Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, located along the Vermilion River in the southwestern part of the state. The city of Lafayette is the fourth-largest in the state, with a population of 126,143 according to 2018 U.S. Census estimates. It is the principal city of the Lafayette, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, with a 2015 estimated population of 490,488. The larger trade area or Combined Statistical Area of Lafayette-Opelousas-Morgan City CSA was 627,146 in 2015. Its nickname is The Hub City.
Acadian Village is located on the 32 acres (130,000m2) of LARC (Lafayette Association for Retarded Citizens). In the early 1970s, officials with the facility were looking for an opportunity to improve tourism in Lafayette, Louisiana. However, the idea was to serve a dual purpose: to generate revenue for the facility and to serve as an employment opportunity for those persons with developmental disabilities that were fully capable of working. Dr. Norman Heard, Bob Lowe and Glen Conrad are credited with the idea, which soon after became a reality. Of course, the visionary team wanted to use authentic homes. Most of the homes that are on the Village grounds had long been abandoned and were being used for hay storage or just not used at all. Families were immediately contacted, and the negotiations began. In some cases, grants were used for the purchase and movement, and in some cases the houses were free - only the cost of moving them was incurred.
In order to recreate a typical 1800s Cajun village, the design team would have to transform 10 acres (40,000m2) of farmland into a shaded-lived in community with a waterway running through it. The massive undertaking of transforming the property from farm land, dredging of bayous, building paths and footbridges was performed by C Company of the 245th USAR Combat Engineers commanded by Captain Patrick Burke working with Jacques Privat. U.S. Army Reservists Once this was done then local carpenters, businessmen, civic organizations and community volunteers became involved. The end result was a moment captured in time. Perhaps the 1978 Village Director Mrs. Marti Gutierrez said it best in a Times Picayune special section "The old ways are worth keeping alive, worth handing down, worth remembering." [citation needed]
Seven of the 11 buildings are authentic homes of the 19th century donated by the families whose ancestors once occupied them. All homes show the passing of time and are remarkable examples of the ingenuity of the early Acadian homebuilders, complete with wooden pegs, mud walls, hand-hewn cypress timbers and high-peaked roofs. Each was moved piece by piece and carefully restored.[1]
Today, the Acadian Village has served as the backdrop for many Cajun festivals, weddings, special events, corporate functions, Noel Acadien auVillage (Christmas Lighting Program) and the best example around of 19th-century Cajun lifestyle.[2]
Art Gallery
The "Art Gallery" as it is known today, was once the private home of Dr. Hypolite Salles, the first resident dentist in Lafayette, Louisiana. If the name sounds familiar, he also owned the "Doctor's Museum," located next door to the Art Gallery in Acadian Village. Just as it is set up today, is the way the good doctor practiced in the late 1890s.
Today, the Art Gallery houses some of the finest examples of southwest Louisiana landscape paintings, stills, florals and much more from Acadian Village Resident Artists, who can be found throughout regular business hours. Often, the resident artists will be working on original paintings in the Art Gallery. All items in the Art Gallery are original art works and are for sale.[3]
Blacksmith
There is a replica of a blacksmith shop, built on site with weather-beaten, aged cypress boards. The blacksmith was a very important person in a community; he was the one who made tools, horseshoes, nails, hinges, etc., out of iron.
The anvil, forge and bellows are much like those used long ago. The tongs, pincers, hammers, etc. on the wall are part of the smitty's collection. Also scattered about are tools that have been the mainstay of farmers throughout the years here in the southwest prairies.[4]
The Houses
The Thibodeaux House was constructed of cypress, the "wood eternal," that is rot and insect resistant. Each pre-cut beam and post was marked with Roman numerals for ease in assembling. The house dates to c. 1820 and came to the Village from the Breaux Bridge, Louisiana area. The small rear "cabinet" room, the daughter's room, was accessible only through the parent's room. The boys slept in the attic/loft or "garconnier," reached by way of an outside staircase.[5]
Constructed in St. Martinville, Louisiana the Bernard House is the oldest structure in the Village. The section on the left was built first (c. 1800) while that on the right is an addition, (1840). Upon entry into the addition one will see a large painting of the exile of the Acadians from Nova Scotia (Canada) in 1755. The painting in the small rear room depicts their arrival and settling along the bayous of Louisiana in 1764–1765. These paintings were painted by Louisiana artist Robert Dafford and was commissioned by one of the Acadian Village founders, Bob Lowe. The oldest section of the home contains an exhibit on Cajun music. Here, also, is the best example of the type of insulation used within the homes. It is called bousillage entre poteaux (mud between posts).
The Billeaud House comes from the Billeaud Sugar Plantation in Broussard, Louisiana; it was built prior to the Civil War. Today it is used as a spinning and weaving cottage. One of the looms is an original being 150 years old. The other is a replica, built locally by 72-year-old Mr. Whitney Breaux for the Bicentennial. Homespun blankets and clothes were woven from white cotton, native to Louisiana, and brown cotton introduced from Mexico to the Acadians by the Spaniards.
The Castille House was built for Dorsene Castille (c. 1860) in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana by a European of whom little is known except that it took him over a year to complete since he did the entire job by himself. During the Civil War the house was pillaged by Yankee soldiers, but somehow survived the ravages of time. The cypress mantels in the home are of interest. Each has a carved emblem on the front. The outside figure looks like a Christian fish and symbolizes a long and happy life; the center emblem looks like a rosette and is called progression. It signifies a large and prosperous family.
Built between 1821 and 1856 near Youngsville, Louisiana, the LeBlanc house is the birthplace of Acadian Senator Dudley J. LeBlanc. Cajun politician and entrepreneur Dudley J. "Couzin Dud" LeBlanc was born on August 16, 1894. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute, and during World War I served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army. In 1924 LeBlanc was elected a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and in 1926 became Public Service Commissioner. He served as state senator from 1940 to 1944, 1948 to 1952, and in 1964.
The St. John house dates to c. 1840 and was donated to the Village by a local dentist. It was located on St. John Street near downtown Lafayette - thus its name. It was built of salvaged cypress timbers from another building. The house is currently being used as a schoolhouse. Among the desks is a three-seater which came to the Village from an old schoolhouse near Sunset, Louisiana. Old books, inkwells, lunch pails and the wooden stove round out the exhibit.
Noël Acadien au Village
Acadian Village comes alive the first three weeks of December for Noël Acadien au Village. Entertainment includes area musicians, choirs, choruses, bands and much more. Every night kids of all ages can have their photo taken with Santa - and receive it on the spot for a nominal charge.
Christmas Depot, the New Orleans Company responsible for lighting the entire Village, said that it takes 10–12 people, nearly 2,000 man-hours, to complete the job. Tim Fitzpatrick of Christmas Depot starts in September strategizing for the massive undertaking. They'll come back in October and November to actually light the Village. By mid-November, the job is pretty much done - just a few nips and tucks.[6]
The Cajuns, also known as Acadians, are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and in the Canadian maritimes provinces as well as Québec consisting in part of the descendants of the original Acadian exiles—French-speakers from Acadia (L'Acadie) in what are now the Maritimes of Eastern Canada. In Louisiana, Acadian and Cajun are often used as broad cultural terms without reference to actual descent from the deported Acadians. Historically, Louisianians of Acadian descent were also considered to be Louisiana Creoles, although Cajun and Creole are often portrayed as separate identities today. The Cajuns make up a significant portion of south Louisiana's population and have had an enormous impact on the state's culture.
Breaux Bridge is a small city in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population is 8,139 as of the 2010 census, up from 7,281 in 2000. It is part of the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.
St. Martinville is a city in, and the parish seat of, St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on Bayou Teche, sixteen miles south of Breaux Bridge, eighteen miles southeast of Lafayette, and nine miles north of New Iberia. The population was 6,114 at the 2010 census, down from 6,989 in 2000. It is part of the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Acadiana is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that was historically home to the state's Francophone population, the Acadians and Cajuns. Many are of Acadian descent and are now identified as Cajun. Of the 64 parishes that make up the U.S. state of Louisiana, 22 named parishes and other parishes of similar cultural environment make up this intrastate region.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is a public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus University of Louisiana System and has the second largest enrollment in Louisiana. As a nod to the Acadian French heritage of many of its students, the school sometimes uses the alternate name l'Université des Acadiens.
George Rodrigue was an American artist originally from New Iberia, Louisiana, who in the late 1960s began painting Louisiana landscapes, followed soon after by outdoor family gatherings and southwest Louisiana 19th-century and early 20th-century genre scenes. His paintings often include moss-clad oak trees, which are common to an area of French Louisiana known as Acadiana. In the mid-1990s Rodrigue's Blue Dog paintings, based on a Cajun legend called loup-garou, catapulted him to worldwide fame.
Floyd Sonnier, known as "beau Cajun" or the "artist of the Cajuns," was a native of Pointe Noire, Louisiana and a lifelong resident of Louisiana's Acadiana region. An internationally acclaimed pen-and-ink artist, he specialized in drawings depicting Cajun culture, lifestyle and family, particularly scenes from the first half of the 20th century. In 1961 Sonnier graduated in commercial art from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then called the University of Southwestern Louisiana, after serving two years in the U.S. Army.
Barry Jean Ancelet is a Cajun folklorist and expert in Cajun music and Cajun French. He has written several books, and under the pseudonym Jean Arceneaux he has written Cajun French poetry and lyrics to Cajun French songs.
-eaux is the standard French language plural form of nouns ending in -eau, e.g. eau → eaux, château → châteaux, gâteau → gâteaux.
Milton is a census-designated places in Lafayette Parish, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Milton is part of the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Joseph Falcon was a Cajun accordion player in southwest Louisiana, best known for the first recording of a Cajun song; "Allons à Lafayette" in 1928. He and his wife Cléoma Breaux left for New Orleans to record the first Cajun record and went on to perform across southern Louisiana and Texas.
The Cajun French Music Association is an association dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Cajun music and culture.
Cajun music has its roots based in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada, and in country music.
Bayou des Cannes is a waterway in the Mermentau River basin of southern Louisiana. The bayou is 66 miles (106 km) long and is navigable near the shallow-draft port at the mouth.
Billeaud is an unincorporated community in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States.
Louisiana French refers to the complex of dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louisiana French is primarily used in the U.S. state of Louisiana, specifically in the southern parishes, though substantial minorities exist in southeast Texas as well. Over the centuries, the language has incorporated some words of African, Spanish, Native American and English origin, sometimes giving it linguistic features found only in Louisiana, Louisiana French differs to varying extents from French dialects spoken in other regions, but Louisiana French is mutually intelligible with all other dialects and particularly with those of Missouri, New England, Canada and northwestern France. Many famous books, such as Les Cenelles, a poetry anthology compiled by a group of gens de couleur libres, and Pouponne et Balthazar, a novel written by French Creole Sidonie de la Houssaye, are in standard French. It is a misconception that no one in Louisiana spoke or wrote Standard French. Figures from the United States Census record that roughly 3.5% of Louisianans over the age of 5 report speaking French or a French-based creole at home. Distribution of these speakers is uneven, however, with the majority residing in the south-central region known as Acadiana. Some of the Acadiana parishes register francophone populations of 10% or more of the total, with a select few exceeding 15%.
Cajun fiddle music is a part of the American fiddle music canon. It is derived from the music of southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas, as well as sharing repertoire from the Quebec and Cape Breton Island traditions. It is one of the few extant North American folk music traditions rooted in French chanson. According to Ron Yule, "Louisiana fiddling had its birth roots in Europe, with fiddling being noted as early as the 1400s in Scotland". Zydeco music is a geographically, culturally, and musically related style.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
