Rayville, LA

At the 2020 census, Rayville was a Richland Parish town of 3,347 people and the parish seat in northeastern Louisiana. Richland Parish was created in 1868, and Rayville took its name from John Ray, a politician from Monroe with large land holdings in the area. The town was incorporated in 1882. Its setting is the flat, fertile country that gave the parish its name, while the courthouse, post office, and U.S. Highway 80 keep Rayville's center tied to both government and through-traffic. Town Hall sits across from the highway and carries the name of former mayor Joe Kalil.

The Rhymes Memorial Library gives Rayville its best local plot twist. The Lambda Kappa Club began pushing for a parish library in the 1910s, opened one in a room of the wooden Rayville school in 1926, and kept it going through the flood of 1927; the librarian reportedly used high boots and a boat to reach the building. In May 1927 the collection moved into the Rhymes Memorial Library on Louisa Street. The 1951 Art Deco courthouse, three town school campuses, the library, and the old commercial blocks keep Rayville recognizable as a working parish seat, even as its population has fallen from 4,234 in 2000.