Perry, LA

Perry is an unincorporated Vermilion Parish community and census-designated place on the Vermilion River, known in older records as Perry’s Bridge or Pont Berry. Robert Perry received a contract after 1817 to build a bridge across the river; by 1827 he had stores on both sides, a tannery, and other holdings there. When Vermilion Parish was created in 1844, Perry’s Bridge became the first parish-seat site, although Abbeville later took that role. The present-day map still turns on the crossing: Louisiana 82 passes through Perry and crosses the river nearby. The local shorthand is bridge, river, early parish history, and a community that began as a crossing.