(LAFAYETTE, LA) – If you’ve ever been to an event in Parc Sans Souci (maybe a Bach Lunch or Downtown Alive), you’ve probably walked right past the little building at 219 E. Vermilion Street without giving it a second thought. I know I have. But that small cypress building may be the oldest surviving commercial building in downtown Lafayette, and it’s the reason the park has the name it does.
Sources don’t agree on exactly when it was built. Some local researchers put it around 1840, while the city’s historic register dates it closer to 1880. Either way, it was standing long before anybody was thinking about a downtown park.
It Started as an Inn in Vermilionville
The building was constructed by businessman Richard Chargois back when Lafayette was still Vermilionville. Back then, the spot wasn’t in the middle of downtown at all. It sat near the outskirts of a small settlement.
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According to Downtown Lafayette’s historical account, travelers were already using it as an inn by 1840. That makes sense when you picture what this area looked like. Roads were rough, stagecoach routes were just taking shape, and Vermilionville was becoming the place that connected New Iberia, Abbeville and Opelousas. Small wonder Lafayette was called the ‘Hub City’.
Post Office, Grocery, Cobbler and More
After its days as an inn, the building reportedly served as Vermilionville’s first post office before the Civil War. From there, it pretty much did a little bit of everything. Historical accounts list it at different times as a restaurant, a carpenter shop, a grocery, a tinsmith shop, a shoe repair shop and even a newspaper office. The Chargois family held onto the property until around 1940.
The Building Was Almost Lost
In 1940, Mrs. Frederick Nehrbass bought the property, and according to its preservation history, that purchase saved it from demolition. She fixed up the old building and first ran an antiques business out of it. The next chapter is the one that gave the building, and eventually the park, its name.
Where the Name Sans Souci Came From
Mrs. Nehrbass teamed up with Edith Garland Dupré, one of the original faculty members at Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute (Go Bulldogs!), which we know today as UL Lafayette. If her name sounds familiar, it should. Dupré spent more than 40 years in the world of education, and the university’s Edith Garland Dupré Library is named for her.
In December 1943, the two opened the Sans Souci Bookstore. The name came from Dupré’s own home on Cherry Street, which she called “Sans Souci.” In French, it means “without worry,” which is about as Acadiana as it gets.
The Park Came Later
Parc Sans Souci came to be from a downtown revitalization project in the 1990s. A major streetscape project created or renovated several public spaces, including Parc Sans Souci, Parc International, Parc Putnam and Parc de Lafayette. So the park was built around a building that had already been standing there for generations.
A Crafts Gallery and a New Chapter
Around 2001, the building got another restoration and became home to the Louisiana Crafts Guild’s Sans Souci Fine Crafts Gallerie. The guild stayed for more than 20 years before moving to a bigger downtown spot in early 2023.
Along the way, ownership passed from the Downtown Development Authority to the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority around 2013 and 2014, which has invested in keeping the old structure standing. After the guild moved out, Parish Architecture planned another rehab of the roughly 1,200-square-foot building, keeping its historic character while adding outdoor seating to connect it with the park…