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Office: West Feliciana Parish 911/Communications and Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness – dispatch operated from the Sheriff’s Office Emergency Operations Center | Communications (225) 784-3151.
Sheriff: West Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office – 4785 Prosperity Street, St. Francisville, LA 70775 (P.O. Box 1844) | (225) 635-3241 | Fax (225) 635-6947; Sheriff Brian L. Spillman, in office since 2020; 92 regular deputies plus 26 part-time deputies. West Feliciana Parish Detention Center – 4834 Feliciana Street, St. Francisville, LA | (225) 784-3158 | Fax (225) 635-3255.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-61 serves St. Francisville, the parish seat, perched on a narrow bluff overlooking the Mississippi River – famously nicknamed “the town two miles long and two yards wide.”
Notes: West Feliciana Parish was founded as a burial site for Capuchin monks, who named the area for St. Francis, patron saint of nature and wildlife.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: West Feliciana Parish Courthouse – St. Francisville, LA.
Notes: West Feliciana Parish holds two very different but nationally significant institutions. It is home to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, whose Red Hat Cell Block is on the National Register of Historic Places and now offers educational tours reflecting the facility’s modern focus on rehabilitation. The parish is also where naturalist and artist John James Audubon spent the summer of 1821 at Oakley Plantation, tutoring the owner’s daughter and completing 32 of his celebrated “Birds of America” paintings – the site is preserved today as Audubon State Historic Site. St. Francisville’s historic downtown contains over 150 historic structures and six plantation homes open for public tours, including the famously “haunted” Myrtles Plantation (built 1796) and Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: West Feliciana Parish Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/west-feliciana-parish.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
West Feliciana Parish Library – confirm current address/phone via the parish library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Audubon State Historic Site, Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site, the Myrtles Plantation, Afton Villa Gardens, and Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge are the parish’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine Audubon connection and the Angola prison’s national significance are among the most distinctive historical facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: West Feliciana Parish Tax Assessor – confirm current contact via stfrancisville.net.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
James L. “Bo” Bryant Animal Shelter (West Feliciana Animal Humane Society) – 9946 West Feliciana Parkway, St. Francisville, LA 70775 | (225) 635-5801 | Email: [email protected]; opened August 2012 with a donation from namesake James “Bo” Bryant, jointly maintained by the Sheriff’s Office and Parish Council and staffed by volunteers and work-release inmates. A genuine local success story: the parish’s stray-animal save rate rose from under 10% before 2012 to over 95% today. A closed-intake shelter – owner surrenders generally not accepted, prioritizing capacity for parish strays; offers Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) services. Dog adoption fee $140, cat adoption fee $100.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: West Feliciana Parish Public Works – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/west-feliciana-parish.
NOTES: West Feliciana Parish is the fourth parish in the eleventh (final) batch of the Louisiana v2 A+ sourced standard. The genuine Audubon connection and the Angola prison’s national significance are among the most distinctive historical facts covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About West Feliciana Parish County
West Feliciana Parish is Louisiana’s antebellum grandeur and Angola Penitentiary parish – St. Francisville’s Rosedown Plantation garden and Audubon’s painting grounds and the largest maximum security prison in America occupying a Mississippi River plantation define a parish of extraordinary historical and social contrasts above Baton Rouge.
St. Francisville (the parish seat, population ~1,700) is West Feliciana Parish’s governmental hub on US 61, a north Louisiana bluff country community whose Rosedown Plantation, Audubon State Historic Site, and antebellum architecture make it one of the most architecturally distinguished small towns in the South.
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West Feliciana Parish Assessor at 5860 Commerce Street, St. Francisville, LA 70775, phone 225-635-3461. LA assessed at 10% of fair market value.
Courts & Legal
West Feliciana Parish District Court at 5860 Commerce Street, St. Francisville, LA 70775, phone 225-635-3794, handles successions.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURT (Records, Vital Records, Mortgages)
4780 Prosperity St., St. Francisville, LA 70775
(225) 635-3794
Genealogy
Parish-level record sources
West Feliciana Parish Clerk of Court (succession/estate case files – see Succession section above).
St. Francisville’s well-preserved antebellum plantation homes and historic district are significant local historical resources.
Local societies
No dedicated West Feliciana Parish genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
A NOTE ON LOUISIANA LAW: Louisiana is the only U.S. state built on a civil-law tradition (rooted in the Napoleonic Code) rather than English common law. Louisiana doesn’t use the word “probate” – the equivalent process is called a “succession,” and its 64 parishes are the equivalent of counties elsewhere. Community property and separate property rules also work differently here than in common-law states, which can affect what’s actually part of the succession.
Where to go
West Feliciana Parish 20th Judicial District Court, Clerk of Court 4785 Prosperity Street (P.O. Box 1843), St. Francisville, LA 70775 (225) 635-3794 West Feliciana Parish is north of Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana, seated in St. Francisville. The 20th Judicial District also covers East Feliciana Parish.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Small Succession Affidavit – under La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 3421 et seq., available for estates with a gross value of $125,000 or less at the date of death (or of any value if the decedent has been dead more than 20 years). No court proceeding is required. At least two people must sign – typically the surviving spouse (if any) plus one or more heirs, sworn before a notary. If the estate includes immovable property (real estate), the affidavit can’t be recorded until 90 days after the date of death, and it must be recorded with the Clerk of Court/Recorder in every parish where the decedent owned real estate.
Succession Without Administration (“simple possession”) – used when there are no debts to pay and all heirs agree; commonly resolved in 30 to 90 days via a Petition for Possession.
Administered Succession – required when a court-appointed succession representative needs to inventory assets and pay debts before distribution; typically takes 3 to 9 months, longer if contested.
Important: for anything beyond a small succession affidavit, Louisiana courts generally require a licensed Louisiana attorney to represent the succession – self-representation and generic online forms are not accepted the way they are in many other states.
Step 2: filing a regular succession
File a Petition for Possession (simple cases) or a Petition for Administration (if a representative and formal administration are needed) in the district court of the parish where the decedent was domiciled at death.
The court admits any will and, where needed, appoints an executor (testate) or administrator (intestate), issuing Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
In an administered succession, the representative prepares a sworn descriptive list of assets, pays valid debts, and accounts to the court.
The court issues a Judgment of Possession, which must then be recorded in the parish conveyance/land records and with the parish tax assessor to clear title.
What it costs
Filing fees vary by parish and case type; publication costs apply when legal notices are required.
A full administered succession typically requires attorney representation – flat fees for straightforward matters often run in the low thousands of dollars, more if contested or complex.
A small succession affidavit is far less expensive and, when no real estate is involved, can often be handled without an attorney – though even small errors can cause a bank, title company, or the Louisiana OMV to reject the affidavit.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
4780 Prosperity St., St. Francisville, LA 70775
(225) 635-3461
SHERIFF / TAX COLLECTOR
4780 Prosperity St., St. Francisville, LA 70775
(225) 635-3461
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (Elections)
4780 Prosperity St., St. Francisville, LA 70775
(225) 635-3794
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
West Feliciana Parish Health Unit
(225) 635-3644
LA DCFS — Capital Region
(225) 342-4086
LA Medicaid
(888) 342-6207
Our Lady of the Lake (Baton Rouge)
ololrmc.com (accessible for major care)
Lane Regional Medical Center
laneregional.org (Zachary — accessible)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: West Feliciana Parish Health and Hospitals – (225) 635-3811.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
Population: 16,000
Area: 428 sq mi
Established: 1824
Public Records
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