Formed December 31, 1807 (16th parish)
Saint Bernard Parish (43,766), Chalmette *(21,562)
A masonry and concrete Art Deco structure was built in 1939 and withstood the 2005 Hurricane Katrina storm. The structure is located on Saint Bernard Highway at Courthouse Square and Parkenham. Saint Bernard Highway is Louisiana State Highway 46 going through the city. The building was renovated in 2011. Saint Bernard (1807) and Chalmette (1939) have both served as parish seat. The parish was created on December 31, 1807 as the 16th parish. The parish was originally part of Orleans County. Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth were the architects. Chalmette was built on the plantation of Ignance Martin de Lino de Chalmette, thus its name. The parish name comes from Saint Bernard of Clarvaux. The parish consists of Bayous, estuaries, and peninsulas.
Saint Bernard Parish government consists of a President, a sheriff, a clerk, a treasurer, and a coroner (executive). It has 7 Council Members (legislative.) Five District Court Judges and Eleven Justice Court Judges serve Saint Bernard Parish (judicial.) The Gulf of Mexico is the eastern border for the parish. Lake Pontchartrain is the western border. New Orleans, Louisiana is west and Mississippi technically is north of the parish. The parish center is 26.6 miles East-Southeast of Chalmette nearer St. Bernard. The parish is surrounded clockwise by Saint Tammany Parish and Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico and Plaquemines and Orleans parishes.
The area of the parish is 1794 square miles. It is 4 out of 64 in the state. It ranks 26 out of 64 in population in the state. It has a density of 24.4 persons per square mile making it 50 out of 64 in the state. Saint Bernard Parish has 0.0% of its population in its incorporated areas since there are no incorporated cities. Interstate Highway 10 enters from St. Tammany Parish to the north and exits into Orleans Parish to the west. United States Highway 11 parallels Interstate Highway 10 from Saint Tammany Parish to Orleans Parish. United States Highway 90 separately parallels Interstate Highway 10 in from Saint Tammany Parish and then joins United States Highway 11 to go into Orleans Parish. The parish is shaped like a baseball glove. Chalmette is in the extreme northwest part of the parish. Chalmette is the parish seat and the largest populated area. It is 49.3% of the parish population. The parish is pronounced SAENT BUR-NARD. The seat is pronounced SHAL-MET. This parish is in the New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Chalmette (unincorporated)
