IBERVILLE PARISH
Parish Offices
58050 Meriam Street
Plaquemine 225-687-5190
https://www.ibervilleparish.com
Chamber of Commerce
23675 Church Street
Plaquemine 225-687-3560
https://www.ibervillechamber.com
Water-rich Iberville Parish is home to thriving commercial and industrial activity, agricultural operations, and small local businesses. Tourism and the fishing industry are also strong contributors to a balanced economy. Excellent transportation networks include Mississippi River and Gulf Coast access, complementing abundant land and natural resources. The parish is ideally located in an industrial corridor just 15 miles from Baton Rouge, providing easy access to an entire world of urban advantages and world-class amenities.
Services
Quality educational opportunities begin early with the Iberville Public School System and options for a private education from first grade through high school. Area youth and residents of all ages are also well-served by a public library system that offers a number of branches throughout the parish. Those who desire technical and job training can choose from a number of specialized programs close to home at the Westside Campus for Baton Rouge Community College Technical Education. Nearby Baton Rouge is home to the main campus for Baton Rouge Community College, where students can complete two-year transfer degrees or explore a wide variety of career program options in relevant fields. The capital city is also home to Louisiana State University, the largest public university in the state and the flagship institution for the Louisiana State University System. Fourteen schools and colleges include several that are nationally recognized such as the E.J. Ourso College of Business, the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, and the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture—the latter regarded as the finest program of its type in the entire nation. Another highly respected public college in Baton Rouge is Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, covering 512 acres on Scott’s Bluff above the Mississippi River. Regardless of your educational goals, the ideal program is sure to be available in the educationally rich capital region.
Routine healthcare services are available locally at St. Gabriel Health Clinic, including health screenings and routine exams, immunizations, diabetes management, dental referrals, EKG services, family planning, nutrition guidance, and prescription assistance. Nearby Baton Rouge provides world-class healthcare resources, including the world-renowned Pennington Biomedical Research Center, specialty hospitals and respected teaching hospitals. Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center provides a full range of exceptional, award-winning services in its 800-bed hospital. Consistently named Hospital of the Year by the Louisiana State Nurses Association, Our Lady of the Lake also operates a 95-bed Children’s Hospital encompassed within the medical center. As a primary teaching site for graduate medical education, Our Lady of the Lake is recognized in such areas as trauma and emergency care, stroke, heart and vascular, cancer care, and minimally-invasive procedures. Another exemplary healthcare institution with a national reputation is Ochsner Medical Center at Baton Rouge. The two-campus, 527-bed Baton Rouge General Medical Center has been providing quality healthcare to the capital region since 1900, recognized for clinical excellence in a number of specialties.
Lifestyle
Newcomers to Iberville Parish will discover a unique region with wonderful small communities, friendly and helpful neighbors, and recreational opportunities against the backdrop of beautiful waterways and unspoiled landscapes. Split by the mighty Mississippi River, the parish offers several bayous and portals to the vast 800-acre Atchafalaya Basin—often called the South’s last wilderness. The Basin’s swampland features 85 species of fish and hundreds of species of birds along with wildlife that ranges from alligators to black bears. Residents and visitors can take a ferry across the Mississippi, relax or recreate at the award-winning Bayou Plaquemine Waterfront Park, launch their boats into scenic waterways, or just fish from one of the bayou banks. Popular pastimes in this area include hunting, fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, golfing, hiking, cycling, and bird-watching. Among the developed resources are the Mike Zito Multipurpose Center for special events and exciting rodeos and a premier golf course. Residents tend to be strong supports of local high school teams but they can also join the crush of avid fans at regional university games.
Proud of its colorful history and rich architectural legacy, Iberville Parish showcases the past in a number of structures and sites. The largest plantation home in the South, the palatial Nottoway Plantation and Resort, features a restaurant along with stunning rooms and event facilities. Another historic jewel is the stunning Italian Romanesque architecture of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, contrasting with the Madonna Chapel near the Nottoway Plantation—billed as the smallest church in the world. The Plaquemine Lock museum with Dutch influences and gleaming white tile is a Louisiana State Historic Site showcasing early hydraulic engineering design and the history of Bayou Plaquemine. Today more than ever, the picturesque bayou is the heart and soul of the City of Plaquemine downtown district. One of the oddities in the parish is Carville Hansen’s Disease Museum in the scenic Indian Camp Plantation, formerly the only hospital in the nation for treating leprosy. Every corner of the parish has something to offer, from the charm of Plaquemine’s downtown district and the arts and crafts market in the 1925 Union Pacific Railroad Depot to the new $4 million community center in St. Gabriel. New subdivisions and residential developments are springing up throughout the parish, adding premier options for small-town living just minutes from some of the finest urban amenities in all of Louisiana.
COMMUNITY PROFILES
Grosse Tete
Village Offices
225-648-2131
http://grossetetela.com
Chamber of Commerce
225-687-3560
https://www.ibervillechamber.com
The charming Village of Grosse Tete serves as a gateway to Iberville Parish, an ideal site for the parish Welcome Center. The village is the first stop that visitors make as they exit from Interstate 10 and the community with the most familiar name, since the picturesque Bayou Grosse Tete meanders through much of the northern section of the parish. The smallest of the parish communities, Grosse Tete has long been known for the beauty of majestic live oaks, rustic fences along rural pastures, and the gracious landscapes of the bayou. Bayou Grosse Tete is one of the focal points of development within the village, where homes and businesses line a two-mile corridor along its banks. Infrastructure upgrades, sidewalks, street lighting, parks, and progressive services are all reflections of dedicated civic leaders who understand the importance of protecting an enviable quality of life in the face of growth and expansion.
Maringouin
Town Offices
225-625-2630
https://townofmaringouin.net
Chamber of Commerce
225-687-3560
https://www.ibervillechamber.com
The largest of Iberville communities by land mass, the rural Town of Maringouin is small in population. Newcomers who are looking for country pleasures, an open feeling, picturesque pastoral landscapes, the natural beauty of Bayou Grosse Tete and vast green pastures will find an idyllic home in Maringouin. Strong civic leadership ensures a high quality of life in a progressive and well-managed community that is primarily agricultural in nature, including the addition of an eight-acre park for sports play and community enjoyment. The town is closely connected to nearby cities where services and amenities are more developed. Residents also have the advantage of quick and easy access to the cosmopolitan attractions in Baton Rouge, from arts and culture to entertainment, public universities, and nationally recognized teaching hospitals.
Plaquemine
City Offices
225-687-3116
https://www.plaquemine.org
Chamber of Commerce
225-687-3560
https://www.ibervillechamber.com
Nestled against scenic Bayou Plaquemine, one of the tributaries of the mighty Mississippi, the City of Plaquemine serves as the parish seat of government and a center for commerce, services, and tourism. The city is undergoing an exciting revitalization, crowned by the $3.2 million Bayou Plaquemine Waterfront Park with its open-air pavilion, tiered terrace, large fishing pier, boat docking facilities, and walkway connecting the park to Plaquemine Lock State Historic Site. The park also offers easy walking access to several historic jewels within the downtown district, including Iberville Museum in the original courthouse building, the 1925 Plaquemine Depot Market filled with arts and crafts, and St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church. The downtown district features more than 120 residential and business buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The former public high school now serves as the City of Plaquemine Activity Center, while the Island Country Club overlooks tranquil Bayou Plaquemine and Bayou Jacob.
Rosedale
Village Offices
225-648-2333
http://www.rosedalela.com/
Chamber of Commerce
225-687-3560
https://www.ibervillechamber.com
Another small rural community in Iberville Parish, Rosedale is located at the intersection of Louisiana Highways 76 and 77. Surrounded by picturesque open fields, rustic landscapes, growing crops, and meandering rural byways, the village has managed to preserve its agricultural heritage through the centuries. Modern development accelerated with incorporation in 1955, including a local fire department, infrastructure improvements, village center sidewalks, parks with sports fields and playgrounds, a library, and a senior center. The changes in Rosedale were so impressive that the village earned the coveted Community Achievement Award for exceptional services improvement from the Louisiana Municipal Association in 1997. Growth remains slow but steady in rural Rosedale, which continues to provide a rare quality of life in close proximity to parish city amenities but also to metropolitan attractions in the capital region.
St. Gabriel
City Offices
225-642-9600
https://cityofstgabriel.us/
Chamber of Commerce
225-687-3560
https://www.ibervillechamber.com
The growing City of St. Gabriel is situated along the east bank of the scenic Mississippi River, a popular choice for industrial and residential expansion within the capital region. The city offers an idyllic small-town atmosphere within minutes of downtown Baton Rouge and Louisiana State University. The community also offers easy access to the recreational meccas of Bayou Plaquemine and the Atchafalaya Basin National Wildlife Refuge for world-class outdoor enjoyment around the four seasons. This charming, quaint bedroom community for Baton Rouge is a Louisiana-designated Main Street City under the National Register of Historic Places. At the same time, the city provides progressive amenities and advantages like the new $4 million Community Center with a heated indoor pool, large auditorium, fitness areas, and outdoor sports facilities. Multi-million-dollar infrastructure improvements and expansions including lush parks and improved lighting are evidence of progressive, responsive civic leadership.
White Castle
Town Offices
225-545-3012
https://www.whitecastle.us
Chamber of Commerce
225-687-3560
https://www.ibervillechamber.com
From a history of cane sugar production and lavish plantations, the picturesque, water-rich White Castle area has been through several reinventions but has managed to preserve its rural character. As chemical companies began moving into the region along the Mississippi River in the 1980s, several located in and near the White Castle area. For the past few decades, the town population has remained approximately 2,000—most likely due to established boundaries—while surrounding unincorporated communities have seen some growth and expansion. White Castle is best known as the home of the Nottoway Plantation & Resort, the South’s largest and most prestigious antebellum mansion. This stunning architectural masterpiece has recently undergone a $7 million renovation, fully restoring its original glory and adding premier luxury resort amenities and accommodations.
