Kit Boutte’s Nite Club

Status: Closed

Parish: Iberia

Location: New Iberia

From Sepia Socialite, May 1942:

KIT BOUTTE’S NITE CLUB- NEW IBERIA’S OLDEST AMUSEMENT SPOT

“Early in 1918 when Negroes of New Iberia had no place to go for leisure, entertainment and pleasure, Kid Boutte, popular and prominent sportsman and mail messenger for the United States Postoffice, opened the Kid Boutte Nite Club and offered to this vicinity clean, high-class entertainment for Negroes. The place is one of finest in the state, facilitated with fixtures valued at more than $10,000. Mr. Boutte has worked as a mail messenger at the U.S. Postoffice for twenty-four years and is the only Negro mail carrier in the city. He is a native of New Iberia and is one of the three surviving children of Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Boutte, pioneer settlers of this section. He has two sisters, Mrs. T.D. Hayes, wife of Dr. Hayes of New Orleans, and Mrs. T.D. Nelson of Berkeley, California. Mr. Boutte is an alumnus of Tuskegee Institute and was one of the first players of the Tuskegee band to tour teh country in 1911.  He is a member of the Y.M.P.B.A.  He attributes his success in business to hard work, staying on the job and satisfying his customer. The place carries a complete line of soft drinks and liquors with a recreational parlor in the rear, under the management of Adolph Boudin. Other employees are Alex Bernard, bartender; Mary Sion, Margaret Bernard, Bessie and Viola Smith, waitresses.”

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Photo Credit: Sepia Socialite, May 1942