St. Mary Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States, on the south-central Gulf coast along Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya Bay. It had a population of 49,406 at the 2020 census and covers 1,119 square miles (2,900 km2), about half of it open water, centred near 29\u00b038\u2032N 91\u00b028\u2032W.<\/p>\n
Franklin is the parish seat, and its postal code is 70538. St. Mary Parish has five incorporated cities and towns — Franklin, Morgan City, Patterson, Berwick and Baldwin — plus a long list of unincorporated communities and census-designated places strung along Bayou Teche and the coast. It lies in the Central time zone.<\/p>\n
Five places are incorporated; the rest are unincorporated communities, census-designated places (CDPs), and rural settlements that appear on parish maps but have no municipal government of their own.<\/p>\n
| Place<\/th>\n | Type<\/th>\n | Pop.<\/th>\n | ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin<\/td>\n | City · seat<\/td>\n | 6,728<\/td>\n | 70538<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Morgan City<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 11,472<\/td>\n | 70380<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Patterson<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 70392<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Berwick<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 70342<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Baldwin<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 70514<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Amelia<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 70340<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bayou Vista<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 70380<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Centerville<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 70538<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Charenton<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 70523<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cypremort Point<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 70538<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Adeline<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Avoca<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Calumet<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Garden City<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Glencoe<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Irish Bend<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Ivanhoe<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Landry<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Oaklawn<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Ramos<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sorrel<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Verdunville<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n Charenton is the seat of government of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, whose reservation sits along Bayou Teche in the parish’s northwest corner. Several older place names on parish maps — Fairville, Freetown, Home Place, Idlewild, Midway and North Bend among them — mark former plantation-era settlements or rail sidings rather than present-day communities, and are not listed above for lack of a verifiable current population or ZIP.<\/p>\n ZIP Codes<\/h2>\nMost of the parish’s smaller unincorporated communities share one of these post office ZIPs rather than having their own.<\/p>\n Geography<\/h2>\nSt. Mary Parish sits on Louisiana’s Gulf coast, split roughly in half between dry land along Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya Basin’s marshes, lakes and open water to the south. Vermilion Bay and Atchafalaya Bay form its southern edge, and Cypremort Point State Park occupies a narrow peninsula jutting into Vermilion Bay. The Intracoastal Waterway and the Atchafalaya River cross the parish, and the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge protects bottomland hardwood forest near Franklin.<\/p>\n |