![]() Rather than succumb to those economic challenges, the village gradually evolved into a new chapter: a quieter, more creative one. The rise in the popularity of automobiles also contributed to a fall in tourism to Abita Springs, which had depended on traffic from nearby towns via the East Louisiana Railroad. Tourism to Abita Springs declined with the end of New Orleans’ yellow fever epidemic and subsequently, the health tourism fad on the Northshore. My husband Julien and I recently enjoyed a quick twenty-four-hour stay at the Abita Springs Hotel-which is positioned strategically on Ann O’Brien Lane and the Tammany Trace Bike Trail, just across the town’s central roundabout.īesides a collection of Airbnbs, today the five-room boutique hotel is the only official overnight accommodation in a town that-during the height of its reputation during the early twentieth century as a health resort-once hosted around two thousand visitors every summer. In Abita Springs, the name means something specific: it points to things locally-owned and inspired, to a coordinated effort to develop community, and to the conscious curation of a specific “Abita” experience. In a small town like this one (population 2,500), a name functions differently than those of larger cities, such as the conspicuous metropolis across the lake. Strolling around the picturesque, endearingly-walkable historic district, the name also lends the neighborhood a delightful sense of harmony. It’s entrenched in myth, evocative of historical luxury, drenched with charm, and now associated with a popular regional product, to boot. The Town of Abita Springs has a great name. In the twenty-first century though, we’ve got this thing called branding. Shakespeare proposed that there was very little-roses and Romeos being what they were, regardless of what we called them.
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