Tangipahoa

Formed March 6, 1869 (51^st parish)

Tangipahoa Parish (133,149), Amite City (4,010), Hammond (19,622)

A Modern concrete and masonry building was built in 1967 to serve Tangipahoa Parish.  The structure is located on Bay Street at Mulberry Street.  United States Highway 51 is three blocks west and Louisiana State Highway 16 is one block south of the site.  Desmond Miremont & Associates and J. C. Kersten & Associates are the courthouse designers.  Amite City has been the only parish seat.  There were earlier versions in Amite from 1883 and 1908.  Tangipahoa Parish was created on March 6, 1869 as the 51^st parish.  The parish was originally part of St. Helena Parish.  The parish name is a local Native American tribe whose name is a derivative of the Choctaw word for “corn.”  The parish seat gets its name for a derivative of the French word for the “amiable” Native Americans found in the area.  Tangipahoa Parish was the birthplace of 1 Louisiana Governor, John B. Edwards. 

Tangipahoa Parish government consists of a President, a sheriff, a clerk, a treasurer, and a coroner (executive).  It has 10 Council Members (legislative.)  Nine District Court Judges serve Tangipahoa, Livingston, and Saint Helena parishes and Seven Justice Court Judges serve Tangipahoa Parish (judicial.) The parish is in southeast Louisiana sharing its northern border with Mississippi.  Lake Pontchartrain is on the south and New Orleans, Louisiana lies across the lake.  Baton Rouge is west of the parish.  The parish center is 15.3 miles Southeast of Amite City nearer Loranger.  The parish is surrounded clockwise by Mississippi and Washington, St. Tammany, Jefferson, St. John the Baptist, Livingston, and St. Helena parishes. 

The area of the parish is 823 square miles.  It is 22 out of 64 in the state.  It ranks 10 out of 64 in population in the state.  It has a density of 161.8 persons per square mile making it 11 out of 64 in the state.  Tangipahoa Parish has 27.9% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 12 crosses from east to west, St. Tammany Parish to Livingston Parish.  Interstate Highway 55 enters from Mississippi, on the north, and exits into St. John the Baptist Parish, to the south.  United States Highway 51 parallels Interstate Highway 55 from Mississippi to St. John the Baptist Parish.  United States Highway 190 parallels Interstate Highway 12 from St. Tammany Parish to Livingston Parish.  The parish is shaped like a long rectangle bending toward the southeast.  Amite is in the northern half of the parish very near the western border.  Hammond is located in the southern third of the parish.  Amite is the parish seat and Hammond is the largest city.  Amite is 3.4% of the parish population while Hammond is 16.5% of the parish population.  The parish is pronounced TANG-I-PA-HOE-A.  The parish seat is pronounced A-MEE.  This parish is in the Hammond Micropolitan Statistical Area.