Freetown-Port Rico Coterie

This neighborhood is a historically significant area northeast of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, bounded by East University Avenue, Johnston Street, the railroad track, and Pinhook Road. These boundaries encompass several traditional residential neighborhoods that are separated by Jefferson Street, a primary retail street, McKinley Street, a strip that has become home to a series of bars and clubs and bisected by a Southern Pacific Railroad line. Among the residential neighborhoods is "Freetown", an original subdivision called the "Mouton Addition". Prior to the Civil War many freed slaves in Lafayette settled in this subdivision, along with a heterogeneous mixture of lower- and middle-class Caucasians. Over the years Freetown, as it became known, has had residents from various cultures, including, among others, African, Cajun, Lebanese and Middle Eastern, Greek, Spanish, and Irish peoples. As a community, the residents of Freetown took care of each other. They formed an organization called the "True Friends Society" in an effort to protect members of the community from the Klu Klux Klan. In the 1920's, residents gathered at the Good Hope Hall to listen to jazz performers who came to the neighborhood from around the country to perform. African-Americans only were permitted inside the Hall, but a white audience would gather outside to listen to the music. This was truly a unique occurrence in the United States at this time. Historically, Freetown represents the assimilation of diverse cultures into a neighborhood that effectively protected and sustained this diversity.

• View Freetown-Port Rico Neighborhood Plan
• Freetown-Port Rico Neighborhood Site
• View 2020 Neighborhood Profile
• Coterie Chair: Gabriel Giffin
  • Email Address – freetownportrico@gmail.com
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