Versailles, Louisiana

Geobox Settlement
name = Versailles
native_name =
other_name =
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category = Unincorporated community


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country = United States
state = Louisiana
region = St. Bernard Parish
region_type = Parish
area_imperial =
area_land_imperial =
area_water_imperial =
area_water_percentage = auto
area_percentage_round =
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location =
lat_d = 29
lat_m = 56
lat_s = 54
lat_NS = N
long_d = 89
long_m = 57
long_s = 39
long_EW = W
elevation_imperial =
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population_as_of =
population =
population_density_imperial =
population_density_round = 1
established_type =
established =
mayor =
timezone = CST
utc_offset = -6
timezone_DST = CDT
utc_offset_DST = -5
postal_code =
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free_type =
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map_size =
map_caption = Location of Versailles in Louisiana
map_locator = Louisiana
map1 = Map of USA LA.svg
map1_caption = Location of Louisiana in the United States
website =

Versailles is a community in Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana. It is along the East Bank of the Mississippi River, about 3.5 miles below the lower limit of New Orleans. The community, for governmental and postal address purposes, is considered part of Chalmette and by some designations, part of neighboring Meraux. The name "Versailles", as a place designation, continues in local use.

History

Versailles was founded by plantation owner Peter De La Ronde in the second half of the 1810s. De La Ronde made plans to lay out Versailles along the River and cut a barge canal through some dozen miles of swamp to the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, where he would build another town, called "Paris". (These communities were to be named for the famous Paris and Versailles in France.) De La Ronde proclaimed that his Versailles would soon overtake New Orleans in size and importance. Such development never happened. Versailles remained just a small town for the rest of the 19th century, the proposed Paris on the Lakefront never developed, and no navigable canal linked the River and the Lake until the Industrial Canal was built in New Orleans in the 20th century.

De La Ronde's road fared better; his path through the swamps developed into a major artery, and Paris Road remains the furthest down-river route connecting the River with the Lake in the Greater New Orleans Metropolitan Area.

In the last quarter of the 20th century, a number of immigrants from Vietnam settled in Versailles, many working in the shrimp boat industry.Fact|date=July 2008