quote:
ne of those towns where it’s just sad to see what it’s become. Used to be really nice. From what I understand, sugar was the reason for money there in the 70’s/80’s but the farmed land around the town kept it from growing. Now other than the mill and plant work, there is not much going on.

We moved there in 79. Was a nice place to live (for a small town) during the 20 years I lived there. The public high school was huge, the private high school was competetive in all aspects. They closed the fruit of the loom plant in Jeanerette, forcing them to go work at the newly opened casino. The casino thrived for a while, but that has gone to hell in a handbasket. Alot of people worked out at Cabot/Columbia. Some at the pipeline places in Patterson. Some worked at the sugar mills. Well the sugarmills became one mill, and the pipelines sold out and began laying people off. Kids graduating from the local schools leave town and rightfully don't return, because there are no professional options in that town outside of the ones mentioned. So that town has aged with its generation. The black community there has spread and taken over a good bit of what was once nice neighborhoods. And since that section of the population is predominantly poor, it has gone downhill. Anyone with money lives out along the bayou, in Garden City, Charenton, Jeanerette. The private school has barely any enrollment and is not competetive in any sports except maybe baseball and softball. The public schools now have to compete with WSM, which took a good chunch of enrollment and athletes away from the high school.

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Posted by donRANDOMnumbers

Hub City

Member since Nov 2006

16934 posts

Posted on 9/7/23 at 8:54 am to Kracka

Franklin was killed when the land owners wouldn't sell to the oil companies so they could develop infrastructure in the 80s and maybe early 90s; then Sam Jones and his followers finished the job

but practically all of 90 between Lafayette and Houma/new orleans has died off. the berry and Morgan City both struggling.

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Posted by jag211

DFW

Member since Mar 2009

227 posts

Posted on 9/7/23 at 1:45 pm to Kracka

Couldn’t agree more with what Kracka has said. Lived my childhood here until I was 22 moved to Broussard for 10 years then to Dallas for 5 years and now I’m back in the Franklin area to be back close to our family which has been great for us and our kids. Like most small towns in south Louisiana Franklin died 20 years ago. The new Mayor is doing good job of trying to bring the town back to the rich history (believe it or not) it once had but funding is always an issue. If you are from Franklin or the surrounding areas it’s not a bad place but moving here with no connections to the area it won’t have much to offer. My kids both adjusted well to the small town bs pretty well but it helped that my wife and I were from here and had friends with kids their ages at school. Franklin high has a new principal that I went to school with that is doing a great job of cleaning that school up. Hanson is your only private school option. The reality is it’s not a bad place to live but it’s also not a great place to live. With that you’ll get more bang for your buck with a house. My spread would be $700k in Broussard and way over a million in Dallas but we bought here in the $300’s so there’s a plus.
If you hunt, fish, like outdoor stuff it’s a good location but thanks to Dugas you’ll alway over pay for gas Franklin is consistently .30-.40 cents per gallon higher then NI.

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