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The Pointe Coupee Historical Society
The Pointe Coupee Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by a group of interested local citizens in 1975.
For more than 37 years we have presented history talks and exhibits, roundtable discussions, educational programs for students and teachers, concerts, plays, films, and many other meaningful community gatherings. We also develop museum collections and place historic markers at sites throughout our parish.
In 2012 LSU Press published New Roads and Old Rivers: Louisiana’s Historic Pointe Coupee Parish; Photographs by Richard Sexton; Text by Randy Harelson, with Brian Costello. The book is in its second printing with 5,000 copies in print. The Historical Society coordinated the book’s development and raised the funds to pay for research and photography by one of Louisiana’s finest photographers.
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Julien Poydras Museum and Arts Center
In 1992 the society purchased the shuttered 1924 Poydras High School. In 1996 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2011 the Pointe Coupee Historical Society won an award from the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation “for preserving and restoring historic Poydras High School from demolition,and through adaptive reuse, returning it to the community as an asset for present and future generations.”
Over the years the museum has presented art shows such as Treasures of Pointe Coupee, Local Wood: Painted Woodcarvings by A.B. Crochet and Henry Watson, and New Roads and Old Rivers: Richard Sexton Photographs Pointe Coupee, and history exhibitions such as 150 Years Ago: Relics of the Civil War in Pointe Coupee.
The Poydras Museum’s 200-seat auditorium has presented the Arts Council’s Performing Arts Series and the Pelican State Chamber Concerts for more than a decade. Other successful programming has included the Last Friday Louisiana Film Series, and scheduled talks and lectures of the Historical Society.
Rental Space in the Center
The society utilizes all the first floor spaces of the Poydras Museum for Historical Society and Arts Council business and programming, and leases upstairs space in the center to businesses and nonprofit organizations. Facilities - museum room, auditorium, and ballroom - are popular for reunions, parties, and receptions available for occasional rental.
Funding
The Pointe Coupee Historical Society and the Julien Poydras Museum and Arts Center are funded through the generosity of members, local businesses, grants from local and state cultural organizations, and revenues from rental of the Poydras building itself.
CONTACTus
225-638-6575
500 W MAIN ST.
NEW ROADS, LOUISIANA
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MAILING ADDRESS
P.O. BOX 462
NEW ROADS, LOUISIANA
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OFFICE HOURS: 10AM-3PM, T W, Th