Yandle House

The Yandle house was moved from downtown to Elmhurst Park neighborhood in 1911. Mr. Yandle arrived in south Louisiana in 1898 from Kansas City, Missouri. He worked for a company that sold horses and mules to the wave of Northern and Midwestern rice farmers migrating to Southwest Louisiana at that time. Yandle arrived with the animals on railroad cars, and after selling them decided to stay in Lafayette. He wrote home, sending for his childhood sweetheart, Rosemarie Mattie Metscher, to join him and become his wife. The young couple first set up a tent on Jefferson Street where they made and sold cakes and candies. When their business increased, they moved into a building at 419 Jefferson Street. Their business expanded to become a popular confectionery and ice cream parlor. In 1911, the Yandles moved their Jefferson Street house from the candy shop location to the 200 Cherry Street location in Elmhurst Park. Stained glass windows on the second floor come from the wooden Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church, demolished in 1911 to make way for the brick Cathedral. The Yandle family resided in the house in Elmhurst Park for approximately 40 years. After several subsequent owners and years of decline, the house was purchased and restored in 1988 by Mr. Cary Menard and his wife, Lucille Saucier Menard.