Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Washington, LA

Washington is an incorporated town in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, and is part of the Opelousas–Eunice Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Washington traces its origins to a French trading post established in 1764 as the Post of Opelousas, while local tradition dates the settlement to 1720, which the town cites in calling itself the third-oldest settlement in Louisiana.

In 1766 the post's first church, La Iglesia Parroquial de la Inmaculada Concepción del Puesto de Opelousas, was established, and the post later became known as Church Landing in 1822.

Washington was incorporated in 1835 under its current name.

Standing on Bayou Courtableau, Washington became an inland steamboat port after Captain George W. Haygood completed a steamboat turnaround there in 1848, ending the bottleneck that had kept boats from turning around at the head of navigation.

For much of the 19th century Washington was the largest inland port between New Orleans and St. Louis, shipping cotton, cattle, sugar, and molasses, until the last steamboat left in 1900 after the railroad reached nearby Opelousas.

During the Civil War, Washington was larger than the parish seat of Opelousas, and Union forces under General Nathaniel P. Banks occupied the town and stripped it of food, livestock, cotton, and other supplies valued at more than ten million dollars across the region.

The Grimble Bell School in Washington, opened in the 1830s, was the first African American school in St. Landry Parish before white vigilantes forced it to close in 1860.

As of the 2020 census, Washington had 742 people in 382 households, down from 964 residents at the 2010 census.

The Washington Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 15, 1978, and about 80 percent of the town's buildings are of historic or architectural significance.