St. Tammany Parish Children’s Museum Opens at Koop Drive
A plan 15 years in the making came to fruition the weekend of January 20-21, 2018. The Children’s Museum of St. Tammany opened its doors to great fanfare that weekend. The Children’s Museum which is located near the St. Tammany Trace Trailhead at Koop Drive, will begin to have regular business hours on Tuesday, January 23rd. The museum has exhibits which are focused on toddler-age children to elementry-age children.
The idea for the Children’s Museum originally began with the Junior League of Greater Covington in 2003. A non-profit was formed in 2011 called The Children’s Museum of St. Tammany to begin on fundraising activities to raise
money for the new facility. Partners in the endeavor include the St. Tammany Parish government and the St. Tammany Parish school district.
In fact, the St. Tammany Parish school district held its 8th fundraising event on December 1, 2017, which was led by the students to raise money for the museum. A check in the amount of $19,377 was then donated to the Children’s Museum by school superintendent Trey Folse during a school board meeting on January 11, 2018. A total of $160,000 has been raised using similar fundraising efforts during the last 8 years.
The facility at the Tammany Trace Trailhead at Koop Drive is only an interim location for the museum. The final facility will be built on St. Tammany Parish’ planned cultural arts district on land adjacent to the Colonial/Pinnacle property at Louisiana 21 / I-12 and the Tchefuncte River.
