St. James Parish, Louisiana

St. James Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States, on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. It had a population of 20,192 at the 2020 census and covers 258 square miles (670 km2) centred near 30°02′N 90°48′W.

Convent is the parish seat, and its postal code is 70723. The parish holds 2 incorporated towns (Gramercy and Lutcher) and about a dozen unincorporated communities and census-designated places, plus numerous smaller rural settlements and former plantation sites along the river road. It sits in the Central time zone, FIPS code 22093.

Towns & Villages in St. James Parish

Two incorporated towns anchor the parish—Gramercy and Lutcher, both on the east bank near the Sunshine and Gramercy bridges. The rest of the parish is unincorporated: a dozen census-designated places (CDP) plus dozens of smaller river-road settlements, many named for former sugar plantations. “Unincorp.” below covers named localities with no CDP boundary.

Lutcher and Gramercy sit less than a mile apart on the east bank and are often treated as one built-up area; the two towns share a school district and a common downtown corridor along LA 641/Main Street. North Vacherie and South Vacherie are two CDPs either side of the historic Vacherie community, itself older than either census designation and still the common name locals use.

ZIP Codes

• 70723 — Convent (parish seat, also serves St. James and Union)
• 70052 — Gramercy
• 70071 — Lutcher
• 70090 — Vacherie (also serves North and South Vacherie)
• 70763 — Paulina

Smaller river-road settlements such as Oak Alley, Central, White Hall and Hymel are served by the ZIP code of the nearest post-office town rather than one of their own.

Geography

St. James Parish straddles the Mississippi River, with the east and west banks linked by the Sunshine Bridge (LA 70/70-Business) and the Gramercy Bridge (LA 3213/Veterans Memorial Bridge). Of its 258 square miles, 242 square miles are land and 16 square miles (6.4%) are water — mostly the river itself and a strip of backswamp toward Lake Maurepas. The land is flat alluvial plain, historically planted in sugar cane, with a narrow ridge of higher ground along the natural river levee where most towns and plantation houses sit.

St. James Parish borders Ascension Parish to the north, St. John the Baptist Parish to the east, Lafourche Parish to the south, and Assumption Parish to the west.

Demographics

St. James Parish had 20,192 residents at the 2020 census, a density of roughly 83 people per square mile of land. Lutcher (3,133) and Gramercy (2,932) are the two largest communities and together hold nearly a third of the parish’s population. Median household income in the parish runs below the Louisiana median of $58,229, reflecting a local economy weighted toward industrial shift work and agriculture rather than higher-wage professional employment.

Economy & Local Life

Heavy industry dominates the parish economy: several petrochemical and refining plants line the river road on both banks, including a major refinery near Convent, alongside grain elevators and sugar mills that still process cane grown in the parish. St. James Parish is the only place in the world where Perique tobacco, a dark fire-cured leaf once traded to Native American tribes and later prized by European pipe blenders, is commercially grown — almost all of it around the Grand Point and Paulina area. Oak Alley Plantation, with its quarter-mile canopy of live oaks, is the parish’s best-known tourist site and a regular film location.

History

St. James Parish was created on March 31, 1807, one of the original 19 civil parishes established under territorial government, and takes its name from the Roman Catholic Church of St. James the Apostle, whose original 18th-century congregation is documented from the 1750s among early Acadian and French Creole settlers. Sugar cultivation on riverfront plantations, worked first by enslaved labor and later by tenant and wage labor, shaped the parish’s economy and settlement pattern into the 20th century; several plantation houses, including Oak Alley (built in the 1830s), survive as historic sites. Every Christmas Eve, families along the river light bonfires atop the Mississippi River levee, a Cajun/Creole tradition dating at least to the early 1900s that still draws visitors from across the region.

Getting There

Interstate 10 skirts the parish’s northern edge near Sorrento, and US Highway 61 runs the length of the east bank through Gramercy, Lutcher and Convent. Louisiana Highway 18 (River Road) and LA 20 carry local traffic along both riverbanks; the Sunshine and Gramercy bridges are the only Mississippi River crossings within the parish.

• Baton Rouge — 25 miles northwest
• New Orleans — 45 miles southeast
• Donaldsonville — 12 miles west
• LaPlace — 15 miles east

The nearest commercial airport is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY), about 40 miles southeast of Convent. No Amtrak service runs through the parish.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is St. James Parish?
It lies on the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

What is the population of St. James Parish?
20,192 people at the 2020 census.

How big is St. James Parish?
258 square miles (670 km2) total, of which 242 square miles is land.

What is the county seat of St. James Parish?
Convent is the parish seat.

How many towns are in St. James Parish?
Two incorporated towns, Gramercy and Lutcher, plus about a dozen unincorporated communities and census-designated places.

What ZIP codes are in St. James Parish?
Convent (70723), Gramercy (70052), Lutcher (70071), Vacherie (70090) and Paulina (70763) are the main post-office towns.

What crop is unique to St. James Parish?
Perique tobacco — the parish is the only place in the world where it is commercially grown, mostly near Grand Point and Paulina.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Louisiana.