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DHistory
History · Cecilia

Cecilia’s post office opened in 1892

More historic than 11% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Most of Cecilia was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1940 on, and the census since 1990.

1892first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Cecilia’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Cecilia began

When was Cecilia founded?

1892

The Cecilia post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, La Place (1858), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 1,374 in 19902020 census: 1,807134 years

How historic is Cecilia?

D

More historic than 11% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Cecilia post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Cecilia’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cecilia is more historic than 11% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cecilia’s overall grade.
Founding era1892, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19400.0% of homes (±1.8) · typical LA town 3.4% · U.S. 8.4%D−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical LA town 3.8 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 11%
NewerOlder

Louisiana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Louisiana town has 3.8 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cecilia’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (21% of Louisiana towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to D. The pre-1940 share (±1.8 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Cecilia’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Cecilia’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cecilia’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewDowntownCeciliaLA: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Cecilia came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cecilia.

Read it all →

Cecilia sits on land that was historically inhabited by the Atakapa Tribe. The Atakapa lived in what is now Southwest Louisiana and Texas, and had a trading post at St. Martinville, before French settlers took over the land.

Cecilia was originally known by the Spanish as La Punta. It was translated by the French into La Grande Pointe, a name that was used by many people until contemporary times when it was then called Cecilia, named after the first postal clerk.

Pierre Guidry, the first settler of Cecilia, acquired three tracts of land from Mrs. Joseph Alexander Declouet in 1791. Joseph Angelle settled nearby soon after.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Cecilia, 1858 to 1959

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1858Post officeThe La Place post office opens
  3. 1892Post officeThe La Place post office closes
  4. 1892Post officeThe Cecilia post office opens
  5. 1896Born hereBob Angelle is born here
  6. 20th century
  7. 1940On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  8. 1959Born hereRamsey Dardar is born here
By decade

Cecilia, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
DowntownCeciliaLADate?DowntownCeciliaLA
Today1 recent
CeciliaSugarCane2007CeciliaSugarCane
On the map

Cecilia on the map, 1940 to 1998

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cecilia. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Cecilia on the 1940 USGS mapCecilia on the 1963 USGS mapCecilia on the 1970 USGS mapCecilia on the 1998 USGS map1940Arnaudville sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cecilia.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

DowntownCeciliaLA
Retake this viewDowntownCeciliaLA

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Cecilia’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Cecilia, census by census

05001,0001,5002,00020002020Peak: 1,980

Between 1,374 and 1,980 people in every census since 1990.

4 censuses, 1990–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cecilia’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Cecilia

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
B
Bob AngelleAmerican politician · b. 1896
R
Ramsey DardarAmerican football player · b. 1959
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Cecilia’s post office has been open since 1892. Another post office, La Place, opened and closed inside today’s town.

La Place
1858–1892
Cecilia
1892–today
18501940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Cecilia’s history

What year was Cecilia founded?

The Cecilia post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Cecilia rank for history?

Cecilia is more historic than 11% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Cecilia?

0.0% of Cecilia’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.8 points), against a typical 3.4% for a Louisiana town; the median home was built in 1985.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.