Abbeville is a city in, and the
parish seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
of,
Vermilion Parish
Vermilion Parish (french: Paroisse de Vermillion) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana, created in 1844. The parish seat is Abbeville. Vermilion Parish is part of the Lafayette metropolitan statistical area, and located in southern ...
,
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,
west of
and southwest of
Baton Rouge.
The population was 12,257 at the
2010 census. At the 2020
population estimates program, the population of the city was 11,927.
Abbeville is the principal city of the Abbeville
micropolitan statistical area, which includes all of Vermilion Parish. It is also part of the
Lafayette metropolitan statistical area and the larger
Lafayette
Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to:
People
* Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette
* House of La Fayette, a French noble family
** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757â ...
–
Acadiana combined statistical area
Combined statistical area (CSA) is a United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) term for a combination of adjacent metropolitan (MSA) and micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) across the 50 US states and the territory of Puerto Ric ...
.
History
Formerly called La Chapelle, the land that became Abbeville was purchased by founding father Père Antoine Désiré Mégret (Père is
French for 'Father'), a
Capuchin missionary on July 25, 1843 for $900. There are two theories how the town was named. The theory that is generally accepted is MĂ©gret named the town after his
home in France. The second theory which also cannot be discounted states that it is a combination of "Abbe" for Abbé Mégret and "ville" the French word for town – thus Abbé's town. Some support for the second theory is found because the town in France is pronounced "Abbville" by its denizens. However, in 1995, Fr. Jean Desobry discovered the diocesan archives of
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
the proof of Mégret's birthplace. In the archive, the dossier of Fr. Antoine Jacques Désiré Mégret was found, and that he was born on May 23, 1797, at Abbeville and became founder of Abbeville in Louisiana.
Dr Mary-Theresa MacCarthy wrote in her article ''Un Autre Abbeville'' in the 1996 edition of Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie (translation by Father Herbert),
On February 12, 1844, the pastor gave to his American town the name of the town of his birth. Residents find this name especially fitting because of the French word abbé which means father r priestadded to the French word ville hich means town Their Abbeville is truly la ville de l'abbé he priest's town
Settlers were primarily descendants of the
Acadians from
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
that moved to the area around 1766 to 1775. The town was incorporated in 1850.
[
There were two people living on the land at the time, Joseph LeBlanc and his wife Isabelle Broussard, whose former home Father Megret converted into a chapel. The chapel burned in 1854, and in 1910 St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church, Rectory were built, its and cemetery established, and still stand today.
Father Megret modeled his original plan for the village after a French Provincial village. In a map he designed in 1846, the town was 38 to in size. It was bounded on the north by St. Victor Boulevard, on the south by Lafayette Boulevard, on the east by "the Sisters of Charity", and on the west by ]Bayou Vermilion
The Vermilion River (or the Bayou Vermilion, french: Rivière Vermilion) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 bayou in southern Louisiana in the United Sta ...
. At this point in time the town was called "Abbville".
The center of downtown is Magdalen Square, which is accented by large oak trees, a fountain, and gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands.
Etymology
The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries is "Mid 18th c ...
. A statue in memory of Father Megret stands in the square. In 1856, the Last Island Hurricane destroyed every building in the town.
Geography
Abbeville is located at and has an elevation of . According to the United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...
, the town has a total area of , of which is land and (0.53%) is water. Abbeville is located near the southern terminus of U.S. Highway 167. Abbeville Chris Crusta Memorial Airport is in the eastern part of the city. The Vermilion River runs through downtown, and several canals and coulees run through other parts of Abbeville.
Climate
Demographics
According to the 2000 U.S. census
The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 cen ...
, there were 11,887 people, 4,698 households, and 3,014 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 5,257 housing units at an average density of . At the 2020 population estimates program, 11,927 people lived in the city. By the publication of the 2020 United States census
The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...
, there were 11,186 people, 4,761 households, and 2,752 families residing in the city.
In 2000, the racial and ethnic makeup was 54.29% White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
, 38.56% African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.19% Native American, 5.50% Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, 0.39% other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 1.06% two or more races. Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
or Latino Americans
Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify as ...
of any race were 1.93% of the population. In 2000, 76.0% of the population over the age of five spoke English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
at home, 16.5% of the population spoke French or Cajun
The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana.
While Cajuns are usually described as ...
, and 5.5% spoke Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
. The 2019 American Community Survey estimated the racial and ethnic makeup was 49.6% non-Hispanic white, 42.8% African American, 0.5% Native American, 4.8% Asian, 0.9% some other race, and 1.3% two or more races.
The 2010 U.S. census
The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving ...
reported there were 4,698 households, of which 60.34% had children under the age of 18 present, 33.35% were married couples living together, 24.44% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.72% were non-families; 31.55% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.32% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.20.
In 2019, the median household income was $38,900. Males had a median income of $46,182 versus $37,958 for females; approximately 30.4% of the population lived at or below the poverty line.
Economy
Abbeville is an agricultural trade and processing center for rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...
, sugarcane, dairy products, locally sold corn, cotton, and seafood, in particular crawfish, alligator
An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...
, and crab.[ The ]oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
and natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
fields off the coast in the Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de MĂ©xico) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
are serviced by companies throughout the region including Abbeville.[ Chemical products and consumer goods are manufactured locally.][ A related tourist attraction is a large open-kettle sugarcane syrup mill.]
Education
The city of Abbeville is served by the Vermilion Parish School District. The following are public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Ă–ffentlichk ...
and parochial schools
A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The wor ...
in Abbeville:
* Elementary Schools
** Eaton Park Elementary
** Herod Elementary
** Mount Carmel Elementary School (Parochial) (Grades PK–8)
* Middle Schools
** J.H. Williams Middle School
* High Schools
** Abbeville High School
** Vermilion Catholic High School (Parochial)
** Lighthouse Christian Prep. (Parochial)
** James A. Herod High School and Elementary School (Was founded by Reverend James A. Herod for the education of the black population of Vermilion Parish with grades first thru twelfth, he was also a teacher)
Recreation
Abbeville is home to several festivals:
* Daylily Festival and Garden Show
* Giant Omelette Celebration
* Les Lumieres du Village d'Abbeville
* Louisiana Cattle Festival
* Vermilion Carousel of Arts
The Abbey Players' Theater is a prominent local playhouse in Abbeville. The Acadian Museum is east of the city in nearby Erath, Louisiana
Erath is a town in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,114 at the 2010 census, and 2,030 at the 2020 population estimates program. It is part of the Abbeville micropolitan statistical area.
History
Erath is named a ...
. Avery Island
Avery Island (historically french: ĂŽle Petite Anse) is a salt dome best known as the source of Tabasco sauce. Located in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, United States, it is approximately inland from Vermilion Bay, which in turn opens onto the Gulf ...
, which contains a bird sanctuary, salt dome
A salt dome is a type of structural dome formed when salt (or other evaporite minerals) intrudes into overlying rocks in a process known as diapirism. Salt domes can have unique surface and subsurface structures, and they can be discovered usin ...
, and world-famous Tabasco factory is 15 miles southeast of the city.[
]
Historic buildings
Abbeville is the home of numerous historic buildings that have been added periodically to the National Historic Register
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. Starting in 1987, the Abbeville Commercial Historic District, in the area surrounded by Concord, State, Lafayette, and Jefferson Streets, was added to the register. That same year, the Abbeville Residential Historic District was created between W. Oak, State, Cherry, and the Vermilion River. St. Mary Magdalen Church, Rectory, and the Cemetery were added the following year. In the 1990s, the Ovide Broussard House, Chauviere House, Gordy House, Lyons House, and the Caldwell House were all added, in addition to the Downtown Abbeville Historic District, which is bounded by State, 1st, Pere Megret, and Concord St and the Vermilion Bayou
The Vermilion River (or the Bayou Vermilion, french: Rivière Vermilion) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 bayou in southern Louisiana in the United Sta ...
. Finally, just before the turn of the century, the Richard Cattle Auction Barn
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
and the St. Mary Congregational Church were both added. North of Abbeville, A La Bonne Veillee was added in 1984.
National Guard
Abbeville is the home of HHC (headquarters company), 2nd Battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...
, 156th Infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...
(mech.), of the Louisiana Army National Guard. The 2nd Battalion served with the 256th Infantry Brigade ("The Tiger Brigade") during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004–2005.
Transportation
The Louisiana & Delta Railroad has a route through the city, which helped bring freight produced locally to market.
The Freshwater Bayou Deepwater Channel connects Abbeville to the Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de MĂ©xico) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
,[ and the ]Intracoastal Waterway
The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following t ...
runs south of the city.[
]
Films
The 1988 remake of the 1958 film ''The Blob
''The Blob'' is a 1958 American science fiction horror film directed by Irvin Yeaworth, and written by Kay Linaker and Theodore Simonson. It stars Steve McQueen (in his first feature film leading role) and Aneta Corsaut and co-stars Earl Rowe ...
'' was filmed in Abbeville.
Part of Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including comedies and Spaghetti Westerns, he ga ...
's Door to Silence
''Door to Silence'' (Italian: ''Le porte del silenzio''), also known as ''Door Into Silence'', is a 1992 Italian horror film written and directed by Lucio Fulci and produced by Joe D'Amato. It stars John Savage. This was the last film directed ...
takes place in Abbeville.
Robert J. Flaherty
Robert Joseph Flaherty, (; February 16, 1884 – July 23, 1951) was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, '' Nanook of the North'' (1922). The film made his reputati ...
chose Abbeville in 1948 as his base of operations during the filming of ''Louisiana Story
''Louisiana Story'' is a 1948 American black-and-white drama film directed by Robert J. Flaherty. Although it has historically been represented as a documentary film, the events and characters depicted are fictional and the film was commissioned ...
''. He rented a house in the current downtown area for 15 months over 1946–47.
Abbeville is one of the main locations in the first season of the HBO TV series ''True Detective
''True Detective'' is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto. The series, broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States, premiered on January 12, 2014. Each season of the ...
''.
Notable people
* George A. Caldwell (1892–1966), building contractor convicted in the Louisiana Hayride scandals of 1939-1940; born in Abbeville.
* Bobby Duhon, (born 1946), professional American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
player.
* Bobby Charles Guidry (1938–2010), songwriter and musician, wrote ''See You Later Alligator'' & ''Walking to New Orleans''; born in Abbeville.
* Sammy Kershaw
Samuel Paul Kershaw (born February 24, 1958) is an American country music artist. He has released 16 studio albums, with three RIAA platinum certifications and two gold certifications among them. More than 25 singles have entered the Top 40 on the ...
, (born 1958), a country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
artist, born in nearby Kaplan, resides in Abbeville.
* Dudley J. LeBlanc, (1894–1971), businessman and politician who made a fortune in the 1950s in the patent medicine
A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...
Hadacol
Hadacol was a patent medicine marketed as a vitamin supplement. Its principal attraction, however, was that it contained 12 percent alcohol (listed on the tonic bottle's label as a "preservative"), which made it quite popular in the dry counties ...
, lived most of his life and died in Abbeville.
* Anthony Levine
Anthony Levine Sr. (born March 27, 1987), nicknamed "Co-Cap", is a former American football strong safety who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the Baltimore Ravens. He played college football at Tenness ...
, (born 1987), professional American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
player; born in Abbeville.
* Gerald Long, (born 1944), state senator from Natchitoches; formerly resided in Abbevill
* Brandon Mitchell, (born 1975), former professional American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
player; born in Abbeville.
* George Petty
George Brown Petty IV (April 27, 1894 – July 21, 1975) was an American pin-up artist. His pin-up art appeared primarily in ''Esquire'' and Fawcett Publications's ''True'' but was also in calendars marketed by ''Esquire'', ''True'' and Ridgid T ...
(1894–1975), pin-up
A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model whose mass-produced pictures see widespread appeal as part of popular culture. Pin-up models were variously glamour models, fashion models ...
artist; born in Abbeville.
* Deb Richard
Deb Richard (born June 13, 1963) is an American former professional golfer who was a member of the LPGA Tour for twenty years during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
Amateur career
Richard was born in Abbeville, Louisiana in 1963, and raised in ...
, (born 1963), golfer, winner of five LPGA Tour
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of week ...
tournaments.
* Sam H. Theriot (born 1954), member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1979 to 1996; former Vermilion Parish clerk of court; educator and Abbeville native.
* Koryn Hawthorne
Koryn Mattanah Hawthorne (born December 26, 1997) is an American contemporary Christian music and gospel singer. Hawthorne was a finalist in season 8 of NBC's singing competition ''The Voice'', at the age of 17, as a member on Pharrell Willia ...
(born 1997), contestant and finalist on the season 8 of ''The Voice''
Footnotes
References
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External links
City of Abbeville, Louisiana
{{authority control
Cities in Louisiana
Cities in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana
Acadiana
A
Populated places established in 1843
1843 establishments in Louisiana
Cities in Lafayette, Louisiana metropolitan area