70 for 70: Prescription for progress

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Thursday, January 18, 2024

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70 for 70: Prescription for progress

STHS Communication Department, CommDept@stph.org

Note: This article is part of 70 for 70, a weekly series of history posts counting down to St. Tammany Health System’s 70th anniversary on Dec. 1, 2024. Today we offer installment No. 24: Prescription for progress.

Traditional New Orleans-style street tiles in front of 501 E. Boston St. in Covington recall its 24 years as Hebert Drugs. (Photo by Mike Scott / STHS)

Today, the building at 501 E. Boston St. is Del Porto Ristorante, an upscale Italian eatery located on the main drag through downtown Covington.

But a look down at the traditional New Orleans-style blue-lettered tiles embedded in the sidewalk outside its main entrance – reading simply “Hebert’s” – makes it clear that Del Porto was by no means the first inhabitant of that address.

Which brings us to today’s installment in our ongoing 70-part series covering the history of St. Tammany Health System.

Installment No. 24: Prescription for progress

Today’s artifact: The building at 501 E. Boston St. in downtown Covington.

Why it is significant: Long before the national interstate system and I-12 carved their way through St. Tammany Parish, East Boston Street – as a section of U.S. 190 – was a bustling automotive thoroughfare.

Located along it, across the street from the old parish courthouse at the corner of East Boston and North New Hampshire streets, Hebert Drugs served as a beacon for locals and passers-through alike.

Built of rusticated stone in 1912 as a live theater, and later serving as a car dealership, according to the Tammany Family history blog, the one-story structure would become Hebert Drugs shortly before U.S. involvement in World War II.

It would remain a community fixture for decades, as former Times-Picayune scribe Frank Schneider wrote in his Second Cup column in the early 1980s:

“When young people assembled there on Sunday mornings, ‘Mr. Hebert’ would be in the rear of the store dispensing poison ivy lotion and recommending balm for sunburn,” Schneider wrote. “But up front was the social section where the delicious ice cream sodas and malts were concocted. The nectar sodas, with specks of crushed ice and globs of whipped cream, were particularly irresistible.”

“Mr. Hebert,” in this case was Oliver Hebert, who, Schneider noted, moved his business there in 1940 after six years at a different nearby location.

That’s the same Oliver Hebert who would become the first chairman of St. Tammany Parish Hospital’s inaugural Board of Commissioners after taking a lead role in its founding in 1954.

As such, in addition to being a touchstone to Covington’s past, the building at 501 E. Boston underscores the depth and breadth of the community involvement in the hospital’s founding.

It also stands as a physical reminder of Oliver Hebert’s lasting contributions in the community, including as a founder of St. Tammany Parish Hospital.

Hebert, who sold his pharmacy and retired in 1964, passed away four years later of lingering complications from a heart attack.

He was pronounced dead at St. Tammany Parish Hospital.

A composite image from the Covington Heritage Foundation website shows the building at 501 E. Boston St. in Covington, originally built as a live theater (top left), later to become a car dealer (top right), then serving from 1940 to 1964 as Hebert Drugs (bottom left). Today, it is home to Del Porto Ristorante (bottom right) (Image via CovingtonHeritageFoundation.com)

Another look at the old Hebert Drugs building. (Google Maps image)

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