Est. 1939 · Confederate State Capitol Use 1862 · Five-Courthouse Site Since 1806 · Parish Executions — Hangings and Electrocution · Art Deco Public Architecture · Civil War Louisiana History
St. Landry Parish is one of Louisiana's original nineteen counties established by the state legislature in 1807, and the city of Opelousas has served as its seat since the parish's organization. The first courthouse was a modest building erected in 1806; four successive structures followed as the parish grew and each building aged out.
The 1847 courthouse stands as the most historically significant predecessor. When Union forces advanced on Baton Rouge in 1862, Louisiana's Confederate state government relocated to Opelousas, briefly making this building the de facto Confederate capitol for the state. The occupation was short-lived, but the courthouse retained its role as the center of parish justice through Reconstruction and into the early twentieth century.
The third floor of the 1847 structure housed the parish jail, and that jail witnessed three executions: two by hanging and one by electrocution. The parish transitioned to the current 1939 building, an Art Deco structure constructed under Depression-era federal programs, which has operated continuously since.
Staff at the current courthouse have reported two specific recurring incidents: two men seen at a staircase who then vanish, and an elevator that activates and operates independently without anyone pressing the call button. A local television crew from KLFY documented staff accounts of these events, and paranormal investigators subsequently captured audio described as a gavel striking in an empty courtroom, along with growls, footsteps, and whispered sounds in unoccupied areas. The St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission has included the courthouse among officially promoted haunted-heritage stops in the parish.
Sources
- http://hauntednation.blogspot.com/2016/10/st-landry-parish-courthouse-opelousas.html
- https://www.klfy.com/local/st-landry-parish/is-the-st-landry-parish-courthouse-haunted/
- https://cajuntravel.com/blog/haunted-louisiana-road-trip/
ApparitionsPhantom footstepsEVPPhantom soundsUnexplained elevator activity
The reports from St. Landry Parish Courthouse employees center on two recurring staircase incidents: staff have seen two men on the stairs who are not there when searched for, with no explanation for where they went. The accounts are consistent enough that the staircase has become the location most associated with the building's paranormal reputation.
The elevator presents a different kind of incident: it activates and moves between floors without anyone pressing a button or being visible inside when the doors open. KLFY, the local Lafayette television station, ran a segment on the courthouse phenomena that included firsthand accounts from courthouse employees describing both the staircase vanishings and the elevator.
Paranormal investigators who conducted a formal investigation of the building recorded audio they identified as a gavel striking wood in a vacant courtroom, along with sounds described as growls, footsteps on floors where no one was present, and whispered voices. No specific identities have been attached to these phenomena, which is consistent with the building's layered history — the 1939 structure replaced a jail where at least three men died, on a site that has housed parish justice functions for over two centuries.
