Mardi Gras Museum lays blueprint for Lake Charles return

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - The Mardi Gras Museum of Imperial Calcasieu will be making a return to the Lake Area.

Mardi Gras has a huge cultural impact in Southwest Louisiana.

“It is for all the krewes and everybody, all the citizens of Imperial Calcasieu. It’s going to have costumes, history and it’s so important we preserve this because as time goes by, it seems to be lost,” museum founder Anne Monlezun said.

Since 1998, that culture had a place to be on display inside the Central School Arts & Humanities Center.

That’s until Hurricane Laura. Following the storms, a $1.6 million grant was awarded to build a new museum.

“Enterprise Boulevard was a major site for the citizens of Lake Charles with all types of things on this beautiful street,” Monlezun said.

Now the display will be coming back as the Mardi Gras Museum of Imperial Calcasieu will have a new location on Enterprise Boulevard right in the heart of the Nellie Lutcher Cultural District.

It’s an area of Lake Charles many are hoping to revitalize.

“A few years ago this would have been unheard of,” Councilwoman Luvertha August said. “Now we have different minds, different thoughts, different ideas, and different energy to make sure some of the things that we’ve been talking about for years are now going to come to fruition.”

August said Enterprise Boulevard was once full of excitement and business was booming when she was growing up.

“Movie theater, restaurants, nightclubs, professional offices, grocery stores, bakery shops,” August said.

She hopes the new museum brings some excitement back to the area.

“I think it’s going to draw more and more entities here because I really believe in the motto ‘build it and they will come’,” she said.

The contents of the museum are being kept in storage until they will be on display once again in the new building. There is no date set for construction but plans are in the works with an architect.

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