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Slidell's Past Houses its Present:
Today’s Businesses in Yesterday’s Buildings

by Karen Gibbs

Slidell’s historic homes and other buildings are souvenirs of yesteryear treasured not so much for their boards and nails as they are for the stories they tell. Fortunately, many local entrepreneurs are keeping the past alive while becoming part of the very history they seek to preserve. Join us as we take a closer look at businesses housed in places that were born when Olde Towne was still new.

Times Bar and Grill Slidell
Beignet Station Coffee Shop
Slidell Art League
Gallery & Gift Shop
1827 Front Street

Constructed in 1882 by the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, the Slidell Train Depot is the city’s primo historic building. Still in use today as a railroad station, the building was refurbished during Mayor Sam Caruso’s administration to accommodate several additional businesses: Times Bar and Grill Slidell, owned by Shearn Lemoine; Beignet Station Coffee Shop, owned by Jenny Clement; and the Slidell Art League Gallery, operated by the Slidell Art League.

Brad Thompson Gallery
224 Fremaux Avenue

Built about 1908 as a residence by Alphonse Attaway, this house was acquired by the Joseph and Mary Pravata family in the 1920s. Later, their son, Slidell entrepreneur Peter Pravata, added decorative cypress columns along the porch. Ultimately, the house was sold for commercial use, at one time or another housing a photographer, an interior designer and a hairdresser. In 2006, artist Brad Thompson and his wife, Debbie, purchased the house as a gallery for Brad’s world-famous oil paintings. A lover of old New Orleans architecture, Brad wanted a house that would reflect his passion for older buildings.

Patton’s Caterers
127 Cleveland Avenue

One of Slidell’s most beautiful homes, the Salmen-Fritchie House was built in 1895 by Fritz Salmen. Years later, Salmen’s descendant, Slidell Mayor Homer Fritchie Sr., acquired the residence. One of his most celebrated guests was Gov. Huey P. Long, who enjoyed many a meal and fine cigar with Fritchie in the rear dining room. Today the room is affectionately referred to as the Huey P. Long Room.

In the early 1990s, Homer Fritchie Jr. and his wife, Sharon, restored the house and used it as a bed and breakfast for nine years. Then, in 2002, the Patton family purchased the mansion for their almost-50-year-old family catering business. Today, the elegance and splendor of this Southern jewel is available for private parties and weddings.

Chateau Bleu Caterers
106 West Hall Avenue

In 1912, the American Creosote Company built this house, as well as the house used by the Chamber of Commerce and the one occupied by the Hair Connection, as residences for company executives. According to Allen Little, who with his wife, Kathy, owns Chateau Bleu Caterers, a Mr. Hursey constructed this house, modeling it after his family’s 1850s residence. The Littles renovated it as if it were an 1850s cottage, complete with period plasterwork and chandeliers. The interior staircase, of the same period, came from the old Salmen Brick and Lumber Company. In 1996, Little added an authentically reproduced garçoniere to the back of the house. Common to houses of the 1850s, the garçoniere provided bachelor residents a separate back entrance into the main house, discretely accommodating their comings and goings. In addition to its catering business and pick-up lunch service, Chateau Bleu can be rented for private parties.

Seasons Restaurant
1398 Front Street

Most commonly known as the Old Icehouse, this building was originally the site of Louisiana Public Utilities, the company that first generated electricity for the city of Slidell. It also sold block ice used in iceboxes, the refrigerators of the time. Frank Kwan, current owner and proprietor of Seasons Restaurant, explains that the lower level of the restaurant still holds compressors used by the electric company. On the street level, the storage area for the ice blocks is now the restaurant bar. Across the front of the building were doors that opened to dispense 300-pound blocks of ice into horse-drawn ice wagons for sale in the neighborhoods. Longtime Slidell resident Wesley Carroll remembers picking up the shavings from the cut ice as a child and making “plain-ice sno-balls” for a summer treat.

Barbara’s
Victorian Closet
124 Erlanger Street

Owned by Barbara Starling, Barbara’s Victorian Closet fittingly houses an antique mall featuring eight dealers. The original building, over 100 years old, was one of Slidell’s first service stations, Pravata’s Triangle Garage. Pravata also operated bowling lanes on the site, and his mother, Mary, ran a coffee shop there. Starling has carefully preserved the ceiling of the service station, as well as some of the upper walls. The Victorian gingerbread adorning the exterior of the building dates from the 1800s. It was obtained from old New Orleans homes.

Purple Armadillo
Country Cruise
& Travel
224 Erlanger Street

This 1920s building, owned by Bob Stroud, was originally a shed or garage for another building on the corner of 1st and Erlanger. After Stroud acquired it in 1997, he renovated it, dividing the 1800-square-foot building in half. Its current occupants are The Purple Armadillo, a gift and home décor store owned by Louise Mace and Kathy Green, and Country Cruise and Travel Agency, owned by Susie Morris.

Michael J. Bourquard Law Office
1732 Front Street

A pen and ink rendering of this building is titled “Northshore House,” but whether that is a generic name or its real identity is uncertain. Slidell’s living historian, Wesley Carroll, describes this house as the Paul Cornibe House. Cornibe had a livery stable down on Teddy but resided in this house with his family. Current owner attorney Michael Bourquard purchased the house for his law office from Charlotte and Pat Grannan. All agree that the cottage is irresistible, both for its charming architecture and its location on the Mardi Gras parade route.

KY’s Olde Towne Bicycle Shop
2267 Carey Street

Built in 1902 as Marguerite McDaniel’s Millinery Store, this building was later home to A. Carollo’s Grocery, a grocery in the 1920s. In later years, it was used as a bicycle shop. Then, in 1991, Kevin and Linda Young purchased the old building, opening it as a neighborhood restaurant a year later. Despite the floodwaters of Katrina, the restaurant is back in business today—the original floor tiles from Carollo’s grocery still intact and none the worse for wear.