Dancehalls in Lafayette Parish

Hilltop Club

Listed in “Readers recall clubs where they danced to Louisiana Music” from The Daily Advertiser, December 29, 1998: “Readers of The Daily Advertiser were asked to submit names of’ the clubs where they danced to Louisiana music in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, with a brief recollection of what the club was like and who played there.” where the Hotel Acadiana is now ...

Hippodrome

Kaliste Saloom: On the corner of Johnston & Vermilion- it was built as a coummunity center of sorts to house a boxing ring (in hopes to lure Jack Johnson to fight in Lafayette). It also held dances too. It was later cut in half and moved. ...

Hope Lodge

From the book “Images de Lafayette: A Pictoral History”, edited by Paul F. Matthews: “Listed on the National Register of Historic Places”: “Hope Lodge No. 145 is locally significant as an architectural landmark in the Lafayette Central Business District. Its multi-colored brick treatment makes it one of the four most ornamental period buildings in the downtown area. In 1857 former Gov. Alexandre Mouton, a Hope Lodge member, donated the site. The original building constructed on this location was demolished in 1916, at which time this building was erected. It is located at 116 East Vermilion Street.” ...

Hula Hoop

Terry Duhon: located at 4 corners ...

Jazz Room

on the corner of Washington & Levy on “The Block” ...

Jefferson Theatre

Newspaper ad for minstrel show from The Lafayette Advertiser, April 01, 1910 http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86079068/1910-04-01/ed-1/seq-3/ ...

L’Acadien Club

Listed in “Readers recall clubs where they danced to Louisiana Music” from The Daily Advertiser, December 29, 1998: “Readers of The Daily Advertiser were asked to submit names of’ the clubs where they danced to Louisiana music in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, with a brief recollection of what the club was like and who played there.” Jefferson Street in Lafayette, where Antler’s is now ...

Lacoste’s Hall

Newspaper item about dance in The Lafayette Gazette, November 15, 1902 http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064111/1902-11-15/ed-1/seq-1/ ...

Landry’s Paladium

Photos: (L) Johnnie Allan Collection, Center for  Louisiana Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, (3 at R) Courtesy City of Lafayette Clerk of Court Office Marsha Landry Pressburg: “Landry’s belonged to my grandfather Alpha Stephen Landry. It was located where Big W’s Auto Sales is and not the window factory. I remember the really rough times when all the fights occurred. I was very young. My Dad and Grandfather were behind the bar and my Mom stapled tickets to people who entered the dancing area. My Grandmother walked around and visited with everyone. You could go to the bar without entering the dancing area. I had to go every Saturday night until I was old enough to drive. Everyone I speak to has fond memories of the place. Mine are just about being forced to go somewhere that I did not want to be.” Don Gassie: “I went to Landry’s a lot, often to hear Cookie and the Cupcakes. The bar was surrounded by a cage and a bouncer would ask you “Quel age a tu?” because you had to be 18 to drink. I never heard anything but french from the bouncers. There was seating for parents and non-dancers on the right of the bar as you walked in. The stage was all the way to the back and to its left, protected by a screen, was an airplane propeller powered by an electric motor. It put out quite a breeze onto the dance floor. I remember cigarettes whizzing by after the wind knocked them out of a smoker’s hand. One night after a fight the bouncers had put one of the kids in a room and went after another. The kid in the room got out and ran out the front door and across Highway 90 to the parking lot on the other side. One of the bouncers, a gray haired older man, saw that his captive had disappeared and he ran out the front door, crossed the highway, leaped a ditch and reached the car just as it started to drive away. The bouncer (probably a special deputy) had his gun out and into the window of the car as it’s wheels spun on the gravel. He took the kid back into Landry’s, shoving the troublemaker roughly on the way back.” Mercedes Hollier- CFMA- “Lots of touring country bands there- it was in the curve to the left on Cameron- near where the window factory is now. There would always be standing & visiting outside – our older brothers were our chaperones.” Dudley Duhon: “I played there a time or two. A country band would play in the afternoon, then French music would come on later.” ...