Washington dates to 1720, and 10% of its homes were built before 1940
2 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 200 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1939 on, and the census since 1860.
Washington was founded as the Post of Opelousas in 1764 as a French trading post. In 1766, the first church, La Iglesia paroquial de la Immaculada Conception del Puesto de Opelousas, was established and the post later became known as Church Landing in 1822. In 1835, the town was incorporated under the current name.
In the early 1800s smaller steamboats started traveling up Bayou Teche to the Opelousas River, renamed Bayou Courtableau, at Barre’s Landing (named after Alexander Charles Barré) that became Port Barre, then to Washington where there was a bottleneck as the steamboats could not turn around. In 1848 Captain George W. Haygood completed a steamboat turnaround and Washington became an inland port.
In January (1807) the flotilla of Burr had arrived at Bayou Pierre, on the Lower Mississippi, lie was there seized by the order of Cowles Mead, the acting Governor of Mississippi, and conducted to the town of Washington. Burr, shortly after, managed to escape from custody, and a reward of two thousand dollars was offered for his apprehension. In the meantime, several arrests of the supposed accomplices of Burr were made at Fort Adams and New Orleans. Among these were Bollman (the celebrated deliv¬
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Solomon always resided in said county of Washington and the adjoining counties until about the year 1841 ; that said Solomon could read and write ; that said Solomon and his mother and father were free citizens of the State of New -York ; that sometime about the year 1841 this deponent received a letter from said Solomon, post-marked New-Orleans, stating that while on business at Washington city, he had been kidnapped, and his free papers taken from him, and he was then on board
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organized as the county of Washington, and extending nominally westward to the Mississippi. Soon after, some of the more daring pioneers made a settlement at Bledsoe’s Station, in Middle Tennes¬ see, in the heart of the Chickasaw nation, and separated several hundred miles, by the usual traveled route, from their kinsmen on the Holston. A number of French traders had previously estab¬ lished a trading post and erected a few cabins at the “Bluff” near the site of Nashville. To the same vicinity Colonel James
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Washington, 1720 to 1940
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (5), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1938
2016
2004
