Albany is a town in eastern Livingston Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,088 at the 2010 census and 1,235 in 2020. It is part of the

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

metropolitan statistical area. District 95 State Representative Sherman Q. Mack, an attorney, resides in Albany.

Etymology

It is speculated that the name of the community is derived from the

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

word ''abani'' which means "to cook over a fire" in the

Choctaw language The Choctaw language (Choctaw: ), spoken by the Choctaw, an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, US, is a member of the Muskogean languages, Muskogean language family. Chickasaw language, Chickasaw is a separate but closely related l ...

. After interviewing many of the older residents and comparing their answers it was determined that the community was named after the nearby

Natalbany River The Natalbany River drains into Lake Maurepas in Louisiana in the United States. It is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 8, 2019 Etymology It is specu ...

. During an interview Mrs. George (Mary Addison) Cunningham who was born on November 11, 1884, stated that when the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the Central United States. Its primary routes connected Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, ...

built a line through the town they tried to name the community Natalbany but the railroad and post office refused the name because there was already a community with the same name.

Hungarian Settlement

Historic Hungarian Settlement is in Albany. Between 1896 and 1920 hundreds of Hungarian immigrants settled here and named the community Árpádhon. In 1900, there were eleven families living in the Hungarian Settlement and by 1908 there were about forty Hungarian families on new farms in the area. By 1910, there were sixty-five families. In 1920, there were about two hundred families on farms in the area. The Hungarian name is derived from

Árpád Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or '' kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' g ...

, the leader of the Hungarian tribes and ''-hon'' meaning home. Árpádhon was the largest rural Hungarian settlement in the United States at that time with an estimated 350 Hungarian families living within the community. During the 1930s many of the Hungarian families became strawberry farmers.

Geography

Albany is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 190 and Louisiana Highway 43 and I-12 passes south of the city. The Little Natalbany River flows past the east side of the city and joins the

approximately two miles to the southeast. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 865 people, 371 households, and 234 families residing in the town. By the 2010 census, its population grew to 1,088; in 2020, its population was 1,235.

Cultural and historic sites

* The Hungarian Settlement School is located in Albany and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on August 2, 2001. The old school is home to the Hungarian Settlement Museum and the grand opening was celebrated on September 27, 2017. * In 1909, a twenty-acre church site was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Juhasz and in that same year, Archbishop James Blenk from the Archdiocese of New Orleans approved the official name of St. Margaret Catholic Church * Albany Plantation, which promotes the heritage of the French Cajun culture of Louisiana, sits on 34 acres of land.

Education

Albany is within the Livingston Parish Public Schools system. Schools that serve Albany include: *Albany Lower Elementary School (Louisiana) *Albany Upper Elementary School (Louisiana) *Albany Middle School (Louisiana) * Albany High School

Government

The town has a Mayor and a Board of Aldermen. It is governed by the Lawrason Act, with an elected Chief of Police and a Mayor's Court.

References

External links

Hungarian Settlement Museum

St. Margaret Queen of Scotland Church

Árpádhon Hungarian Settlement Cultural Association
{{authority control Hungarian-American history Towns in Livingston Parish, Louisiana Towns in Louisiana Towns in Baton Rouge metropolitan area