Dancehalls in St. Martin Parish

Wyche Bar

Mentioned in “The News of News” 1973 ...

Casino Club

Located at the corner of S. Main and Denbas in St. Martinville Included in Emily Ardoin’s 2014 thesis “Fais do-do to ‘Hippy Ti-Yo’: Dance Halls of South Louisiana”: “The Casino Club is located on a corner in the Creole community center of St. Martinville. It was opened in the 1950s and the closing date is unknown. It is currently vacant. The building is of frame construction, has a front gabled roof, a Mansard parapet, and has a concrete pier foundation. The dance floor is constructed of wood strips. The condition of the building is good and appears mostly unaltered.” Linda LeBlanc: Clifton Chenier played there, older Creole and Black crowd, good dance floor; popular in 60’s. ...

Tee’s Connection

Corner of South Main and Honore: Included in Emily Ardoin’s 2014 thesis “Fais do-do to ‘Hippy Ti-Yo’: Dance Halls of South Louisiana”: “Tee’s Connection is located in the Creole community center of St. Martinville that features zydeco music. The building is of frame construction.” Owned by Georgina Jones Dugas- closed after her death- her son owns T’s Lounge- across the street- Gerard ...

Beano’s

st. martinville Hwy- Marion Martin- owned by Mr. Beano ...

Sonnier’s Dancehall

Mentioned in the story of a little baby being found: in the Weekly Messenger St. Martinville newspaper: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064454/1906-10-13/ed-1/seq-8/ ...

Unknown Hall

Patricia Davison: “A strictly after hours place. After all the bars in Lafayette closed, you would ride out to the St. Martinville area. You’d go down road after road through sugar cane fields. Then you’d come to a big oldroadhouse type place. It was open from 2 AM until 6 AM. It was a huge old wooden warehouse. It was BYOB or you could buy a bottle of liquor and mixer for your table. A set-up type place. There wasn’t really a wait staff. I don’t remember if there was a live band, but I know there was a jukebox and tons of people. You could never find it on your own- you’d have to be with someone who knew it.” ...

Jolly Rogers

DL Menard: “We played the Jolly Rogers Club quite a bit. It was the first place that we sold copies of “La Porte d’en ArriĀŽre (The Back Door).” It cost $175 to record that song at Floyd Solieau’s studio in 1962. “The night we got that record we sold 300 copies @ $1 each! I got my money back that night! Mr. Badeau had to go and get some more! The next Saturday night we got to the Jolly Roger, the owner Simon Thibodaux said that when he opened the club that morning at 7:30 am to clean, a guy came in and played “The Back Door” on the jukebox and that was the only song that got played all day long. That night the crowd made me play “The Back Door” seven times! For a long time after that it was still playing it 5 or 6 times a night.” ...

Bonin’s Dancehall

Newspaper item mention: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064454/1912-04-13/ed-1/seq-2/ Newspaper item mention: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064454/1913-04-12/ed-1/seq-3/ : 1917: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064454/1917-09-08/ed-1/seq-1/ ...

Buccanneer 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.” (Next to Ricochet-Gone) ...