St. Francisville, Louisiana

St. Francisville is a town in and the parish seat of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,712 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography
St. Francisville is located at 30.78472°N, -91.38056°W.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km²), all land.

History
The town of St. Francisville was established in 1809 and a number of historic structures from that period still exist. Called the town "two miles long and two yards wide" because it was developed atop a narrow ridge overlooking the Mississippi River, it was the commercial and cultural center of the surrounding plantation country. Below St. Francisville's bluffs, another early settlement called Bayou Sara had been established in the early 1790s and was at one time before the Civil War the largest shipping port on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Memphis. Destroyed by repeated flooding and fires, nothing exists of Bayou Sara today, but a few of its structures were hauled up the hill into St. Francisville in the 1920s.

Years of contention as to exactly where the eastern boundary of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase was, depending on which treaty was cited as France and England and Spain shifted the territory among themselves, allowed Spain to continue to claim St. Francisville and territory on the eastern side of the Mississippi River which is today called the Florida Parishes. In 1810 St. Francisville served as the capital of the Republic of West Florida as the local planters ousted the Spanish government and set up their own independent republic for a grand total of 74 days before being annexed to the rest of Louisiana as part of the United States.

After the American Civil War, a number of Jewish immigrants escaping religious persecution in Germany arrived and made important contributions to commerce in the lean years, providing credit when the banks failed, building impressive Victorian homes like the Wolf-Schlessinger House, now operated as the St. Francisville Inn B&B.

In recent years, community efforts have focused on restoration and preservation of the town's historic homes. St. Francisville is currently a popular tourism destination with a number of restored historic plantations open daily for tours, including Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site, Audubon State Historic Site, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles, The Cottage Plantation and Greenwood Plantation, as well as several antebellum gardens.

In May 2011, parts of Saint Francisville flooded in the 2011 Mississippi River floods.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,712 people, 693 households, and 456 families residing in the town. The population density was 936.9 people per square mile (361.2/km²). There were 783 housing units at an average density of 428.5 per square mile (165.2/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 71.03% White, 27.22% African American, 0.29% Native American, 0.53% Asian, 0.06% from other races, and 0.88% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.93% of the population.

There were 693 households out of which 34.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.6% were married couples living together, 17.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.1% were non-families. 30.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.04.

In the town the population was spread out with 27.3% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 22.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $42,262, and the median income for a family was $54,333. Males had a median income of $41,563 versus $25,083 for females. The per capita income for the town was $21,639. About 5.8% of families and 8.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.2% of those under the age of 18 and 12.4% of those 65 and older.

Government and infrastructure
The United States Postal Service operates the St. Francisville Post Office.

Notable people

 * Chris Broadwater, current District 86 state representative, was born in St. Francisville in 1972.
 * Herschel F. Harrington American artist and impressionist painter
 * Billy Cannon (born 1937), former LSU football great and dentist in St. Francisville
 * Kenny Havard (born c. 1971), current District 62 state representative from East and West Feliciana parishes and part of East Baton Rouge Parish
 * Samuel Lawrason (1852–1924), state senator who authored the Lawrason Act regarding municipal government, practiced law in St. Francisville from 1875 until his death.
 * Tom McVea (born 1945), state representative, 1980-1984 and 2000-2012, resident of St. Francisville.
 * Christian Mixon, American film and television actor was reared near St. Francisville
 * John Rarick (1924–2009), former state district judge and U.S. Representative lived most of his adult years in St. Francisville.
 * Kenny W. Simmons, St. Francisville chief of police from 1983 to 2003 who was instrumental in the apprehension of Baton Rouge serial killer Derrick Todd Lee

Education
West Feliciana Parish Public Schools serves the city. All of the public schools in the parish are located in unincorporated areas.
 * West Feliciana High School
 * West Feliciana Middle School
 * 2nd Grade-5th Grade: Bains Elementary School
 * Preschool-1st Grade: Bains Lower Elementary

Julius Freyhan High School, the first public school in St. Francisville, was named after Jewish businessperson Julius Freyhan. After his 1904 death, Freyhan bequeathed $8,000 (about $ in today's currency) to have it built. Freyhan High was built in 1907. The school was later rebuilt and renamed after him and it served the community until the early 1950s. As of 2013 it is being restored to serve as a community center and a museum.

The West Feliciana Parish Library is located in St. Francisville. In 1996 the library moved into its current facility, a former U.S. post office at 11865 Ferdinand Street. The library, previously a part of the Audubon Regional Library System, became independent in January 2004.