Bloch Corner

Joseph Bloch was born in France in 1833 and came to Louisiana at 21, opening a store in Ascension Parish before settling in Opelousas in 1860. His store grew into one of southwest Louisiana's largest. He presided over the St. Landry Parish School Board and helped organize the town's Jewish congregation, around 1868 by one local account. In 1878 he gave the right of way for a new street, if fences were built along both sides, and it took his name. He closed the store in the mid-1890s and died in New Orleans in 1900.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Le Vieux Village and the Venus House — 0.5 mi
  A heritage park in Opelousas built around the Venus House of about 1791, the home of a free Creole woman of color, Marie Francois Venus, with an old schoolhouse, Methodist church and the visitor center's zydeco music exhibit.
• Prairie Acadian Cultural Center — 21 mi
  A National Park Service center in Eunice on the Cajun prairie, with exhibits on the Acadians who settled the prairies, a Courir de Mardi Gras display, free music and cooking demonstrations, and the shuttered Liberty Theatre nearby.
• Vermilionville — 23 mi
  A living-history village of about 23 acres on Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette, opened in 1990 to interpret the Native peoples, Acadians, Creoles and people of African descent of the Attakapas region.
• Atchafalaya Welcome Center — 25 mi
  A state welcome center inside the Atchafalaya Basin, the nation's largest river swamp, with exhibits on Basin history and life, a film, a crawfishing boat and French-speaking staff.

More markers nearby

• Manon's Corner — steps away
• King's Corner — steps away
• Opelousas — steps away
• Lawyers Row — steps away