Youngsville was settled in the early 19th century by French Acadian farmers. Prior to 1839, George Roy and his son, Desire, laid out the area and named the community "Royville". The settlement had grown large enough by 1859 to establish one of the oldest Catholic churches in Lafayette Parish: St. Anne Church, on the community's oldest street, Church Street. In 1908, the U.S. Postal Service asked village leaders to change the name because the town was being confused with the north Louisiana town of Rayville. So in 1908, the village of Youngsville was incorporated, with the name meaning "young village". It chose a government of a mayor and three aldermen.
On January 20, 1983, Louisiana Governor David C. Treen declared Youngsville a town. The town increased its governing body to a mayor and five aldermen to accommodate its population.
Youngsville was the fastest growing town in Louisiana from 1990 to 2005. Its population has increased by over 300 percent. According to the 2010 U.S. census, Youngsville grew at a rate of 103% between year 2000 and 2010. Youngsville was declared a city by Governor Kathleen Blanco in 2006.[9] In 2007, Mayor Wilson Viator and the Youngsville City Council named Joey Langlinais as the Chairman of the Centennial Committee.[10]
Although the city has extended its boundaries and expanded its services, Youngsville has remained a rural city surrounded by sugarcane farms.[11]
On the morning of August 12, 2016, rain began to fall over Youngsville, as well as much of the south central part of the state, in what is now being considered to be the state's worst flood disaster by rainfall on record, in some areas.[12][13]
The Louisiana flood of 2016 was triggered by a complicated, slow-moving low-pressure weather system that dumped as much as two feet of rain on several parishes in 48 hours. The record two-day rainfall in some areas had a 0.1 percent chance of occurring in any year, the equivalent of a "1,000-year rain", according to the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center, based at the Slidell office of the National Weather Service.
In the two-day period ending Saturday at 8 p.m., several areas also saw rainfall amounts equaling a 1 percent chance of occurring in any year, a so-called 100-year event. The Red Cross called this "the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy".[14]
The center of Lafayette is 10 miles (16 km) to the north, Abbeville is 16 miles (26 km) to the southwest, and New Iberia is 16 miles to the southeast. According to the United States Census Bureau, Youngsville has a total land area of 12.07 square miles (31.26 km2), all of it recorded as land.[16]
The public elementary schools in Youngsville are Green T. Lindon Elementary School (located in downtown Youngsville)[21] and Ernest Gallet Elementary School (located on Highway 92 between Chemin Metairie Parkway and Bonin Road).[22] The Youngsville Middle School[23] hosts students in sixth through eighth grades and is located at the corner of School Street and Church Street in downtown Youngsville. All public school students from Youngsville attend Southside High in Youngsville or attend Ovey Comeaux High School in southern Lafayette.
Private schools
Private schools in the city include Westminster Christian Academy,[24] located on the outskirts of Youngsville, and Youngsville Christian School, offering Kindergarten thru 12th grade in downtown Youngsville.[25] Ascension Episcopal School,[26] a private high school, is located near the Youngsville Sports Complex on Chemin Metaire Parkway across from Sugar Mill Pond.
Transportation
The city of Youngsville began construction of the Chemin Metairie Parkway Project in the spring of 2007 to improve the roads in and around Youngsville. The first segment, from the intersection of Highway 92 and Chemin Metairie, to central Youngsville, opened in early 2009. Originally called the Youngsville Parkway, the road was renamed to avoid confusion with the existing Youngsville Highway also known as Highway 89. Chemin Metairie Parkway joins Highway 90 near the Baker Hughes Complex in Broussard. A section of the parkway passes through the Sugar Mill Pond development and a new shopping complex anchored by Lafayette Parish's first Rouse's Grocery Store.
In recent years, Youngsville has become known for its roundabouts. It was the first community within Lafayette Parish to embrace the usage of traffic circles to ease the congestion of the city's rising population. Youngsville now boasts at least 10 roundabouts at the following intersections:[27]
The citizens of Youngsville voted in favor of a multi million-dollar, 70-acre sports complex along Chemin Metairie Parkway near Savoy Road. Construction to this complex began in 2012 and now has over 500,000 players and visitors coming to this state of the art facility.[28]
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