City of Slidell, LA history

In 1881, an early inland settlement began at Robert’s Landing on the banks of Bayou Bonfouca.

The post office, telephone and telegraph lines were added in 1884.

In 1886, Fritz Salmen started a successful brick making company that helped the town to develop.

The first council meeting concerned construction of a jail, which was built together with the mayor’s office in 1889.

In 1890, Fritz Salmen’s company, The Salmen Brick Company was one of the largest manufacturers of clay products in the South.

In 1910, the Salmen Company employed a total of 800 people.

Brickmaking, lumber mills, shipbuilding and service commerce were the main forces of Slidell’s economy until 1930.

By the 1960's Slidell was one of the country's fastest growing cities, more than doubling its population from 14,000 to 30,000.Today Slidell has become the largest city in St Tammany Parish with a population of over 27,000 people and a median home cost of around $138,000.

1961NASA’s John C. Stennis Space CenterIn October 1961, a historic announcement was made: the federal government had selected an area in Hancock County, Miss., to be the site of a static test facility for launch vehicles to be used in NASA’s Apollo manned lunar landing program.

On August 29, 2005, Slidell was hit by one of the worse hurricanes in United States history, Hurricane Katrina.