Crow Girard House

This house was built by Crow Girard, a member of one of Lafayette’s early families. In the late 1880s, Crow Girard and his mother, Maxime Crow Girard, donated twenty-five acres that became the early college
campus for UL Lafayette. The Girard family also donated the property for Girard Park in 1934. The property on which Elmhurst Park Historic Neighborhood now exists, once belonged to attorney Basil Catryl Crow
(1800-1872) and his wife, Maximilian Brashear (1804-1888), who were Crow Girard’s maternal grandparents. Their daughter, Maxime A. Crow, married Michel Eloi Girard, Jr., who was the son of Michael Eloi Girard, Sr.
of Sauverai, France and Anastasie Mouton of Saint James, Louisiana. Mr. and Mrs. Basil Crow bequeathed the land that now comprises Lafayette subdivisions, 1901 Girard Addition and 1905 Elmhurst Park Addition, to
their daughter and son-in-law shortly after their marriage. Crow Girard, like his father, Michael Eloi, Jr., received his law degree from Tulane University. In 1900, when he and his wife, Roberta Kennedy Girard, built
this house, Crow was nearly 40 years old and had achieved notable financial success in Lafayette. They were both well known for their civic generosity.