Louisiana Highway 81

In the original Louisiana Highway system in use between 1921 and 1955, the modern LA 81 was part of two separate state highways.

The southern section running from Livonia west to Lottie was a small part of State Route 7,[5] which was designated in 1921 by an act of the state legislature.[6] Route 7 was originally an important cross-state route known as the Evangeline Highway and generally followed the modern US 190 corridor.[7][8] The section that is now LA 81 served as part of the main highway between Baton Rouge and Opelousas until it was bypassed by the Airline Highway in 1933.[9][10] Two years later, the new route became part of US 190, which was extended west into Texas from its original terminus at the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.[11][12] Most of the old road running west from Lottie to the Atchafalaya River opposite Krotz Springs was abandoned shortly afterward.[13] As was often the case during this era, the state highway department did not move the Route 7 designation onto the new highway. As a result, Route 7 became discontinuous and served as little more than a local road in the area until the 1955 Louisiana Highway renumbering.[5][13]

The remaining section of the current LA 81, running northward from Lottie to Fordoche, was designated as State Route C-1943 prior to the 1955 renumbering.[5][13] It was created in the 1940s and, like all routes added after 1930, it was numbered by the state highway department rather than by the state legislature and carried a "C-" prefix.

The entire highway was in Pointe Coupee Parish.

Location	mi[5]	km	Destinations	Notes
Lottie	0.0	0.0	US 190 / SR C-1500 (Airline Highway) – Baton Rouge, Opelousas	Southern terminus
Fordoche	3.4	5.5	SR 1 – Baton Rouge, Alexandria	Northern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

The original designation of LA 81 as part of two different highway classes is reflected in this 1960s DOTD milepost map.

LA 81 was created in 1955 as a collective renumbering of the surviving portion of former State Route 7 between Lottie and Livonia as well the entirety of former State Route C-1943.[14]

Class "B": La 81—From a junction with La-US 190 at or near Lottie to a junction with La 77 near Fordoche.
Class "C": La 81—From a junction with La 77 at or near Livonia to a junction with La-US 190 at or near Lottie.

— 1955 legislative route description[14]

With the 1955 renumbering, the state highway department initially categorized all routes into three classes: "A" (primary), "B" (secondary), and "C" (farm-to-market).[15] The northern section of LA 81 was categorized as Class "B" and the southern section as Class "C."[14] This system has since been updated and replaced by a more specific functional classification system that now designates the entire route as a rural local road.[1][15] However, the route of LA 81 has remained the same to the present day.[3][16]