Installment No. 12: A new chapter
Today’s artifact: St. Cecilia House, 131 N. New Hampshire St. in Covington.
Why it is significant: Whatever else you say about the single-story, wood-framed structure at North New Hampshire Street in downtown Covington, this much is certain: It does not look its age.
It is every bit as quaint and tidy as you’d expect a house in old Covington to look, but, according to local history blogger Ron Barthet’s Tammany Family website, it is fully 117 years old, constructed in 1903 to serve as a clubhouse for the Bogue Falaya Men’s Club.
But, located nearly 2 miles from St. Tammany Health System’s hospital campus on South Tyler Street, how exactly does it fit into the health system’s history?
To answer that question, we’ll have to turn back the clock to 1907, when it was purchased from the Men’s Club by another civic organization, the M.C.B. Club, a group of community-minded young women united by their desire to establish a lending library in Covington.
Back then, the club’s initials were a closely guarded secret. One running joke held that it stood for “Men Can’t Belong.” It has since been revealed that it stood for “Minerva’s Chosen Band,” which was an entirely fitting moniker given that Minerva was – among other things – the Roman goddess of wisdom.
Founded in the 1890s and chartered in 1903, the M.C.B. Club’s chief order of business in those days was to find a building to house their library, thus their purchase of the house at 131 N. New Hampshire.
For much of the first half of the 20th century, the library was a local fixture, funded by subscriptions but also by various plays, vaudeville performances and other community events.
But by the late 1940s – just as the campaign to establish a local hospital was building steam – the M.C.B. and its little library were waning. In 1947, the decision was made to disband the club and sell the building at 131 N. New Hampshire.
But what to do with the money from that sale?
As it turns out, although the campaign to build a hospital was going gangbusters, local officials had trouble finding an organization to run it. So, as it neared completion, the decision was made that they would run it themselves.
The only problem: They would need to raise money to outfit the building – and fast.
That prompted a call to community organizations to help finish the job. Among those to step up: the old M.C.B. Club, which, as one of its last official acts, donated the money from the sale of the library to buy the necessary equipment for the hospital’s first nursery.
That included two incubators, eight basinets and furnishings for a private room.
Within a week of the club’s gift, the hospital opened its doors. A day later, the first baby was born.
Today, the old library building is owned by Christ Episcopal Church, which operates it as St. Cecilia House, a meeting hall and adult education center.
Meanwhile, St. Tammany Health System’s New Family Center has given birth to 60,000 babies – thanks to the generosity of Minerva’s Chosen Band and their little library on North New Hampshire Street.