The Orphan Trains and More in Opalousas

Today, Betty arranged for us to visit the Orphan Train Museum in Opalousas, Louisiana.  Housed in a former Union Pacific Train Depot, this museum honors the inspiring story of abandoned and homeless children who were recused from the streets of New York and sent to Louisiana between the years 1873 and 1929. The Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the Midwest. The orphan trains operated between 1854 and 1929, relocating about 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children.  Three charitable institutions, Children's Village, the Children's Aid Society (established 1853 by Charles Loring Brace) and later, the New York Foundling Hospital, endeavored to help these children. The institutions were supported by wealthy donors and operated by professional staff. The two institutions developed a program that placed homeless, orphaned, and abandoned city children, who numbered an estimated 30,000 in New York City alone in the 1850s, in foster homes throughout the country. The children were transported to their new homes on trains that were labeled “orphan trains” or "baby trains". This relocation of children ended in the 1920s with the beginning of organized foster care in America.

Featured in the museum is a large mural painted by renowned South Louisiana artist Robert Dafford, who also painted the murals about the arrivals of Acadians in Louisiana in the late 1700's, as we described in our blog post, "Cajuns, Acadians, Evangeline and St. Martinville". The mural depicts the arrival of the orphans from The New York Foundling Hospital to Opelousas, Louisiana. It reflects the presence of Father John Engberink, Pastor of the St. Landry Catholic Church. Father Engberink was the priest responsible for bringing the orphans to St. Landry Parish.

The Orphan Train Museum is part of Le Vieux Village, an historic rural museum located in Opalousas’s historic gateway corridor. The village offers visitors a glimpse of early rural life in this part of Louisiana. One of the long-range projects of the Opelousas Tourism Committee since 1987 was the creation of a historic village at this site.  In 1988 the Committee was able to acquire donations of buildings that were representative of the history of the area. Among the many historic buildings, the village includes one of the oldest Creole homes west of the Mississippi, a 19th century doctor’s office and country store, and a schoolhouse from 1911.

Our first stop in the village was an old general store, where Kathy tried her hand at weighing and calculating the price of a batch of cotton:

Another notable building in Le Vieux Village is the Venus House, which, in 1971, was donated by the Fontenot family and moved from the Grand Prairie area of St. Landry Parish to it present location in Le Vieux Village in Opalousas:

With its c.1800 construction date, the Venus House stands as one of St. Landry Parish's oldest surviving structures. Although the area was once a center of French settlement, only a handful of exceptionally old Creole buildings survive. Instead, most of St. Landry's antebellum houses date to the period of Greek Revival influence.

Le Vieux Village also boasts more modern sculpture.  This piece of public art celebrates the Zydeco music history of Opalousas, which boasts that it is the birthplace of Zydeco music:

Le Vieux Village also includes other historic buildings, including an old jailhouse, which Kathy models here:

The Venus House, mentioned above, houses an exhibit on the history of Zydeco music.  We were very pleased for our RV friend, Barb, that her chest washboard is included with the traditional triangle in the Zydeco music exhibit:

The Vieux Village also is home to Palmetto Methodist Church, a small, single frame wood structure, which was built in 1948 as a house of worship for the African American Methodist congregation in the small, rural St. Landry Parish village of Palmetto.  The church, also known as St. Joseph Methodist Church for Colored People, served the faithful until services ceased there in the late 1980s.

Having immersed ourselves in Opalousas history, we repaired to Soileau's (pronounced "Swallows") Dinner Club on Main Street.  There were perhaps 23 of us, and we challenged our waitress to serve us all AT THE SAME TIME.  But she bravely took on the task and succeeded admirably.  All of the food was scrumptious, but David's gumbo was spectacular - more than a quart of Louisiana lusciousness!

We enjoyed a couple hours of great companionship and tasty food before returning to Betty's RV Park, where the only thing left to do was - ENJOY HAPPY HOUR!

Cheers!