In the early 1970s, officials at LARC in Lafayette faced an unusual challenge: how to boost tourism while creating meaningful employment for people with developmental disabilities. Dr. Norman Heard, Bob Lowe, and Glen Conrad devised the answer -- an authentic Cajun village built from real homes, not replicas. The team tracked down abandoned 19th-century Acadian houses across the region, many languishing as hay storage or simply rotting in place. Families were contacted, negotiations began, and one by one the houses were moved. C Company of the 245th U.S. Army Reserve Combat Engineers, commanded by Captain Patrick Burke and working alongside Jacques Privat, transformed farmland into a shaded community with dredged bayous, footbridges, and winding paths. Local carpenters, civic organizations, and community volunteers finished the work. By 1978, the village was open, and its first director, Marti Gutierrez, captured the spirit in a Times-Picayune interview: 'The old ways are worth keeping alive, worth handing down, worth remembering.'

Each house tells its own story through the materials and methods of its construction. The Thibodeaux House, dating to around 1820 and brought from the Breaux Bridge area, was built entirely of cypress -- the 'wood eternal' prized for its resistance to rot and insects. Its beams and posts were pre-cut and marked with Roman numerals for assembly, an ingenious system that also made disassembly and relocation possible nearly two centuries later. The Castille House, built around 1860 in Breaux Bridge by a lone European craftsman who spent over a year completing the job entirely by himself, bears carved cypress mantels with symbols: a Christian fish for long life, a rosette called 'progression' signifying a large and prosperous family. The house survived pillaging by Union soldiers during the Civil War. The Billeaud House, from the Billeaud Sugar Plantation in Broussard, now serves as a spinning and weaving cottage, housing a 150-year-old original loom alongside a replica built by 72-year-old Whitney Breaux for the Bicentennial.

The LeBlanc House, built between 1821 and 1856 near Youngsville, carries special significance as the birthplace of Dudley J. 'Couzin Dud' LeBlanc, one of Louisiana's most colorful Cajun politicians. Born there on August 16, 1894, LeBlanc attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute, served as a sergeant in World War I, won election to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1924, became Public Service Commissioner in 1926, and served multiple terms as state senator. The Bernard House, the village's oldest structure, holds paintings by Louisiana artist Robert Dafford -- commissioned by co-founder Bob Lowe -- depicting the Acadian exile from Nova Scotia in 1755 and their arrival along the bayous of Louisiana in 1764-1765. Its oldest section contains an exhibit on Cajun music and the best surviving example of bousillage, the traditional insulation technique of packing mud between posts.

Every December, the village undergoes a transformation for Noel Acadien au Village, a Christmas celebration that draws visitors from across the region for three weeks. The scope of the lighting alone is staggering: Christmas Depot, the New Orleans company responsible for illuminating the grounds, deploys 10 to 12 workers who collectively invest nearly 2,000 hours to complete the job. Planning begins in September, with crews returning in October and November to string lights through the cypress trees, along the bayou paths, and across the historic homes. By mid-November, the work is essentially done. During the event, area musicians, choirs, choruses, and bands perform nightly on the grounds, and children can sit with Santa for an instant photograph. Beyond the holiday season, the village hosts Cajun festivals, weddings, corporate events, and serves as a working arts community -- the Art Gallery, housed in the former home of Dr. Hypolite Salles, Lafayette's first resident dentist, features original paintings by resident artists who can often be found working at their easels during regular hours.