ST. MARTIN PARISH
Parish Offices
301 West Port Street
St. Martinville 337-394-2200
https://www.stmartinparish.net
Chamber of Commerce
20 S. New Market Street
St. Martinville 337-394-7578
The picturesque expanse of rural St. Martin Parish is the heart of Acadiana is located just 15 minutes south of Lafayette, one of Louisiana’s largest and most vibrant cities. Agriculture and aquaculture are the mainstays of the local economy, with sugarcane and crawfish being the largest cash crops. As the home of the world’s largest freshwater river basin, the incredibly beautiful Atchafalaya Basin, the parish offers every imaginable kind of outdoor activity and attracts thousands of recreational visitors. Interstate 10 and a network of state and local highways ensure quick commutes to regional destinations.
Services
In spite of its rural nature, St. Martin Parish offers first-rate healthcare services close to home at St. Martin Hospital, founded in 1969 as Gary Memorial Hospital. Dedicated to providing compassionate, patient-centered care, the hospital is continually upgrading and expanding to deliver state-of-the-art services to a rural population. In 2000, St. Martin became a critical access hospital at the same time it became affiliated with Lafayette General Medical Center—Acadiana’s largest full-service acute-care hospital. St. Martin Hospital is a critical access 25-bed facility with 24-hour emergency care, medical specialties, and extensive outpatient services including advanced imaging. Nearby Lafayette is a hub of highly advanced healthcare centers including Lafayette General Health, encompassing Lafayette General Medical Center with the highest level of trauma care in the region as well as Lafayette General Surgical Hospital, and University Hospital & Clinics. Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center features a new state-of-the-art hospital, the Heart Hospital of Lafayette, Centers of Excellence, and the only burn unit in Southwest Louisiana. The Regional Medical Center of Acadian provides a full spectrum acute-care hospital and the Women’s & Children’s Hospital—collectively named as Top Performer on Key Quality Measures® by The Joint Commission.
Educational opportunities begin with a strong public school system and options for a private education. Higher education can begin close to home in St. Martinville at the Evangeline Campus for Southern Louisiana Community College. SLCC is proud of its national ranking of 11 for the number of associate degree awards, providing more than 35 degree and certification programs. The college also plays a key role in advancing local economies with relevant training and customized programs for local business and industry. Nearby Lafayette expands the choices for two-year and four-year institutions. Southern Louisiana Community College and the two-year private Remington College focus on associate degrees and career programs. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette provides a 145-acre main campus and auxiliary resources like University Research Park, the Center for Ecology and Environmental Technology, the New Iberia Primate Research Center, and Edith Garland Dupre Library—one of the state’s most technologically advanced university libraries. The second-largest university in the state, UL Lafayette enrolls nearly 18,000 students in bachelor’s and graduate degree programs including doctorates. Regardless of your higher education goals, the right program is likely to be within commuting distance from any St. Martin Parish address.
Lifestyle
Newcomers to St. Martin Parish will discover a blend of homespun pleasures, country charm, rural landscapes, historic preservation, and the finest of Cajun Country music and cuisine. The most outstanding natural feature is the vast expanse of the Atchafayala Basin, the largest freshwater river basin on the planet. The lovely waterway of Bayou Teche meanders through communities like Arnaudville, Cecilia, Breaux Bridge, Parks, and St. Martinville, giving boaters a glimpse of small rural towns—each with a distinctive identity. The area’s mild climate and vast natural preserves ensure the finest of outdoor enjoyment from fishing, hunting, and camping to hiking, cycling, and horseback riding. Lake Martin with a paved boat launch is a popular destination for nature lovers and especially bird watchers. This shallow lake ringed with cypress trees and tupelo trees draped with Spanish moss is home to one of the nation’s largest wading bird rookeries. From late February into the summer, this area is teeming with little blue herons, barred and great horned owls, night-herons, roseate spoonbills, white ibis, and egrets—along with plentiful alligators. For competitive water-sport thrills, Tour du Teche has paddlers racing 135 miles along the Bayou Teche.
Tourists are a common sight in this region where the landscape is dotted with bed and breakfast inns, historic churches, fascinating old cemeteries, fine restaurants, one-of-a-kind attractions, and scenic campgrounds. St. Martinville serves as the parish seat of government with the largest population and the most commercial development. One of the oldest towns in Louisiana, St. Martinville features many homes and buildings that showcase magnificent architectural elements, along with the Evangeline Oak made famous in Longfellow’s poem about Evangeline and Gabriel. Bayou Teche meanders through the rural town of Arnaudville, creating sections that fall into the boundaries of both St. Martin and St. Landry parishes. Postcard images are everywhere, from moss-draped live oaks along the bayou to panoramic scenes of sugarcane fields. Butte la Rose is another tiny community nestled at the edge of Atchafalaya Basin, primarily serving as a weekend getaway for families in metropolitan Lafayette who arrive to boat, water ski and jet ski, fish, and hunt. Agricultural activity dominates the Parks area, a rural community graced by live oaks and the beauty of Bayou Teche. Parks also offers Cecile Poche Memorial Park with a campground and boat landing leading to the bayou—the setting for the spectacular Cracklin Cook-Off event. The small town of Henderson is known for the South’s finest fresh-water fishing and fabulous Cajun cuisine. Regardless of where you choose to settle in St. Martin Parish, some of Louisiana’s finest urban amenities and resources will be minutes away in the City of Lafayette.
COMMUNITY PROFILES
Breaux Bridge
City Offices
337-332-8500
http://breauxbridgela.net
Chamber of Commerce
337-332-5406
http://breauxbridgeacc.com
Not every city can say it was founded by an enterprising young widow with five children, but that is the reason why a towering statue of Scholastique Picou Breaux graces City Park. Another remarkable piece of art is the 20-foot-long Snake Sculpture & Commemorative Marker in Parc des Ponts de Pont Breaux, relating the legend of how Bayou Teche was formed. Brimming over with grand architecture and a sense of heritage, the village founded in 1829 has grown into a friendly, unique small city that serves as the gateway to Louisiana’s Cajun culture. Breaux Bridge was the first to openly offer crawfish on café menus and claims to be the birthplace of the world-famous crawfish etouffée. This community is so well-known for its crawfish farming and cuisine that the Louisiana legislature officially designated Breaux Bridge as “la capitale Mondiale de l’ecrevisse” or Crawfish Capital of the World. Since that designation in 1959, the city has been hosting the wildly popular Crawfish Festival, drawing as many as 100,000 visitors from across the nation and around the globe. Each day of the year, Breaux Bridge celebrates the good life with Cajun and Zydecko music and world-famous Cajun cuisine. Along with the charming downtown district, the city now has a growing business district near Interstate 10.
Broussard
City Offices
337-837-6681
https://www.cityofbroussard.com
Chamber of Commerce
337-837-6001
https://www.broussardchamber.net
Just six miles southeast of Lafayette, the City of Broussard spans the parishes of Lafayette and St. Martin. From its roots as an agricultural center with a strong Acadian heritage, the community has gone through several evolutions of growth and development, including the arrival of petroleum mining off the Louisiana coast in the late 20th century. Today, the city is experiencing a boom in residential development as former fields are seeing crops of new subdivisions and executive homes for managers and employees alike. Broussard is a bustling city with more than 300 thriving businesses connected with retail, hospitality, food service, communications, mining services, manufacturing, medical, insurance, and real estate. The combination of Southern hospitality, a rich cultural heritage, and a commitment to advanced technologies keep the city at the apex of economic growth.
St. Martinville
City Offices
337-394-2230
https://www.stmartinville.org
Chamber of Commerce
337-394-7578
Historic St. Martinville was one of the first communities in Louisiana to be named a city, known in the 1800s as “Petit Paris” for its status as a cultural mecca with grand hotels and theater hosting operas and witty comedies. Many homes and buildings reflect the glory of those days, although the most cherished historic treasure is Evangeline Oak Park with its ancient live oak on Bayou Teche named for the heroine of the 1847 poem Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Evangeline Oak graces the city that has become an international symbol for the Acadian legacy, celebrating Cajun and Creole heritage in cuisine, culture, and customs that span the centuries. Other highlights include St. Martinville Cultural Heritage Center, the 1830 Duchamp Opera House and Mercantile, and the St. Martinville Creole Farmer’s Market. The town square is a focal point of commerce and community activity, hosting many of the seasonal events like the St. Martin Square Christmas Lighting and Supper on the Square in December. Other popular celebrations are the Acadian Memorial Festival, Okra & Creole Zydeco Festivals, the Pepper Festival, and the St. Martinville Garden Club Tour of Homes.
