Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

LUTCHER — Williamson Eye Center has been a leader in eye care, eye wear and eye surgery for more than 70 years in the Greater Baton Rouge area. Now, the third-generation family business has expanded its footprint into the River Parishes with the recent opening of a new office at 2468 Louisiana Avenue in Lutcher.
Chuck Williamson, administrator of Williamson Eye Center, said last week’s ribbon cutting ceremony felt a lot like coming home.
“St. James Parish is a location that my dad and my grandfather both worked in decades ago,” Williamson said.
The company was founded by Dr. Charles Williamson Sr., a trailblazer who became one of the first in the world to perform corneal cataract surgery. He was inspired by his own father, Dr. William Williamson, who built one of the largest private optometric practices in Louisiana during the 1950s and 60s.

Over the past 70 years, Williamson Eye Center has grown to include seven locations and nearly 20 physicians. Dustin Weidert, O.D., and Clayton Patrick, M.D., will provide full-service eye care in the new River Parishes office.

For the past 30 years, Dr. Richard Granger served St. James Parish and the surrounding communities. Williamson Eye Center has securely transferred all of Dr. Granger’s records into the new system, and his patients are more than welcome to continue receiving care at 2468 Louisiana Avenue.

Dr. Weidert provides contact lens fittings and routine, year-to-year eye care for all ages. Meanwhile, Dr. Patrick specializes in surgical evaluations, cataracts, glaucoma, Lasik surgery and monitoring for medical evaluations.

According to Dr. Patrick, good vision is often taken for granted by those who have always had it. “Those with poor vision, or those who notice their vision is starting to develop poorly, realize what they are missing. What we offer is the opportunity to correct people’s vision, save their vision and improve their vision, which is something people rely on every day. We want to make their reality the best that it can be for them,” Dr. Patrick said.

Dr. Weidert, born and raised in Gramercy, saw a need for expanded eye care services in his community.

“We haven’t had a specialist in the parish for nearly 30 years, so we are so thankful to have Dr. Clayton Patrick come in and bring his surgical expertise to an area that didn’t have it before,” Dr. Weidert said. “We are in a great central location between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, so we’re not just serving St. James Parish. We area serving the River Parishes – St. James, St. John and St. Charles.”

Dr. Weidert added that Williamson Eye Center provides outstanding collaborative care with a great team of doctors who are on the cutting edge when it comes to keeping up with new technologies.
“We have a great mix of tenured doctors with decades of experience and fresher doctors who have recently completed school. It’s a nice mix where you can learn from the pros, but you also have these fresh perspectives. We have the resources and machinery to care for just about everybody, and we’re always just a phone call away,” Dr. Weidert said.

Williamson Eye Center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Referrals are not required, and most insurances are accepted.

For more information, call 225-869-5043 or visit https://www.williamsoneyectr.com/