Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall
Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Marker Inscription
Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior 1895.
The Story
The Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall in Mandeville dates to 1895, built by a mutual-aid society of the kind Black communities across the South formed to provide fellowship, insurance, and burial support. Its simple wooden hall became a stage for early jazz, hosting musicians in the music's formative decades. Now on the National Register, it stands as one of the oldest rural jazz halls in the country.
Why it matters
It links two great currents of African American history — the benevolent-society tradition of self-help and the birth of jazz.
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Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall
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The Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall in Mandeville dates to 1895, built by a mutual-aid society of the kind Black communities across the South formed to provide fellowship, insurance, and burial support. Its simple wooden hall became a stage for early jazz, hosting musicians in the music's formative decades. Now on the National Register, it stands as one of the oldest rural jazz halls in the country.
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