LaPlace, Louisiana

The Chitimacha lived in the region prior to the arrival of European colonists. The tribe’s lands once encompassed the entire Atchafalaya Basin, westward to Lafayette, southward to the Gulf of Mexico and eastward to the New Orleans area. The Chitimacha tribe currently resides on a reservation in St. Mary Parish.

A 1775 map of the German Coast with Colapissas, north of Carlstein, indicating the location of present-day LaPlace.[3]

Present-day LaPlace was settled by German immigrants in the early 18th century during Louisiana's French colonial period, as part of a larger settlement on the bank of the Mississippi called Karlstein.[4] Karlstein was one of the four settlements collectively known as the "German Coast" (French: la Côte des Allemands), having been populated by German-speaking immigrants since 1721.[5] French and Acadians intermarried with the Germans, and the area came to be known as Bonnet Carré (French for "square bonnet").[4][5] The name Bonnet Carré was inspired by the right-angle turn of the Mississippi river near the settlement and its resemblance to a square bonnet.[6]

Manual Andry built Woodland plantation in 1793 and cultivated sugarcane.[7] The crop was lucrative if brutal methods were used, as had been common in Haiti (and had led to a successful slave rebellion there).

The former Andry Plantation House, now the 1811 Kid Ory Historic House, is where the revolt began.

In early January 1811, slaves at Woodland Plantation and several nearby plantations attempted the German Coast Uprising.[8] A group of 200-500 slaves armed with guns, axes, and cane knives set out from LaPlace to conquer New Orleans and gain freedom for themselves and others.[9] Local white "militia" men crushed the rebellion within three days, and nearly 100 slaves were either killed in battle, slaughtered by pursuing militia, or executed after summary trials by planter tribunals.[9] Although more slaves may have participated in the Black Seminole rebellion in 1836 and the whole of the Second Seminole War, this is now considered the largest slave rebellion.[10][11]

In 1879, pharmacist, planter, and patent medicine purveyor[12] Basile Laplace arrived from New Orleans and established a large plantation in Bonnet Carré. In 1883, he allowed the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Railroad to cut through his land.[4][12] The settlement's railroad depot was named after Laplace, then the post office, and eventually the town itself.[4][6]

In the 1920s, Woodland Plantation was bought by the Montegut family, but the most famous person born there may have been Kid Ory, who was born in an outbuilding and later led a successful New Orleans jazz band.[7]

F4 damage to a destroyed home in LaPlace, Louisiana.

In the period between 1850 and 1883, the levee on the east bank of the Mississippi flooded several times.[13] In 1850, a flood created the Bonnet Carré Crevasse, a levee breach that was more than a mile wide.[13] Several major floods were exacerbated by this crevasse near LaPlace, and one resulted in severe flooding of New Orleans in 1871.[13] The breach was closed in 1883.[13]

In 1983, a violent F4 tornado devastated part of the town.

In 2012, about 5,000 houses were damaged by flooding in LaPlace during Hurricane Isaac.[14]

In February 2016 and again in March 2016, several tornadoes touched down in LaPlace, damaging hundreds of buildings and disrupting power.[15][16]

LaPlace was badly damaged by Hurricane Ida on August 29, 2021.[17]

Despite the spelling used for LaPlace's namesake, the St. John the Baptist Parish Police Jury decreed in 1971 that the official spelling of the town includes a capital letter "P".[18]

Andouille shop in LaPlace

Andouille, a smoked pork sausage that originated in France, is popular in LaPlace and elsewhere in Louisiana, but in the 1970s, then-Governor Edwin Edwards proclaimed LaPlace the "Official Andouille Capital of the World".[19] Since 1972, LaPlace has held an Andouille Festival every October.[19] On his program Feasting on Asphalt, TV chef Alton Brown visited LaPlace to sample its andouille.[20]

The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board operates public schools in LaPlace.

• St. John STEM Magnet Program
• East St. John Elementary School
• Emily C Watkins Elementary School
• Glade Elementary School
• John L. Ory Communications Magnet Elementary School
• Laplace Elementary School
• St. John Special Education
• Lake Pontchartrain Elementary School

• Ascension of Our Lord School
• Liberty Christian Academy
• Riverside Academy
• Saint Charles Catholic High School
• St. Joan of Arc Catholic School