Allen Parish, Louisiana

Allen Parish, Louisiana
Allen Parish Courthouse in Oberlin (near sunset)
Seal
Location in the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location in the U.S.
Founded	1912
Named for	Henry Watkins Allen
Seat	Oberlin
Largest city	Oakdale
Area
• Total	766 sq mi (1,984 km2)
• Land	762 sq mi (1,974 km2)
• Water	4.1 sq mi (11 km2), 0.5%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	25,683
• Density	34/sq mi (13/km²)
Congressional district	4th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5

Allen Parish (French: Paroisse d'Allen) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 25,764. The parish seat is Oberlin. Allen Parish is in southwestern Louisiana, southwest of Alexandria.

Allen Parish is named for former Confederate States Army general and Governor of Louisiana Henry Watkins Allen. It was separated in 1912 from the larger Calcasieu Parish to the southwest.

On September 27, 2008, the Allen Parish Tourist Commission opened Leatherwood Museum in Oakdale in a two-story house which served during the early 20th century as a hospital where women waited on the second-floor balcony to deliver their babies.

The museum focuses on the history of agriculture and timber. Upstairs exhibits include photographs and a machine for cutting rice stalks, displays of early dental and medical equipment, pictures of war maneuvers during World War II, and a letter from Confederate States of America soldier David Dunn to his wife. Dunn was the grandfather of William T. Dunn, founder of Dunnsville, which became Oakdale. An education room contains displays on Louisiana High School Hall of Fame sports figures Curtis Cook of Oakdale, Johnny Buck of Kinder, and Hoyle Granger of Oberlin. Granger, an inductee of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame who starred for the Houston Oilers, addressed the grand opening of the museum. Other exhibits focus on the Coushatta Indians and Courir de Mardi Gras or the country way of celebrating Mardi Gras in Allen Parish.