Photograph: Pap’s Court on West Landry Street in downtown Opelousas in the early days of operation. (Carola Lillie Hartley Collection.)
CAROLA LILLIE HARTLEY
Publisher and Contributing Writer
What most people in Opelousas know as Pap’s Motel, was opened on West Landry Street in Opelousas in 1956. At that time, it was called Pap’s Tourist Courts, or Pap’s Courts, owned by August Maurice “Pap” Ducharme (1898-1977) and his wife Judy Breaux Ducharme (1895-1973). But there is so much more to the story of that tourist court and the couple who established the business.
August “Pap” Ducharme and Judy Breaux Ducharme
August “Pap” Ducharme was the son of Louis Alexandre August Ducharme (1859-1910) and Mathilda Wyble Ducharme (1866-1960). He was born in St. Landry Parish on February 8, 1898. Judy Breaux was the daughter of Raymond Breaux (1873-1913), the editor of the St. Landry Clarion for several years, and Clara Rawles McBride Perrault Breaux (1853-1921), the mother of Opelousas Mayor Dr. A. J. Perrault. She was born in Opelousas on December 23, 1895.
During her high school years, Judy Breaux was a champion center on the Opelousas girls’ basketball team. She also worked at the St. Landry Clarion, where she served as a compositor, and later as an editor. In 1917, Judy Breaux married August “Pap” Ducharme. Following their marriage, the couple lived and worked in Alexandria, LA.
After working for a few years in Rapides Parish as a clerk for the Central Drug Company in Alexandria, “Pap” Ducharme and wife Judy went into the restaurant, café and lounge business off and on for several years. They operated cafés at Shreveport, Houston, Beaumont and a restaurant in San Antonia, TX, where they lived until June of 1925. A that time they moved back to Opelousas. In June of that year, Pap and Judy purchased the Gem Sandwich Shop from Tommy Brooks, completely renovate the building and opened Pap’s Café in downtown Opelousas. In 1927 Pap’s Café, calling it the Pap’s New Café, was relocated to the Jake Abdalla Building on Bellevue Street.
In August of 1927, Pap was part owner of the Mack and Pap Service Station, located at the corner of Market and Bellevue streets, that opened on the first of that month. Built by the Louisiana Oil and Refining Company and handling Lareco Products, it was operated by Raymond McBride and Pap Ducharme. The station was called one of the most modern filling stations in the city.
In 1928, Pap closed his New Café on Bellevue Street next door to the Elks Club, and moved to Tampico, Mexico to engage in the restaurant business. At that time the Bellevue Street Pap’s Café was renamed the Ritz Café, managed by W. Fontenot.
During the 1930s, the Ducharme’s owned a popular lounge on the old Sunset Road, called Pap’s Lounge, sometime Pap’s Inn, and also Pap Ducharme Restaurant and Dancehall. At that time Pap was the mixologist while Judy prepared hot tamales, a specialty of the place. Judy probably learned how to make that specialty while she and Pap lived in Mexico for a short time at the end of the 1920s.
In 1932 Pap went into the poultry business with a hatchery built on his farm on the Sunset Road.
In February of 1940, the Ducharme couple purchased the old Steward home on South Liberty Street in Opelousas. They remodeled it and made it into an apartment house. During that 1940s-decade Pap’s Inn on the Sunset highway south of Opelousas, continued to operate with Bill and Ruby Lawless as managers in 1946. In 1951 Pap was managing the tourist courts, known as Pap’s Courts at the Continental Southern (Trailway) bus line site in Opelousas. The tourist courts were remodeled in 1952.
Pap’s Tourist Courts
In 1956 Pap and Judy Ducharme constructed a new building and opened Pap’s Tourist Courts on West Landry Street. The tourist courts, now called a motel, were also where the Trailway Bus Station was located. In 1960, a swimming pool was added to the motel property after the Ducharme’s purchased the old Tillotson Home next door in 1959. The home was demolished, and the pool installed on the property, ready for swimming in the spring of 1960. When the pool opened, the Ducharme’s offered swimming lessons at the pool for a while.
In 1962, the motel added a new building to house their office, and a restaurant that served great food in downtown Opelousas for several years. In 1972, Pap added a lounge to the property. Pap’s Lounge began operating at 343 West Landry Street in May of 1972. It was opened daily at 2PM, except Sunday.
The Ducharme’s also owned a service station on the corner of Landry and Liberty streets, near the tourist courts.
Following the death of Judy Ducharme in 1973, in 1974, the motel was sold at auction in order to settle an estate, with Ducharme family heirs purchasing it.
After Pap died in 1977 the motel, restaurant, lounge, and service station, all at the corner of Liberty Street and Vine Street was purchased by Lafayette oil producer Terry V. Bills, Jr. The transfer of ownership was completed on September 2, 1977.
The motel was repainted and completely remodeled at that time, and the name was changed to the Town House in early 1978. It was still the Town House Motel in 1979 and 1980. After that local folks always referred to the property as Pap’s Motel.
Over the years that followed, Pap’s had other owners. Today the motel, that most people know as Pap’s, is still standing on West Landry Street in the downtown Opelousas Historic District.
