Area · St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Madisonville
The place
For two hundred years, the answer to "what do people do here" was: build boats.
The Navy repaired warships on this river during the War of 1812, and by 1814 the town had two shipyards. The last one closed in 2021 — meaning there are people in Madisonville today whose fathers and grandfathers built vessels on the same bend of water where they now keep a skiff. French settlers landed in 1773 and called the place Coquille, for the shells; it became Madisonville in 1811, and it remains the oldest permanent settlement in St. Tammany Parish. The lighthouse at the river mouth — built in 1837, rebuilt after the Civil War — is on the National Register. The town is four or five blocks deep, and every one of them leads to the Tchefuncte. On an October weekend the whole place turns out for wooden boats. If you want a front porch, a dock, and a walk to dinner, this is the shortest distance between those three things anywhere on the lake.
- Area
- 2.53 sq mi1
- Homes
- 4082
- Population
- 8503
housing units
www2.census.gov (2020) · data.census.gov (2020) · data.census.gov (2020)
What makes it different
The oldest permanent settlement in St. Tammany Parish — French colonists arrived in 1773; the town took President Madison's name in 1811.
Built on the west bank of the Tchefuncte, about two miles above Lake Pontchartrain, with its main street running along the riverfront.
The Tchefuncte River lighthouse at the river's mouth is National Register-listed — the standing tower is the post-Civil War rebuild of a light station first established in the 1830s.
What brings people here
The Wooden Boat Festival fills the riverfront with classic hulls each October.
Maritime Museum Louisiana, at the edge of town, anchors the shipbuilding and lake-trade story.
A riverfront main street with town docks, and the lake two miles downriver by boat.
Around Madisonville
- Keith Young's Steakhouse165 LA-21, Madisonville, LA 70447, USA
- Abita Roasting Co. Madisonville504 Water St, Madisonville, LA 70447, USA
- The Anchor407 St Tammany St, Madisonville, LA 70447, USA
- Tchefuncte's Restaurant407 St Tammany St, Madisonville, LA 70447, USA
- Morton's Boiled Seafood & Bar702 Water St, Madisonville, LA 70447, USA
- T Rivers Bar & Grill1999 Main St, Madisonville, LA 70447, USA
- McClain's Pizzeria5404 LA-22 Ste 100, Mandeville, LA 70471, USA
- Triple Nickel Grill Madisonville305 Covington St, Madisonville, LA 70447, USA
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Selling here
Selling in Madisonville?
Neighborhoods
A causeway separates these markets. Almost nothing else about them matches.
Mandeville
The Northshore's historic gateway.
Abita Springs
A town founded on the belief that the water would fix you.
Beau Chêne
Thirty-six holes, a marina on the Tchefuncte, and seventeen miles of road that lead nowhere but home.
Terra Bella
A planned development where the plan came first — and it's still being built out to it.
French Quarter
French founding, Spanish architecture, Southern charm, American soul.
Contact
Questions about a street, a subdivision, or what actually sold last month — ask.