Church Point, Louisiana
| Church Point, Louisiana | |
| Town | |
| Motto: "Buggy Capital U.S.A." | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Louisiana |
| Parish | Acadia |
| Elevation | 46 ft (14.0 m) |
| Coordinates | 30°24′17″N 92°13′01″W / 30.40472°N 92.21694°WCoordinates: 30°24′17″N 92°13′01″W / 30.40472°N 92.21694°W |
| Area | 7.5 km2 (2.9 sq mi) |
| - land | 7.5 km2 (2.9 sq mi) |
| - water | 0.0 km2 (0 sq mi) |
| Population | 4,560 (2010) |
| Density | 608.2/km2 (1,575.2/sq mi) |
| Mayor | Russel Stelly (D) |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Area code | 337 |
  Location of Church Point in Louisiana
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 Location of Louisiana in the United States
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Church Point (French: Pointe-à-l'Église) is a town in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,560 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Crowley Micropolitan Statistical Area.
In the late 18th century, French settlers from Nova Scotia (Acadie) Canada, created clearings by burning the underbrush, leaving what they called a brûlé, or "burn", much as the Native Americans in the area had created a "burn" to promote new grass to attract bison and other grazing and browsing animals.
One of these clearings was created on a slough off Bayou Mermentau, near where the slough came to a point. This new clearing became known as Plaquemine Brûlé in 1843 when Etienne d'Aigle III, a descendant of immigrants from Quebec, became the first settler in the area, which at that time was in the middle of Opelousas Parish (later St. Landry Parish), which stretched from the Atchafalaya River to the Sabine River.
Plaquemine is an Atakapa word for the native Louisiana persimmon. The French term Plaquemine Brûlé is translated into English as "Burnt Persimmon" - a result of the burning of the brush and other woody growth, which apparently contained persimmon trees, during the widening of a slough off Bayou Mermentau to accommodate barge travel for local farmers.
As more families were attracted to the area, Jesuit missionaries fulfilled their spiritual needs by establishing a chapel in 1848 on land donated by the d'Aigle brothers Etienne (III) and Joseph ("José"). The church was known as La Chapelle de la pointe de Plaquemine Brûlé (in English, "The Church at the point of Burnt Persimmon"). The English term was later shortened to "Church Point" to refer to the spire on top of the church which could be seen, and traversed to, for miles in this frontier area, and translated back into French as La Pointe de l'Eglise.
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