by The state of Louisiana has an online map and guide to scenic roads and historic towns. It’s called Trails and Byways of Louisiana. I discovered it when I was searching for some history of Morgan City. It turns out that my forays into small towns south of Lafayette, where I am staying, were actually on this map listed as the “Bayou Teche Byway”.
I noticed that just to the north of Lafayette was a byway called the “Zydeco Cajun Prairie Byway” and one town listed on it was called Washington. The brief description of Washington stated that 80% of the town’s buildings were historic landmarks and that Washington was once the largest inland port north of New Orleans.
That sounded great! Just the type of place I was looking for. Historic–yes–but probably now with an almost empty old downtown, as small local businesses closed under pressure from Walmart and other Big Box stores. So what were the locals doing with the old buildings? Selling antiques and serving lunch to tourists as they were in Breaux Bridge? Or something else? Or was it on the verge of vanishing off the map?
964 peeps so not gone yet
The first thing I noticed as I drove into Washington is that there are actually natural hills in this town. Not big hills but streets go up and they go down–unlike almost every town south of Lafayette where all is flat, flatter and flattest.
The second thing I realized is that Washington is tiny. The population today is only 964.
And then…well, let’s do the math: if a town has 5 historic buildings (and not much else) then 4 buildings designated as “historic” equals 80%. And when I got to Washington I had trouble finding 5 historic buildings–buildings that looked permanent and as if they had a public use, rather than private homes.
3 buildings that look historic in Washington
The historic town hall, above, is still being used for the police and other town services. Adjoining it is another, smaller brick building, a museum/tourist center. They both look as if the were built to last.
A couple of blocks away I found a third building that gave the appearance of being historic. It was. This historic warehouse was a center for the steamboat trade that once plied the Bayou Courtableau, taking cattle, sugar and other goods for sale in New Orleans. Today this warehouse is a restaurant/events center. A bridal shower was underway when I went inside.
The Courtableau bayou, like all waterways in Louisiana in June of 2019, was at or above flood stage. 12 inches of rainfall in 24 hours just a few days earlier only made it worse. No steamboats here. They are now in New Orleans hauling tourists on short excursions on the Mississippi.
Back to “downtown”which turned out to be fewer than a dozen buildings. The old building, above, is definitely not listed on any historic register. It isn’t even an antique store anymore. There was one antique store across the street that’s still in business and a restaurant that probably serves more locals than tourists.
Now to be fair, as I was writing this I Googled Washington, Louisiana and found the town website with a list of historic sites. Many are private homes. (That was also when I learned that the population was only 964. Maybe my expectations had been too high.)
Another Cajun town not as small
So on to another stop on the official Louisiana Zydeco Cajun Prairie Byway–the much larger town of Ville Platte, population 7,166. It was disappointing EXCEPT for one beautifully executed mural on the side of an old building. It is entitled “Louisiana Bayou” by the artist Waven Boone.
I was so frustrated at this point that I drove straight back to Lafayette, skipping the still larger town of Opelousas. A few days later I drove back to Opelousas where zydeco king Clifton Chenier was born and hand-painted art fiddles are everywhere. See the post about that here. But I plan to continue to explore small towns as I make my way across the U. S. and back.
“Lil Buck” Sinegal, a famed blues guitarist and native of Lafayette passed away last week. Listen to him play in a local bar, the Blue Moon Saloon, here.
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