Editing Port Allen, Louisiana (section)

== History ==

=== Pre-history ===
The village of La Ville De St. Michel or San Miguel (1790–1817) had existed in a nearby location to what is now the city of Port Allen.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Jones|first=Terry L.|date=Oct 1, 2016|title=Port Allen turns 100; celebration set Oct. 7-9|url=https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/festivals/article_b5cf49ac-80e4-11e6-b98f-2f9de6d8ea27.html|access-date=2021-05-28|website=The Advocate|language=en}}</ref> Around the 1850s, a new community had started around the same location and went by the name Town of West Baton Rouge.<ref name=":0" />

=== Founding of Port Allen ===
The city of Port Allen was founded in 1878.<ref name=":0" /> The name Port Allen is in honor of [[Henry Watkins Allen]], a member of the American [[Confederate States Army]] and the [[List of Governors of Louisiana|17th Governor of Louisiana]].<ref name=":0" /> Allen was instrumental in the early years of the village, prior to the founding of the city, he had owned a slave-worked [[Plantation|sugar plantation]] in town he had started in 1855, the Allendale Plantation, and he created his own railroad that ran through the village.<ref name="nrhpdoc">{{cite web|author=Louisiana Department of Historic Preservation National Register|date=August 1987|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Allendale Plantation Historic District|url={{NRHP url|id=96001263}}|access-date=May 28, 2021|publisher=[[National Park Service]], [[U.S. Department of the Interior]]}} (with {{NRHP url|id=96001263|photos=y|title=with 13 accompanying photos taken in August 1996}})</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Louisiana's Warrior Governor|url=https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/louisianas-warrior-governor/|access-date=2021-05-28|website=Abbeville Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=NPGallery Asset Detail, Allendale Plantation Historic District|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/96001263|access-date=2021-05-28|website=NPGallery Digital Asset Management System, [[National Park Service]], [[U.S. Department of the Interior]]}}</ref>

=== Nearby Sunrise ===
Around 1878, a former slave named Alex Banes was creating a small community called Sunrise, which existed just north of what is now Port Allen.<ref name=":0" /> Many of the inhabitants of Sunrise worked at the railroad Anchorage Depot; by 1900 the depot had been moved taking much of the community's population with it.<ref name=":0" /> In 1918, Sunrise had a fire that destroyed much of the town and businesses, and as a result the area integrated into the neighboring town, which by then was known as Port Allen.<ref name=":0" />

=== Industrialization and growth ===
By 1916, the city had incorporated.<ref name=":0" /> On August 10, 1940, the [[Huey P. Long Bridge (Baton Rouge)|Huey P. Long Bridge]] at [[U.S. Route 190]] was unveiled, which joined the east and west parishes, and shaping the city towards and aiding commerce and industries.<ref name=":0" /> Over time there was economic shifts away from agricultural and towards industrial, and in the 1950s factories and manufacturing plants were built in town.<ref name=":0" /> In 1963, the town population reached 5,000 and it was renamed as a city.<ref name=":0" />

For many years the city was [[Racial segregation|racially segregated]].<ref name=":0" />