Prior to 1817, a
courthouse serving both Washington and St. Tammany Parishes was located
near Enon in Washington Parish in an area known as "Washington Fields."
Records indicated that some soldiers were stationed there for the War
of 1812.
An 1820 map showing the first courthouse near Enon
According to a publication of the Louisiana State Bar Association entitled "Louisiana’s Historic Courthouses: A Look at the Past and the Present,"
(Published in 2016) The St. Tammany Parish courthouse sprang from
legislation signed by Louisiana's first governor, William Charles Cole
Claiborne in 1813. The legislation called upon a local committee to
locate a courthouse site "within three miles of the center of St.
Tammany Parish, which at that time consisted of Washington
Parish, St. Tammany Parish and the portion of Tangipahoa Parish east
of the Tangipahoa River."
Following
those directions, the group established the first courthouse near the
banks of the Bogue Chitto River near Enon on property owned by Judge
Thomas C. Warner, who was the first parish judge in St. Tammany Parish.
The
Bar Association's Journal went on to explain that four years after
establishing the courthouse near Enon, another group was given the
assignment of moving the parish seat. "The Claiborne Company had
purchased a portion of the Kleinschmidt Spanish land grant in 1813. In
exchange for the commission naming the Town of Claiborne as the parish
seat, the Claiborne Company offered some of its land and agreed to build
a courthouse and jail for the parish, free of charge."
"Robert
Layton told them (the group seeking a parish seat) that he'd build a
courthouse if they made Claiborne the parish seat," said retired Judge
Steve Ellis, a parish historian. This resulted in the second St.
Tammany Parish courthouse being built in the Town of Claiborne just
east and across the river from Covington. It cost around $20,000 to
build.
That building, built in 1818, currently stands across the driveway from the Chimes Restaurant near the Bogue Falaya River. The structure was completed and opened for business on April 12, 1819.
CLICK HERE for an article about the above building.
However,
the bar journal account noted that "within 10 years of the
erection of the 1819 Courthouse, the Police Jury determined that the
courthouse should be moved to Covington, previously known as the
Town of Wharton."
On June 5, 1837, the Police Jury purchased Lots 12-15 on the corner of Boston and New Hampshire Streets in Covington for use as a courthouse site, the bar journal stated.
The
1819 Courthouse was eventually sold and used as a private residence and
Catholic seminary. In the late 1800s, a hotel known as the Claiborne Cottages was built next to the former 1819 Courthouse. Those cottages were destroyed by fire in the early 1900s.
The
parish seat was moved from Claiborne to Covington in 1838. A courthouse
was built on the corner of Boston St. and North New Hampshire St. In
1884, however, the Police Jury voted to demolish the courthouse
located at that location. "During the demolition and rebuilding
period, Covington Town Hall was used as a courtroom. The new
courthouse opened two years later in 1886 and was used for 73 years,
according to the bar journal account.
The
structure pictured above at that location was built in 1896, with the
cornerstone of that building pictured below, as it looks preserved as a
monument in front of the old courthouse site at the northeast corner
Boston St. and New Hampshire St.
Here are some additional pictures of that 1896 structure.
St. Tammany Parish School Board in front of the old courthouse around 1906.
"The
completion of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in 1956 magnified the
need for a larger facility to conduct the parish’s business," the Bar
Association article went on to say. "In 1959, the parish decided to
build a new courthouse, completed in 1960. Within the year it took to
complete the new courthouse, court was held in the gymnasium of the
Jefferson Avenue grammar school. The new courthouse shown below was
opened in 1959 in the same location as the previous courthouse. It
featured a jail on the third floor.
Here is the printed program for the ceremonies opening the new courthouse on June 1, 1960.
The
police jury held a number of committee meetings about what to do about
the growing space problems in the courthouse building.
They finally decided, despite objections, to build a new courthouse down near Interstate 12.
The
courthouse stayed in Covington, however, after some legal action by
city officials noting that the courthouse had to be in the parish seat.
For
a brief time, in an effort to provide more space, there were a couple
of courtrooms and judges offices in the building where the Southern
Hotel is located today. It served as Parish Administrative Offices for several years, complete with police jury meeting room and offices for various parish agencies.
The
parish chose to ignore the city's objections and built an office
facility on Koop Drive off La. 29 near Interstate 12, moving its main
administrative offices and several key departments to that location. In
1996, efforts resumed to build a bigger courthouse, but within the
boundaries of the City of Covington. The old P&W Salvage facility on
Jefferson Avenue was considered.
"The
1960 courthouse was used until the St. Tammany Justice Center opened in
2003, which brought together many of the parish’s offices that were
scattered throughout the city," according to the Bar Association
article. Planning for the massive $64 million structure began in the
year 2000.
"The
St. Tammany Parish Justice Center, unlike any courthouse in
Louisiana, is a 312,000-square-foot structure containing 22,000 cubic
yards of concrete and 25,000 St. Joe bricks and housing 12 courtrooms,"
said the article. Here are some photographs of that building.
