over in the next block. The need for more courtrooms was pressing, and the one courtroom parish courthouse on Boston Street had been outgrown for years. 

A few years earlier, in 1983, The Southern Hotel building had been purchased by the parish and converted into the Administrative Complex which contained a police jury meeting room and a courtroom or two, so the Star Theater proposal was not that unusual. 

Warren Salles, owner of both the Star Theater and the building diagonally across the Gibson Street/New Hampshire Street intersection, also proposed turning the old Acme Building into another courtroom. It had at one time housed the Deluxe Theater, which had also been owned by the Salles family. 

The Star Theater courtroom proposal would have provided around 10,000 square feet of floorspace to court facilities. It would have been connected to the existing courthouse by an interior hallway. The plans called for two judges office, two jury rooms, other staff offices and a number of restrooms. 

Here are the tentative plans for the renovation.

Click on the image to make it larger. 

When the proposal did not proceed, the parish, a few years later, decided to buy the old P&W Industries site at the end of New Hampshire Street two blocks north and by 2000 work began on building a much larger justice center at that location. 

For more information, click on the following links:

Courthouse History

Courthouses of St. Tammany Parish

The History of the Southern Hotel

The 1984 Southern Hotel Renovation

Riverside Park To Feature Ropes, Slides, and Chutes

 A new family fun adventure park, complete with climbing structures, downhill slides, and a rope challenge course, is now being built at the end of the service road that runs by Chimes Restaurant in Covington.

The "Tree Frogs" Adventure Park will feature a wide variety of bluff side activities, including two covered pavilions near the Bogue Falaya River for hosting birthday parties and other events. Click on the images below to make them larger. 

The platform overlooking the lowlands

A "Tree Frog" adventure park is also being planned for Fontainebleau Park in Mandeville. A similar location has already been in operation in LaPlace. 

A large concrete pumper was brought in this week to pour the concrete walkways. 

(Photos by Ron Barthet)

Spiral slide tubes and hanging rope ladders dot the landscape. 

One elevated walkway is suspended over the lowlands. 

Ropes, nets, and tree-hugging platforms.

Steps going down the bluff. 

Tubes going down the bluff

Landscaping being brought in and planted. 

For more information, click on the links below:

https://www.facebook.com/TreeFrogsPark

https://treefrogspark.com/

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... 

Click on the image to make it larger. 

Mardi Gras Festivities in 1961

 Back in 1961 these articles and photographs about Mardi Gras in Covington and Abita Springs were published in the St. Tammany Tribune. Click on the images to make them larger. 

Click on links below for even 

More Mardi Gras Blog Articles

Covington Mardi Gras Get Ready

Covington Mardi Gras History

Krewe of Bogue Falaya Names Grand Marshal

Lewisburg Children's Mardi Gras 1989

Top Officials in 1977 D.A.'s Office

 District Attorney Office personnel back in 1977... 

Click on the image above to make it larger.

Vincent Airport

 Vincent Airport, located just west of Covington, was built in the late 1960's and was the site of the Southern Parachute Center, a group of skydivers who were determined to set a world record. 

Covington Vincent Airport, northwest of Covington High

Vincent Airport, a turf runway, was named after World War II aviator and  aircraft designer H. Farley Vincent. In the late 1940's he and Robert Monsted designed and built The Monsted-Vincent MV-1 airplane. It had four Continental C-85 engines with seats for 4 to 6 people and a “potty.”  The plane was to provide Corporation Executive Transport of the post-WWII era. It cruising speed was about 150 miles per hour. 

Monsted and Vincent, two WWII aviators,  constructed the aircraft at the Michoud plant in Eastern New Orleans, LA. With eight hours of fuel it had endurance that would permit riding out or skirting around bad weather. Another feature was the rearward retracting main landing gear. Its  wingspan was about 50 feet and its gross weight, about 6000 lbs.—cruise speed, about 150 mph. (Info from the EAAVintage.org website)

https://eaavintage.org/april-2016-mystery-mv-1/

Photographs 2025 of Vincent Airport

Christmas Concert Held In Slidell

 The Northshore Community Concert held its 2024 Christmas Concert in Slidell City Auditorium Thursday night. Here are some photographs and pages from the program that was handed out. 

Click on the images to make them larger. 

A list of songs featured

Members of the orchestra

Supporters of the event

Conductor Susan Messina welcoming those in attendance

(Photos by Ron Barthet)

For more information, click on the link below:

https://northshoreorchestra.org/

Sharp Donates Old Mandeville Fire Engine

 In 1963 an old fire engine was donated to the Mandeville Volunteer Fire Department by Z. "Cutzie" Sharp, a candidate for the Ward Four Mandeville Police Jury Seat. He had overseen the complete renovation of the vehicle after it had been stored at Sharp Motor Co. for 20 years, beginning in 1943. It had first been placed in service in 1918 and retired from service in 1942. Click on the article below for the details.

Above photo from the mid-1970's

A more recent photograph of the treasured antique fire engine

Sharp Donates Fire Engine - An article from the St. Tammany Farmer
Friday, November 29, 1963

Ancient 1918 Model Renovated As Gift To Mandeville Volunteer Fire Department

Many people have asked me why I have devoted so much time, effort, energy and hard work to restore an obsolete fire engine to use, then in a short time, donate it free of all cost to St. Tammany Fire District No. 4, to be held in trust commemorating the services of those not with us today.

The explanation is simple. When one's memories revert to associates and promises made in days gone by, I recall as if it were yesterday my last day in the United States Army, World War One.

As teacher-instructor of automotive vehicles and engineer demonstrator, I bid my class farewell. Being honorably discharged from service with muster-out pay in my pocket, I returned to Mandeville, my place of birth, and place where I started in business with the Sharp Motor & Sales Co., where for more than 40 years. I served the people of Mandeville with honest, courteous and reliable service, attested to by the many hundreds of friends using our services. 

The history of Mandeville is unique in that its past has been entwined with its future growth and development. Nature w a s more than kind to Mandeville and St. Tammany. Its abundance of life-giving water, its setting on Lake Pontchartrain midst a super abundance of stately oaks and majestic pines and magnolias all seem to beckon and say "Come—Here build your home, and with your families live free from congested cities, in pure 'Ozone Air'."

For more than 150 years, our emergence into a type of so-designated modernization was slow, first as a fourbourg, then a village, then an incorporated town. In 1918, the Hon. H. B. Pruden, one of our early settlers and a generous far-seeing progressive and home loving citizen, donated free of all cost to the Mandeville Volunteer Fire Department a modern chemical fire engine, supplanting the "bucket brigade' unit.

The fire engine, lovingly referred to as "Old Valiant," rendered service continuously to the Volunteer Fire Department, saving lives and property until 1942, at which date it was declared obsolete.

The donor, H. B. Pruden, not wishing the valiant old engine to pass into oblivion, donated it to both Z. Cutsie Sharp and Paul Esquinance, requesting we hold same for preservation and in suitable future, donate "Old Valiant" to the Volunteer Fire Department of Mandeville.

The Engine has been stored in the Sharp Motor Co. for the past 20 years. Respecting our friend's request and our promise of many years ago, we concluded, after the creation of St. Tammany Fire Dist. No. 4, "Old Valiant" would be restored to workable use and travel under its own power through the streets, as it did in the Mandeville of yesterday.

We will have fuilfilled our promise. The engine has been restored and is in usable condition. In the near future it will be presented free of cost to the St. Tammany Fire District No. 4 Volunteer Fire Department.

Much labor, many miles of travel, many hours of work, were required whereby the parts might be secured necessary to restore the age-old warrior to service. All services were rendered by volunteers free of cost, to whom all of us are most grateful.

Those who so unselfishly gave of their time and talents and felt rewarded beyond measure were: Paul Esquinance Sr., Paul Esquinance, Jr., Emory Esquinance, Dewey Esquinance, Fred Krentel, Charles Moss, William "Sonny" Griffin, Mike Smith (Son of Catherine Smith, Covington), Ernest Loeb, Charles Wiggins, Sharp Motor Co., Inc., Norman Clark and of course, Cutsie Sharp, the co-owner.

The "Old Warrior" will once again go forth proudly—under its own power, and Model Motor No. 2848134, after which it will become a token of the past and a reminder to those of today of the product of inspired community service.

End of newspaper article

Other link of interest:

History of Fire Protection District No. 4

Lions Club New Officers in 1959

 In July of 1959, some sixty-five years ago, the Covington Lions Club elected new officers for the coming year. Click on the image below to make it larger. The photo was taken professional photographer Art Lemane.

Link:

Covington Lions Club Charter Program 1943

4-H Group Plans Years Activities - 1977

In September of 1977 eleven 4-H Club members from throughout the parish met to discuss plans for the upcoming year. Click on the image below to make it larger.