Saint-Louis-de-Kent[a] is a former village in Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada. It held village status prior to 2023 and is now part of the town of Beaurivage.
Often shortened to simply Saint-Louis, the village is situated on the Kouchibouguacis River at the main entrance to Kouchibouguac National Park. It is considered as the birthplace of the Acadian Flag. A local park, parc des forgeron, celebrates the birth of this flag in 1884.
Saint-Louis-de-Kent was founded by Joseph Babineau in 1797.[2] L'Académie Saint-Louis was founded in 1874 by Father Marcel-François Richard. The Congregation of Notre-Dame of Montréal founded a convent in 1879. The academy became a college in 1876, but it was closed in 1882 by Bishop James Rogers. Additional facilities included a telephone line between Quebec and Halifax.
A religious Grotto and Calvary was erected next to the Kouchibouguacis River between 1878 and 1882, and remains an important Acadian pilgrimage site. It was declared a Heritage Site in 2005.[3]
On 1 January 2023, Saint-Louis-de-Kent amalgamated with the town of Richibucto and all or part of for local service districts to form the new town of Beaurivage.[4][5] The community's name remains in official use.[6]
Demographics
The Kouchibouguacis River flows through St. Louis de Kent. This bridge was replaced with a modern structure over a 3-year construction period, and opened in 2016.[7][8]
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Saint-Louis de Kent had a population of 981 living in 424 of its 452 total private dwellings, a change of 14.6% from its 2016 population of 856. With a land area of 1.98 km2 (0.76 sq mi), it had a population density of 495.5/km2 (1,283.2/sq mi) in 2021.[1]
^Written Saint-Louis de Kent in successive regulations defining the province's municipalities, the common form with three hyphens was normally used even by other provincial government departments.
14.6%
