Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Plattenville, Louisiana)

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The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as the Assumption Church, is a historic Roman Catholic church in Plattenville, Louisiana. Built in 1856, it was designed by architect Wilson Grisamore in English Gothic style and sits on about 6.4 acres near the end of Bridge Street off Louisiana Highway 308. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 1979 (reference number 79001051).

History and context
The area around Plattenville was settled by Canary Islanders and Acadians beginning in 1779. The local parish was formed in 1793, with its first church described as “little more than a shack.” A larger church replaced it in 1819, and the current 1856 building was constructed nearby. The parish’s governing body, the Fabrique, hired Grisamore to build the church for $13,500, modeling it after the Catholic church in Thibodaux, with a bell tower 15 feet taller.

Architecture and features
The church features an English Gothic design with a pitched roof and a basilican plan. It has a central square tower at the narthex, plus a stair leading to a small second-floor gallery. The five-bay nave ends in an apsidal chancel, with one-story spaces on the sides. Exterior walls are brick, supporting a timber roof, and the interior has wood columns inspired by Gothic colonettes. The exterior buttresses are not structural.

Construction and later notes
The project was paid for over four years, with an additional $1,129.48 for extra work in 1855, and the church seems to have been essentially complete by 1856. In 1916, its reputation grew after a nearby church, St. Joseph’s in Thibodaux, burned. By 1979 the church was accessed via a gravel road off Louisiana Highway 308.