Baldwin, LA

Baldwin is a St. Mary Parish town named for John Baldwin, the Ohio educator who bought the Darby plantation in 1867. Darby House, a raised Louisiana cottage in the French Colonial style, stayed in Baldwin’s story and is on the National Register. The town also carries an important education chapter: an orphan home for Black children moved here after the Civil War, developed into Gilbert Academy and Industrial School, and later moved back to New Orleans. Louisiana 182 and 83 frame the local map, while Cypremort Point State Park lies about 22 miles southwest. Baldwin’s history is plantation architecture, Black education, and a small St. Mary Parish town with a long memory.