Edgard, LA

Edgard is the St. John the Baptist Parish seat on the west bank of the Mississippi River, part of Louisiana’s German Coast. The community began around the parish’s early German settlement and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church; the first church at the present site was established in 1770–72, and the place has been the parish seat since 1848. It was originally called St. John the Baptist and was renamed Edgard in 1850 for postmaster Edgar Perret. The river, levee, church, and parish offices give the community its shape.

Edgard’s history carries the layers of the lower Mississippi together: German settlement, Spanish-era Catholic administration, and parish government that still operates here. Church records note that a levee relocation in 1881 took part of the old cemetery, a reminder that the river has always been an active force in the community’s map. Today Edgard’s map is organized by the parish seat, the church, and the river corridor, with the historic settlement held between levee and water.