Lafayette General Hospital evolved from the Lafayette Sanitarium, the first hospital in Lafayette. The Sanitarium was founded in 1911 by Doctors L.O. Clark, J. Franklin Mouton, and L.A. Prejean. It was located on St. John Street and had five or six beds, eventually expanding to 84 beds. By the 1950s the facilities were inadequate and […]
Gerald Gerami – Rug Gallery by Gerami’s
Meet Gerald Gerami, owner of Rug Gallery by Gerami’s, who has followed in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his late grandfather, Joseph Patrick Gerami, who opened his first retail establishment in Lafayette in 1920. Gerald Gerami sat down with Jan Swift, host of Discover Lafayette, to share his experience as a successful vendor who has survived […]
Discover Lafayette’s Past: The Heymann Performing Arts Center
Architect A. Hayes Town designed the first municipal auditorium in Lafayette in 1957, under the direction of Mayor Jerome Domengeaux and Herbert Heymann. Their vision was to serve the eight-parish area of South Louisiana we now call Acadiana. Construction on the auditorium was completed in 1960 at 1373 S. College Road. 60 years later, we […]
Steven Picou, Executive Director of Lafayette Regional Airport, Talks About New Terminal Progress, COVID-19 Impact on Travel
Steven Picou, Executive Director of the Lafayette Regional Airport, visits with Jan Swift, Host of Discover Lafayette, to discuss the ongoing progress of construction of Lafayette’s new terminal, as well as the impact the COVID-19 virus on air travel numbers at the airport. A native of Cut Off in Lafourche Parish, Picou graduated from Louisiana […]
Dr. Gary Wagner, UL – Lafayette Economic Professor on How Welcoming and Friendly Lafayette LA is
Dr. Gary Wagner is a guest on Discover Lafayette and discusses how friendly and welcoming the people in Lafayette and South Louisiana are. He joined the faculty of UL – Lafayette in 2018 and is the first to serve as the Acadiana Business Economist Endowed Chair in Economics.