Statue of Saint Charles Borromeo (By Joe Schexnaydre)
St. Charles Borromeo Church. Year unknown. Courtesy of the Clarion Herald.
The Little Red Church on the River by Clarence Millet, 1940 (Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection, Acc.#1999.118.8)
Little Red Church. Tradition holds that the 1740 St. Charles log chapel was destroyed by fire in 1806 and rebuilt the same year. It was replaced by a wood-framed structure and painted red. The “Little Red Church” became a famous landmark for river travelers. Passengers going downriver were relieved to see the Red Church because it meant New Orleans was only 25 miles away. (Photo courtesy of Fay Walker Louque)
The 1740 chapel, named “St. Charles,” was built in the area now known as Destrehan. (Sketch by Janis Blair)
Map of early villages of the German Coast. (Map by Norman Marmillion)
"With the help of perhaps 80 lumberjacks, carpenters, and other workers provided by the Company of the Indes, these Germans (Swiss and Alsations) built three villages modeled upon European towns in which houses were stretched out along the only road running through the village... Probaby with the help of the 80 individuals who had assisted in the construction of the villages, the Germans began to clear, cultivate, and sew the lands around them with the grains and vegetables." – Reinhart Kondert, The Germans of Colonial Louisiana: 1720-1803
In 2003, the St. Charles Historical Foundation, with funding from a Dow grant, conducted an aerial search for these early villages using thermal imaging photography to register temperature differences that might indicate where cultural activity took place centuries ago. “Hot spots” were discovered in the area of the Nelson Coleman Correction Center.