NEWS

General Store open for business

Dominick Cross
The Daily Advertiser

There’s a new store in town. And it’s fully stocked.

Actually, it’s not new, it’s not a town and it’s mostly stocked.

But there’s more to it than that. Let’s go down the list for clarity’s sake.

The Emar Andrepont General Store, although it’s been in place since the early 1990s, is still kind of new in that its doors are open to working lights dangling from the ceiling and its now equipped to cool and heat.

The town really isn’t one, true, but it’s a collection of historic structures otherwise known as Le Vieux Village, and it sits at the gateway to Opelousas off of I-49/La 190.

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And, yes, most of the shelves are stocked with goods and farm tools representative of a bygone era. All this is the result of a state grant to fund a General Store Exhibit that comes just in time for Preservation Month.

“We recently turned our attention to the store. Some of our efforts included tools for cooling and heating, tools for lighting the store, research related to the former owner, Mr. Emar Andrepont,” said Melanie Lee-Lebouef, Opelousas Tourism director. “And also acquiring some of the artifacts that you would find in an old general store.”

Jacqueline Martin, District 8 representative, Opelousas City Council; Dolores Guillory, Opelousas Museum, and Melanie Lee-Lebouef, Opelousas Tourism director, enjoy a chat at Andrepont General Store at a freshly stocked Le Vieux Village.

The general store initially opened for business in the community of Prairie Ronde in 1897 and remained that way for 100 years. The recent $3,000 grant basically put the store back in a working context, so to speak, with results locals and tourists alike will not find on the shelves.

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“It ties into not just preserving our heritage, or a building, it’s about fostering an appreciation for history and their culture — identifying with their culture and connecting with their community. And then on the economic side, of course, historic preservation and economic development.

“So, it’s not about just preserving a building. Essentially, for the village, it will bring more visitors here,” she said, “which means more traffic to the city, which in turn contributes to the economic vitality of the city.”

Stocked shelves at Le Vieux Village's Andrepont General Store.

The grant for the creation of the General Store Exhibit at Le Vieux Village is administered through the State of Louisiana via a Certified Local Grant, which is funded through the National Parks Service.

“This is just a part of the preservation work here at Le Vieux Village,” said Lee-Lebouef. “Many of the houses here are historic, and they all need a little bit of work to make them part of this wonderful attraction.”