The History of
St. Francisville, LA
The Town of St. Francisville was established in 1809, planned by Johnson. Said to be a town "two miles long and two yards wide", St. Francisville is set in a unique location on a bluff of the Mississippi river. Several of the buildings in the town today were moved up the hill from the town of Bayou Sara which had been founded on the east bank of the river in 1790 and had grown into the largest shipping port on the Mississippi between Natchez and New Orleans.
St. Francisville was the capital of the short-lived Republic of West Florida in 1810.
Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of Zachary Taylor, and wife of Jefferson Davis, stayed in St. Francisville as a newlywed for three months until her untimely death in 1835. She is buried in St. Francisville.
The town was and is the center of West Feliciana Parish with a Mayor and Board of Alderman form of government. The Towns current Mayor is the Hon. William (Billy) D'Aquilla, and current Chief of Police G. Scott Ford.
St. Francisville is home to many houses and plantation homes that are on the national register of historic places. These include The Myrtles Plantation, Rosedown Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, Oakley Plantation and many others. Many of the historic homes are open for tours and some operate as Bed and Breakfasts.