Louisiana Orphan Train Museum/ Musée du train orphelin de Louisiane

An interesting and well-maintained volunteer-run museum with strong local connections and moving stories about the "orphaned" children who arrived in South Louisiana from New York City as indentured servants. Some stories are heartbreaking, but they’re presented with great care and reverence, highlighting how many of these children were later adopted and lead full, successful lives despite their difficult beginnings.

Located on Le Vieux Village property, this museum outlines the children who were brought down from New York as there were so many who were born to unwed mothers, parents who could not afford to keep their children for one reason or another and they were getting crowded at the asylums. The sisters at the Catholic Church set up homes for the children, not as an adoption officially, but with homes that would treat them as their own and then checked in annually to ensure they were being treated properly, which for the late 1800s and early 1900s is an amazing thing. No pictures are allowed to be taken inside due to the privacy of the families and the stigma of taking in orphans at that time. The lady working was full of information and gave a lot of information about the children involved and what happened as they grew up. This is only one city of many that children were brought to. To see the clothing and hear the stories was just amazing. I highly recommend this to anyone in the area.

We had a wonderful time at the Orphan Train Museum. It was great learning experience for our homeschool group. The curators were very knowledgeable and had a great presentation. There were so many items to look at and read about. After we were done, we were able to eat a picnic lunch on the lawn and our kids ran around and explored La Vieux Village, a little historical Cajun town. I would recommend this place to any group looking for a field trip outing. Free for students and they only ask a few dollars donation per adult.