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History · St. Joseph · established 1843
St. Joseph’s history is mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of St. Joseph. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
1843 established
1 old photo or paper
2 historic places
6 famous people
What stands out about St. Joseph’s past Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out Start St. Joseph’s collection The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Joseph’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos 00s 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album. On the National Register 2 listings protect 72 historic buildings The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
72
each building in a district counts
first listed
1979
Tensas Parish Courthouse
in Louisiana
#102
by listings
Architectural styles listings Greek Revival 1
Colonial Revival 1
Queen Anne 1
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
The story How St. Joseph came to be From Wikipedia’s history of St. Joseph.
Read it all → The first store at what became St. Joseph was established around 1813 at what was then called John Densmore's Landing. Unique for the Deep South, St. Joseph was planned and developed in 1843 by European-American settlers around a New England–style village green. The downtown area along Plank Road is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The area around the town was developed for cotton plantations.
Text from Wikipedia , licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 .
At a glance
Established 1843
Half its homes built before 1965
Oldest landmark with a date Tensas Parish Courthouse, 1905
Oldest item in the archive 1864
People in 2020 831 The houses today → By decade St. Joseph, decade by decade One decade in the archive so far: the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Then & now Stand where they stood No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this view Loc.gmd g4042m.cw0048420 Mississippi River SHEET 1 1864 by US Coast Survey, 1864 Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on St. Joseph’s page.
Retake this view · +15 Famous people 6 famous people were born in St. Joseph Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
See all → Memory lane What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Town Square →
Weigh in
Has St. Joseph changed for the better?
Yes I miss the old days
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Start a conversation
What used to stand where something else is now in St. Joseph? → Who remembers St. Joseph in the 1950s? → A family story from old St. Joseph → Does anyone have photos of St. Joseph from the 1990s? →
From Wikimedia Commons (7), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia and Wikidata for famous people. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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