Saint John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana | |
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Motto: "Heart of the River Parishes" | |
Location in the U.S. state of Louisiana |
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Louisiana's location in the U.S. |
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Founded | 1807 |
Named for | Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Edgard, built 1772 |
Seat | Edgard |
Largest community | LaPlace |
Area | |
• Total | 348 sq mi (901 km2) |
• Land | 213 sq mi (552 km2) |
• Water | 135 sq mi (350 km2), 39% |
Population (est.) | |
• (2015 estimate) | 43,626 |
• Density | 216/sq mi (83/km²) |
Congressional districts | 2nd, 6th |
Time zone | Central: UTC-6/-5 |
Website | www |
St. John the Baptist Parish (SJBP, French: Paroisse de Saint-Jean-Baptiste) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 45,924. The parish seat is Edgard, an unincorporated area, and the largest city is LaPlace, also unincorporated. St. John the Baptist Parish was established in 1807 as one of the original 19 parishes of the Territory of Orleans, which became the state of Louisiana.
St. John the Baptist Parish is part of the New Orleans–Metairie, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
This was considered part of the German Coast in the 18th and 19th centuries, named for numerous German immigrants who settled in the 1720s. On January 8, 1811, the largest slave insurrection in US history, known as the German Coast Uprising, started here. It was short-lived, but more than 200 slaves gathered from plantations along the river and marched through St. Charles Parish toward New Orleans.
The parish includes three nationally significant examples of 19th-century plantation architecture: Evergreen Plantation, Whitney Plantation Historic District, and San Francisco Plantation House.