By Greg Scott

From 1907 until 1954, this two-story brick building was Slidell’s Town Hall. The first wooden Town Hall was constructed on this site soon after the town incorporated in 1888, at a cost of $275. This newer brick building built in 1907 used locally produced bricks and cost $3,865. It took the Town of Slidell three years to repay the building loan for the second Town Hall.

This sturdier brick building housed the town Marshall’s Office and five jail cells on the lower level, while the Mayor’s Office took up the entire upper floor. Early in the town’s history, the Mayor’s      Office also served as the Courtroom and Town Council Chambers. The Mayor served as the town’s Judge before 1962. Anyone arrested by the Marshall for misdemeanor offenses would appear before the Mayor for sentencing. The more serious offenders went to higher courts in Covington or New Orleans.

In the early jail cells, there was no electricity for heating, air conditioning, or even lighting. Temperatures were brutally hot in the summer and frigidly cold in the winter. There were no window coverings other than steel bars and a wire mesh. No plumbing was available for the prisoners ‘personal needs,’ which were handled by chamber pots and/or buckets. The town contracted local ladies to furnish meals for the prisoners, paying them just a few cents a day. Meals usually consisted of whatever leftovers were available.

In 1927, the town constructed an additional fire barn to accommodate the town’s first fire truck. There was a large brass bell mounted outside the fire barn that people used to signal the town’s volunteer firefighters. Next to the bell, there was a large sign that displayed several patterns of bell strikes. The different bell signals told the volunteers which part of town they should head to. A block and a half north at the corner of Front Street and Fremaux, was a Gulf coast Oil gas station. In the early years, many of the young volunteer firefighters would hang out there. According to early volunteers, ‘When the alarm bell was rung, there would be a footrace from the gas station to the fire barn, because the first one to arrive got to drive the truck.’

ABOUT THE SLIDELL HISTORY STROLL PROJECT:
The Slidell History Scroll is the Girl Scout Gold Award community service project of Sue Helen Ford. The project was inspired when her family participated in a walking history tour in Savannah, Georgia. Sue Helen is grateful for the support of her Girl Scout community, family, and friends, whose encouragement and hard work have brought this vision to life. Special thanks go to her 7th and 8th grade history teachers at Slidell Jr. High – Mr. Treadwell and Mrs. Caldwell – for igniting her passion for history.The narratives featured throughout the Slidell History Stroll were researched and written by Greg Scott, Curator of the Slidell Museum.