Dafford exhibit at UL-Lafayette depicts Acadians’ epic journey

Muralist Dafford is up on a scissor lift in Gretna, standing in one place on a 6-by-8-foot platform that has a chair, a desk and a stereo. He’s a week behind schedule on his next 40-foot mural, this one on German ancestry.

“I’m still interested and the work is still going,” he said. “Lots of different people settled Louisiana, millions of German immigrants, but this time, there’s more to work with. With the Acadians, there was nothing about the arrival. It took a lot to visualize.”

15. German-American Cultural Center

Established to honor the German immigrants who founded Gretna, Louisiana, in 1836, the German-American Cultural Center has a free museum with historic photographs of Gretna and McDonoghville as well as educational displays about the German founders and their way of life.

The center’s building, at 519 Huey P. Long Avenue in Gretna, celebrates those German roots with large, colorful exterior murals that were painted by famed muralist, Robert Dafford of Lafayette, Louisiana.

Built in 1911 and part of Gretna’s National Historic District, the building originally was a primary school. Its history also includes serving as a hospital during the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, a welding school that trained both men and women during World War II and as headquarters of the Jefferson Parish School Board.

The GACC has occupied the building for 21 years with its museum, a large room for meetings with members of the Friends of the GACC, and a genealogy research room that is also open to the public.

The center is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. Visitors must use face coverings and practice social distancing during this time.

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