Welcome to Freetown / Bienvenue à Freetown

Freetown-Port Rico sat on the back part of Alexandre Mouton's Île Copal plantation, where sugar cane was grown; shortly before the Civil War Mouton held 120 people in slavery, the second-most in the parish. The neighborhood is believed to have formed just before, during or soon after the war, though accounts differ. It went onto the National Register in February 2016, after a UL Lafayette lab spent more than two years documenting over 800 structures for the nomination. Owners of buildings over 50 years old became eligible for a renovation tax credit.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vermilionville — 1.1 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.
• Cypress Island Preserve at Lake Martin — 6.8 mi
  Nearly 10,000 acres of bottomland hardwood and cypress-tupelo swamp at the south end of Lake Martin, owned by The Nature Conservancy, with a boardwalk and a rookery of egrets, spoonbills and alligators.
• Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site — 13 mi
  A bayou-side state site on former Attakapas hunting ground, with a raised Creole cottage of about 1815, a reproduction 1800 farmstead and its slave quarters, and the story behind Longfellow's Evangeline.
• St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church — 13 mi
  The Mother Church of the Acadians, founded in 1765 on St. Martin Square in St. Martinville, with a late 1870s Lourdes grotto and, a block away, the Evangeline Oak on Bayou Teche.

More markers nearby

• Bendel Housekeeper's Home — steps away
• Pavy Studio — steps away
• Butler's Drug Store / Pharmacie Butler — steps away
• Martin's Hat Shop — 0.2 mi