Pumpkin Center is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Tangipahoa Parish Tangipahoa Parish (; French: ''Paroisse de Tangipahoa'') is a parish located in the southeast corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 121,097. The parish seat is Amite City, while the largest city is ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, United States. Pumpkin Center is located on

U.S. Route 190 U.S. Route 190 (US 190) is an east–west United States Highway in Louisiana and Texas. Segments of US 190 will be upgraded to Interstate 14 (I-14); the first segment was opened on January 26, 2017. Route description , - , TX , , - , ...

, west of Hammond.

Name origin

In the late 1800s a popular

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

comedy show called "Tales of Pun'kin Centre" was distributed as a

phonograph record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

and later broadcast over radio featuring a monologue by a fictional character named Uncle Josh Weathersby. The character resided in a fictional farming town called "Pun'kin Center." The village had no name at that time and some of the young men formed a baseball team to compete with the surrounding Hammond,

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

and Albany teams. The team members named themselves the "Pumpkin Center" baseball team. Over time the residents of the surrounding cities and villages began referring to the area as Pumpkin Center and the name stuck.

References

Unincorporated communities in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Unincorporated communities in Louisiana {{Louisiana-geo-stub