Tour de Tangipahoa

[dan326]

Yesterday my friend and I decided to go sightseeing in what was supposed to be just Ponchatula and Hammond, but my thirst for adventure took me all the way to Osyka, Mississippi.

So without further add-do here's my pics.

First I went to Ponchatula. They had a really nice downtown area with lots of businesses, I don't think there were any vacancies. My friend and I went to one of the little restaurants to get a virgin Daiquiri and while we were waiting the owner started chatting with us and asked us where we were from. We answered Baton Rouge and he replied "Oh, so ya'll are from the big city!"

[dan326]

Then I went to Hammond. I've never been farther than the Hammond Mall in the town so I was very suprised to see they had such large, active downtown too. As my mom said, they have one of those "Lifetime" downtowns, were everything is aesthetically perfect and a person can make a living selling fine art in a town of 5,000 people. Hammond also had a large amount of nice old houses.

[dan326]

Next came Natalbany. They wasn't really too much to see, but they was the this nice, what I assume to be old school.

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Tickfaw was pretty bare too, but there were a few interesting points.

[dan326]

I was particularly interested in this town since my dad said he was born here. I read that all the buildings are made of brick because they had burned down at one time. Another interesting tidbit is that the town used to be Uncle Sam.

[dan326]

Next was Amite City. It seemed like their downtown might have been bigger at one point because the buildings were kind of scattered, but they did have some nice old houses too. I would have taken some pics of those, but I didn't want to stop in the road like a stalker.

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Roseland had some nice welcome signs that looked pretty similar to this one.

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Tangipahoa

[dan326]

When I got to Kentwood, all I could say was "wow". As my friend said the place was abandoned and run down. I noticed as soon as I entered the town that it wasn't as active as the others. According to Wikipedia, the town suffered an economic decline after a dairy plant closed down.

Like I said I went all the way to Osyka, Mississippi before heading back home. They had a little downtown strip, a bit smaller than Independence's.

[richyb83]

Thanks for the tour Dan Good stuff! Seeing all those little towns are neat! Back in the day the R.R's seemed to put them on the map. BTW they play some good high school football in some of those towns!

I almost started a Hammond thread a year or two ago...their nice downtown have made some headlines...They even have a skate-park! And the Mall turned into open-air shopping was a big thing too. Hammond being at the I-12 & I-55 junction certainly helps.

Some NOLA folks may argue (post Katrina)Tangipahoa is now part of the Greater New Orleans area...not BR

[American Dirt]

I definitely think that Tangipahoa should be considered part of the New Orleans metro. I know several people who commute from there.

I actually featured one of the many attempts at a new subdivision in Tangipahoa Parish in a blog post from a few weeks ago.

By the way, dan326, I wasn't clear: what town were you featuring in your post #4? Is that Independence?

Hammond is amazing to me--it's still a town with a fair amount of poverty but they have a really solid downtown, which seems more active these days than the somewhat tired-looking suburban mall. Does anyone know the history of how Hammond was able to perk up its downtown so effectively. I can't help but think that both it and Ponchatoula are full-fledged bedroom communities of New Orleans these days, which tends to inspire a great deal of main street revitalization.

[dan326]

^ Yeah, #4 is Independence.