The American Legion Park slide

The only remaining artifact of the American Legion Park in Houma is this slide (shoot-t-shoot) located on Residence Plantation.

The park was built In 1938 when Franklin Roosevelt, under the New Deal, federally funded recreational parks that were built by unemployed people to ease the unemployment .
In 1939 Houma was a small town with a population of only 9,000. The only playground with a swimming pool and playground was the American Legion Park located on Williams Avenue. The playground had three slides, a merry-go-round, a see-saw and a swimming pool. The park was demolished in the 1980’s and this slide brought to Residence Plantation and restored.

Most of the people in Houma who were children between 1940 and 1980 played on this slide. There must have been many thousands of times that children slid on it and today when children visit the Plantation they still play on it.