Rapides

Formed March 31, 1807 (10^th parish)

Rapides Parish (130,030), Alexandria (45,271)

An Art Deco seven-story masonry and concrete structure is the courthouse for Rapides Parish.   The facility was built in 1939 on Murray Street at Foisy Avenue.  Murray is United States Highway Business 165 through the city.  Interstate Highway 49 is four blocks west of the courthouse.  Edward F. Neild, D. A. Somdal, and Edward F. Neild, Jr., provided the designs.  A 1904 courthouse was also located in Alexandria, the only parish seat.  An Annex was added in 1974.  Rapides Parish was the birthplace of 2 Louisiana Governors, James M. Wells and Newton C. Blanchard.  The parish was an original one formed on March 31, 1807 (10^th parish.) 

Rapides Parish government consists of a President, a sheriff, a clerk, a treasurer, and a coroner (executive).  It has 9 Police Jury Members (legislative.)  Six District Court Judges and Thirteen Justice Court Judges serve Rapides Parish (judicial.) The parish is in the center of the state between Shreveport, Louisiana, northwest, and Lafayette, Louisiana, southeast.  The Red River flows through the middle of the parish.  The parish center is 16.6 miles Southwest of Alexandria nearer Woodworth.  The parish is surrounded clockwise by Grant, La Salle, Avoyelles, Evangeline, Allen, Vernon, and Natchitoches parishes. 

The area of the parish is 1362 square miles.  It is 7 out of 64 in the state.  It ranks 11 out of 64 in population in the state.  It has a density of 95.5 persons per square mile making it 17 out of 64 in the state.  Rapides Parish has 53.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 49 crosses diagonally northwest to southeast, Natchitoches to Evangeline parishes.  United States Highway 71 enters from the north, Grant Parish, and exits to the southeast, Avoyelles Parish.  United States Highway 165 comes from Grant Parish, north, and goes to Allen Parish, southwest.  United States Highway 167 crosses north to south from Grant to Evangeline parishes.  A plow blade facing to the northeast can describe the parish shape.  Alexandria is slightly east and north of center.  Alexandria is the parish seat and the largest city.  It is 23.0% of the parish population.  The parish is pronounced RA-PEEDZ.  This parish is in the Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Woodworth