Chretien Point Plantation – Sunset, LA

Chretien Point Plantation was begun in 1831 and completed in 1835. Samuel Young was the carpenter and Jonathan Harris was the bricklayer.

Various elements of the house are typical of early Louisiana architecture. The plan utilizes the traditional French arrangement of a two story house which is three rooms wide and one and a half rooms deep on each floor. The three front rooms both below and upper face a gallery and open onto it. The smaller rooms behind are directly back of the three main ones and house the stairway, wine room, and pantry on the first floor. The same arrangement of the smaller rooms is repeated on the second floor, the two side rooms (cabinet) being bedrooms. Both floors have twelve foot ceilings. This floor plan with its French doors and long windows allows cross ventilation in Louisiana’s hot humid climate. The kitchen and the privy were located outside the main house. They are no longer standing. The interior as well as the exterior walls are solid brick. The bricks were made on the site. Door and window casings and the ceilings in most of the house are of cypress. The ceilings in the main three rooms upstairs wore of plaster as are all of the interior walls.

Six massive brick columns of plaster over brick which rise from the ground support a tripped roof which covers house and gallery. The upper gallery has a simple wooden balustrade. There was originally an exterior stairway connecting the upper and lower galleries. This was removed about 1900. The chimneys are on interior walls. The lower floors which are even with the ground were brick in the end rooms and wooden in the center rooms. The wine room floor was originally packed dirt.

The arched windows and doors opening onto the galleries are of Georgian/Federal influence and are all carefully paneled and beaded. Classical Revival design was chosen for the gallery. The windows were framed by deep green colored blinds and the walls were red brick except for the upper gallery which had a cypress wainscot and was plastered and painted white above the wainscot. The roof timbers and ceiling joists are quite massive and are in excellent shape. The joints of these timbers are mortised and held together with wooden pegs.

The house had greatly deteriorated during the period between 1860 and 1975. Though there is no written record that the house had been “re-done”, there is evidence that sometime after the house was built that it was repainted — the color of the woodwork was changed from light pearl grey to white. The front three rooms upstairs have original faux bois baseboards. There are three (all original) imported marble mantles upstairs and three wooden (original) mantles downstairs. The Southeast bedroom that was originally papered was stripped of its paper (except in one small place where the paper was painted over). The original contract called for this room to be papered. The parlor, which is the front center room upstairs, had been papered, but this too was painted over. The last piece of paper (about 12″ x 18″) has been saved from the walls in this room, which shows the original pattern and color although it has been painted over. All of the original door and shutter latching hardware was removed (there are outlines of it to be found in many places on the doors) and replaced with more modern hardware – surface locks and catches that were patented in 1856 as stamped on the hardware. Since records show that the Chretiens were financially unable to “remodel” the house after the Civil War it can be assumed that the repainting and installation of strengthening rods and new hardware was done between 1856 and the beginning of the Civil War. Nothing of importance was done to the inside of the house after that time.

In the 1930’s the original wood shingle roof was removed and replaced with a corrugated metal roof which is still there. There are pictures of the house in the 1930’s which show the wood shingles on the roof.

The present owners have restored the house to the point that it is now safe again from deterioration and is near its original condition. The roof is still metal. The outside woodwork has been repaired and painted. A column that was crumbling has been repaired and re-plastered and painted. The shutters have been re-glued and rehung and a chain link fence has been removed from around the immediate front of the house. The entire interior has been repaired; the plaster patched and repainted, the cypress floors sealed and polished, the concrete floors (the original brick floors were removed about twenty years ago and replaced with concrete) covered with bricks in the original pattern and color and sealed.

Modern conveniences have been added, such as three bathrooms, a kitchen, electrical wiring, and lighting, and central heating and air conditioning. Care has been taken to maintain the integrity of the original design and plan while making the house fit for modern occupancy. There are no air conditioning ducts allowing only outlet grills. The wiring was hidden in back of baseboards and under moldings. The bathrooms and heating system along with the laundry have all been located in the rear stairway rooms. The kitchen is located in the old pantry.

The exterior of the house was coated with a plaster-like masonry sealer paint about twelve years ago. It was colored pink but with the years has faded to a pleasing shade of very light pink. The upstairs gallery wall was always plaster painted white as were all of the exterior wood trim and columns. All of the exterior woodwork and plaster has been repaired and has been or is being repainted white.

There are no other significant buildings remaining with the house. There are herring bone brick sidewalks circling the house under an inch or two of dirt and grass which are yet to be uncovered. The original water well is still there. This well, about five feet in diameter, is circled by a brick patio about twenty feet in diameter. This patio, like the sidewalks is only partially uncovered.

SIGNIFICANCE

Chretien Point has great regional significance, primarily because of its architecture, but also because of its involvement during the Civil War. The house is an outstanding example of the blend of early Louisiana French architectural form with Classical Revival stylistic traits which were becoming popular in the 1830’s. It is one of the largest and finest of its type remaining in Louisiana. It utilizes the traditional arrangement of a two story house, three rooms wide and one and a half rooms deep, with a tripped roof covering a two-level gallery across the front. The use of the massive, two story brick columns supporting the roof on the front introduces a strong classical element to the house. An unusual and noteworthy feature is the arched fenestration on the front
facade. During the Civil War, Chretien Point became embroiled in a confrontation between General Nathanial Banks’ Union troops and General Richard Taylor’s Confederate troops. The house was spared destruction.

 

 

Chretien Point was begun in the latter part of 1831 on a land grant made by Spanish authorities in 1776 to Louis St. Germain and transferred to Joseph Chretien on December 7, 1781. His son, Hypolite, inherited the land and his son, Hypolite II, built the honse. The contract for its construction, which is on record in the St. Landry Parish Courthouse, specifies that the house was to be completed within fifteen months at a cost of seven thousand dollars. However, the structure took approximately forty-eight months to build and must have cost much more than the amount specified. The head carpenter was Samuel Young and the head brick mason was Jonathan Harris.

Hypolite Chretien II married Felicite Neda on July 28, 1818. Hypolite and a son died of yellow fever not long after the house was completed. It is thought that Felicite, a Spaniard, had the downstairs southwest room painted black for the wake and funeral of her husband. It was a Spanish custom to drape a room in black fabric for the wake of a family member.

Since in the 1830’s this area was sparsely populated and away from trad centers, it is likely that there would not have been enough black fabric nearby for this purpose. Black paint would have been the next best thing. (There is physical evidence that black paint covered the walls of this room.)

After Hypolite’s death, the plantation was managed by Felicite for a number of years until she moved to New Orleans and turned over its control to her son Hypolite Ill. He married Celestine Cantrelle. It was this Hypolite who supposedly prevented the house from being destroyed in 1863 by Union troops.

In April of 1863, General Nathaniel Banks and his Union troops were pursuing General Richard Taylor’s smaller Confederate Army north toward Alexandria and the Red River. Frequent skirmishes took place in the front of Chretien Point and a battle was fought on the banks of Bayou Bourbeaux about a mile away from the house. According to a deposition to the Federal Government by Celestine Cantrelle Chretien, the Federal troops camped in the front yard and conferred with her husband Hypolite.

During the maneuvers, the Federal troops at one point were firing over and at Chretien Point at the Confederates around and in the rear. The Confederates, of course, were firing back. As shots occasionally went astray, some hit the upper front wall of the house and several shells lodged in the oak trees in front of the house. Hypolite, according to family history, made his way out to the second story balcony and gave the Masonic distress signal. The troops are said to have laughed, but Banks, himself a Mason, returned the signal and after a conference agreed to spare the house. Banks did however take supplies and equipment worth over $60,000. There is still a hole in one of the front doors made by a bullet fired by the troops, and a rifle bullet of Civil War vintage has been found in the attic.

After the Civil War years and the death of his father, Hypolite III, in 1881, Jules Chretien and his wife, Celeste Gardiner Chretien, ran the plantation. Though most books cite Jules’ love of French books, fine wines, and the debonair life, he is also said to have had a practical side. Jules Chretien was the first man in the area to switch from cotton to the cultivation of rice. He dammed the bayou at the rear of the house and installed a pump to irrigate his fields. Neighbors wanted the water for their cattle, however, and broke the dam. He lost everything.

Over the years Chretien Point fell into a state of disrepair. Hay was stored in its rooms and mice gnawed at its baseboards.

The property is now owned and occupied and has been restored by Mr. and Mrs. Louis J. Cornay. They purchased the house and 45 acres in 1975 from the heirs of Mr. G. A. Gardiner, who had acquired the property from his sister’ Celeste Gardiner Chretien, and her husband, Jules.

Chretien Point is located on 22.45 acres of rural land.

MOVIE NOTES

Little know fact is that the elegant staircase at Tara in the movie “Gone with the Wind” is modeled after one at the Chretien Point Plantation.

Gone With The Wind

Local movie writer, Taylor Richard created a horror movie “The Final Project” to haunt viewers and share Louisiana culture.

Taylor Richard

HAUNTINGS

Felicite and her children, along with Robert can still be seen on the grounds to this day.  Felicite goes about her normal routine, overseeing the plantation just as she did in life.  Robert still searches for the Chretien treasures while both Union and Confederate Soldiers re-enact their battles complete with the sounds of marching feet, the smell of gunpowder and the eternal wailing of the injured and dying.

Marland’s  Bridge – The bridge is said to be the most haunted place in Lafayette.  It is located beside the Chretien Plantation and was in the midst of both the Battle of Buzzard’s Prairie and most notably the Bloody Battle of Bayou Bourbeu.  Named after a brave Confederate Soldier, a twenty-three-year-old Lieutenant, William Marland of the Second Massachusetts artillery (later honored with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his brave actions that day).

When Union Soldiers advanced, Marland baited them by standing in the center of the bridge, leaving the soldiers under the impression that he was surrendering.  When the Union Soldiers were all on the bridge, Marland and his hidden artillary squad charged the bridge forcing the soldiers to jump.  Those that did not perish from the jump were met by awaiting Confederate soldiers below, only to meet a far worse fate!

Today, on Marland’s Bridge, you may encounter glowing orbs, disembodied voices, cold spots and shadowy figures.  One recent investigation by Ghosts N Spectors of Breaux Bridge, was found to be quite successful. Here is what they had to report:

“One of our parked vehicles had the head lights and interior lights turned on when all investigators were across the bridge and this phenomena took place at the time we captured an EVP saying ‘get in your truck and leave,’” they claimed on the web site report, along with a recording of the actual EVP. “While walking the area on the anniversary of the battle, an investigator complained of sudden pain in the arm as if she’d been struck with something. After removing a jacket and rolling up a sleeve, a round red mark about the size of a dime was visible. The investigator reported feeling as if she’d been ‘hit’ with something small and it burned like being stabbed with a hot iron. The description of the sensation is similar to that given by gunshot victims. The pain eased after about thirty minutes but the mark lasted a few hours then faded.”

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#chretienpointplantation #goplantations #louisianaplantation #louisianahauntings #thefinalproject #gonewiththewind

 

Roubieu-Jones Plantation – Natchez, LA

The Roubieu-Jones House has also been known as the Reform Plantation, and the Carroll Jones House.

The Roubieu-Jones House was, originally, a full-story raised Creole plantation house constructed of brick masonry on the ground floor, and with colombage framing filled in with bousillage on the principal level.  The two-and-a-half-story building incorporated a Nonnan three-cell base module floor plan with a two rear cabinet rooms and a loggia.  A large steeply pitched hipped roof extended eleven feet beyond the main floor’s exterior wall creating a full-length gallery that was probably held up with five chamfered colonettes.

The house was built around 1818.  It is located in an area of the Cane River which had a prominent free creole of color population.  Francois Roubieu, a Frenchman, is generally believed to be the original owner of the house.  John Carroll Jones, an African-American, owned the plantation in the late nineteenth century.  Born in Tennessee in 1815, Jones came to Rapides Parish, Louisiana as a young boy.  Apparently, Gaspard secured a land grant from the Spanish and started a plantation along the Cane River, and he also served as the Lieutenant of the militia.

Admittedly, there have been numerous changes to the Jones House over the years.  However, these alterations have not had an overly significant impact upon those features that make the house Creole.  Because so many of these character-defining features survive, the house easily conveys its French Creole character.  Very importantly, the house retains its signature Creole form – a hipped roof galleried house with the main living space raised a full story on a brick basement.  Other extant character-defining French Creole features are its hall-less floorplan, French doors on the facade, bousillage construction, and exposed beaded ceilings.  Finally, while the salvaged mantel/overmantel sets on the upper floor, do not contribute to the house’s architectural significance, they certainly do not detract from it.

Loyd Hall Plantation – Cheneyville, LA

Loyd Hall Plantation is a 2-12 story mansion built during the mid-19th century with possible later additions. The style of Loyd Hall is predominantly Classical Revival, although the brick core is strongly Georgian in form and some details have Victorian influence.

The original plan has been altered for its present use. Portions of the rear gallery were enclosed around 1949 for bathroom/dressing areas on both floors. The remaining gallery space on the first level is used for storage and a screened porch. The remaining second floor gallery area is used for storage and a sewing room. The sitting room is now the present dining room. The dining room is the present kitchen. The original first floor bedroom is now the den. The second floor is still the sleeping area. The school room on the attic floor is now a children’s playroom.

Loyd Hall has long been considered a landmark in central Louisiana because it is architecturally unique in the Bayou Boeuf area and beyond.  Its uniqueness for the area stems from several points.

First of all, it appears to be the only brick plantation house in the upper Bayou Boeuf area (the Anglo-Saxon settled part) left from the 19th century. Virtually all of the others were built of cypress, including New Hope, Homeplace, Walnut Grove, Wellswood, Wytchwood, Bennetts’ House and various others. Secondly, Loyd Hall is the only truly pretentious building in the area. The others seem on]y like good, substantial farm houses in comparison. Loyd Hall is very different in form from the other houses in the area. With its brick structure and parapeted end chimneys, it is much more urban in feeling and therefore somewhat of a sophisticated anomaly in this area which was rather isolated in the 19th century. It seems fairly safe to say that no house of such an elaborate nature appeared in this wilderness area until perhaps around 1850. Loyd Hall would probably have been much more at home in an urban area like New Orleans or Natchez, where similar structures can be found. These characteristics of Loyd Hall make it stand out architecturally in Central Louisiana.

Not much is printed about the original owner and owners after.  If you take a personal tour of the house, you’ll find out more information.  The original owner, James D. Loyd, came from England.  After a run of bad luck with gambling, his family, the well known Lloyds of London, paid him a lot of money to leave England and never return.  He was told to drop the extra L,and started a new life.

During the Civil War, Loyd decided to play both sides of the war.  He was hoping to be allies with either side of whomever won the war.  The USA and the CSA soldiers both were allowed to set up camp, at different times of course, on the plantation.  Once Loyd was found playing both sides, he was hung from an oak tree in the front yard.

Loyd Hall Plantation is also said to be haunted by Loyd and also by a deserted Union soldier.  The soldier is said to have died on the third floor, and still to this day the blood stain cannot be removed.

Since the original owner James D. Loyd, there have been at least 20 different owners.  The current owners, the Fitzgeralds, have turned the plantation house into a bed and breakfast.

** MY EXPERIENCE:  I had the opportunity to spend a girls’ trip there this past weekend.  All I can say is it was AMAZING!!  We learned so much about the house from the housekeeper, Ms. Beulah.  She has been working there for the past 41 years.  

She told us many stories, past and present, about this plantation over a wonderful breakfast she had prepared for us.  While she was preparing breakfast, we were able to roam around the house as we chose.  Although we were not allowed to visit the third floor, we were still able to appreciate everything the house had to offer.

While enjoying breakfast, Ms. Beulah forgot an empty pot on the stove and the house began to fill with smoke.  She was the coolest cucumber I’d ever seen!!  haha .. She told us stories about the bullets still in the wall, how the Choctaw tribe shot arrowheads in the front door, and managed to handled the fire department all at the same time.  I LOVE THIS WOMAN!!

The grounds now have a pool, several cabins, and a reception area to host weddings.  Us girls sure did take advantage of drinking mint julep lemonades by the pool, and had a photo shoot on the front porch.

 

I’d like to say thank you to Ms. Beulah, Chad, and April.  Without you three, our stay would not have been as memorable as it was.  HOPE TO SEE Y’ALL SOON!!

http://www.loydhall.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Loyd-Hall-Plantation/104113309624542?fref=ts

 

Santa Maria Plantation – Baton Rouge, LA

Santa Maria Plantation is one of only three extant Greek Revival Plantation houses in East Baton Rouge Parish.  In addition, of these, Santa Maria has the most complete group of outbuildings– Its historical setting is therefore better conveyed than at Goodwood or Audubon where most of the outbuildings have been lost.  Further, Santa Maria is the only Greek Revival raised plantation house in the parish.  The house can be seen as an excellent example of the rural provincial Greek Revival plantation house.  This is shown by its simple details, the way in which the gallery does not mesh well with the window pattern behind it, and the inconsistent size of the ground floor arches.  In addition the fact that this apparently 1830′ s house was built in the late 1870’s shows the strength of the Greek Revival raised plantation house tradition in rural Louisiana.  It exemplifies, therefore, a part of the architectural history of the State.

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On December 8, 1877, Mrs. Kate Andrews Knowlton, wife of Colonel Charles Knowlton (Captain in Confederate Army) and daughter of John Andrews, the founder of Belle Grove Plantation, purchased the 570 acre tract of land which became Santa Maria Plantation.  Colonel and Mrs. Knowlton came to Louisiana from California in the 1870’s and bought the plantation.  At that time there was already a small two-room house on the property.  The Knowltons then built the main house, using the two rooms from the original house as a dining room and a kitchen, attaching them to the new building by a covered porch.  The old part of the building was later demolished.

In a letter on file at the State Historic Preservation Office, Mrs. Gladys Morill (grandaughter or Charles Knowlton) related what she knew of the history of the house: “My grandfather…and grandmother came from California where they had been living, about 1872, and bought the place….For a good many years my grandfather used the land (I believe there were 1200 acres) to grow sugar cane.  He had a sugar house on the place and I remember as a very small child, going with my grandfather to the sugar house to get the thick syrup (lacuite) out of the troughs.  Sometime in the 1890s he converted most of the plantation to growing cotton and the sugar house was made into a cotton gin.  He did very well until the coming of the boll weevil about the beginning of the century.  My grandmother had just died and he was pretty lonesome and despondent there with just me, a small child, for company, so he sold the plantation along with the lovely old furniture in it and the farm equipment, for a mere pittance, to the Ruffin Munsons….About a year after my grandfather sold Santa Maria the railroad bought rights from the Munsons and ran through the property just a few blocks away from the house.  It was not close enough, however, to be objectionable and was, probably, a financial help to him.”

In 1901 Colonel Knowlton, now a widower sold Santa Maria, and it passed through the hands of several owners until 1926, when it was purchased by Andrew Bradford Hagen and Mary Carrie Elder, who later sold her share to Hagen, who operated the Santa Maria Dairy there for many years.  In the late 1950’s, Mr. and Mrs. Verdie Reece Perkins purchased the property.

Brevard-Rice House – New Orleans, LA

The Brevard-Rice House is a particularly fine example of the large, narrow and long, two story residences built in the Garden District in the prosperous decade that preceded the Civil War. The 1850s Greek Revival style residence boasts nearly 9,000 square feet on three floors with five bedrooms and six full baths.  The home features period touches such as murals in the dining room, ornate millwork and beveled mirrors.  It also has a large, heated salt-water pool, fish pond, guest house, staff house and “lush grounds with maintained gardens.”  There are five bedrooms, six full baths and two half-bath

Built by James Calrow and Charles Pride in 1857, 1239 First Street is “transitional” in style, containing both Greek Revival and Italianate elements. The double galleries have Corinthian columns below and Ionic columns below, set between square pillars at the corners. Albert Hamilton Brevard, who commissioned the house, was a wealthy merchant with a taste for the finer things in life. At the time of its construction, the house contained many conveniences, such as hot and cold running water in all four of its bedrooms. However, Brevard had little time to really enjoy his mansion; he died there, only two years after he moved in.

The Reverend Emory Clapp acquired the house from Brevard’s daughter in 1869 and contracted with architect Charles Pride to add the hexagonal bays. They were designed to enlarge an existing room for use as the Episcopalian clergyman’s library. But Rev. Clapp found more pleasure in tobacco, and his library quickly became his smoking room. As newlyweds, the Clapps wanted their residence to reflect their style and refinement, so they began their occupancy by installing massive, beveled French mirrors in the double parlors downstairs.

After Rev. Clapp passed away, his wife continued to occupy the house until 1934, taking a loving interest in maintaining it. In her later years, Mrs. Clapp enclosed part of a gallery and installed an elevator on the Chestnut St. side of the house. From 1989-2004, the house was the home of Stan and Anne Rice.

Anne Rice, famous for weaving the real and supernatural worlds together in epic novels that explore history, philosophy and religion, was a long-time resident of New Orleans and the former owner of a few of the city’s most haunted homes. Rice has a penchant for spooky properties, and prior to her time at this particular listing, she took up residence at 1239 First Street, which later became the setting for her novel, The Witching Hour. In the story, the historic house was the ancestral home for the Mayfair family and generations of male and female witches. In real life, the mansion, originally known as the Brevard House, is considered to be haunted by its original owner. Legend has it, that on moonless nights, the residents of the neighborhood can see a mist form on the porch where Brevard shot himself.

Brevard-Rice House was sold to a private buyer in June 2010 for $2,300,000.

 

 

 

Lakeside Plantation – Batchelor, LA

Lakeside Plantation House, built in the early 1860’s for Charles Stewart, a planter, is reached through an avenue of live oaks. It is a raised cottage, brick below and frame above. Sixteen tall red brick pillars enclose the high whitewashed cast-iron railings. The low hipped roof, broken by three dormer windows, is supported by the iron pillars of the gallery.

Lakeside once was owned by the Marquis de La Fayette, whose circle of friends included Thomas Jefferson and played a key role in the Louisiana Purchase. The plantation home is now owned by NY artist, Hunt Slonem. He bought the house, originally listed at $1.2 million, for about $625,000 in 2005. He has now spent, by his calculation, a few hundred thousand in renovation: completely rewiring the house, replacing rotted floorboards, refurbishing plumbing and the pool. Not included in those figures are the furnishings. There is also Mr. Slonem’s own brightly colored art; hothouse flowers and birds, saints and of course Valentino share space with portraits of Louisiana landowners long dead. Mr. Slonem also owns Albania Plantation in Jeanerette, LA.

Marquis de Lafayette

Hunt Slonem

Just as Mr. Slonem’s paintings are celebrations of the emotive properties of colour, so too are the walls of Lakeside. He works with Louisiana paint specialist Ellen Kennon to create historically accurate hues that he then applies on an ambitious scale, using great swathes of deep, rich colour. Mr. Slonem is quoted saying “I use colour to enliven dreary space and breath new life, to try to work with blocks of colour that feed off one another and that are almost impossible to use, I like to push colour to new limits and possibilities. Things that I thought would never work may after all.”

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Glencoe Plantation – Jackson, LA

Glencoe Plantation, also known as The Thompson House, was built in 1897 to replace an earlier home that burned. The builder was Robert Thompson, Sr., and the site belonged to his wife, Millie Scott Thompson. The architect is said to have been a Mr. Kennedy. The house remained in the Thompson family until 1961, when Robert Thompson, Jr., sold it to the present owners.

The plantation is an enormous collection of Stick Style, Queen Anne, and Colonial Revival features. It is probably the largest and most elaborate late Victorian country house in the state. This can be most clearly seen in its tower arrangement. Whereas many of the finer houses of the period had a single tower or turret, Glencoe Plantation has three. It also has a variety of roof shapes and massing forms. This gives it a wild, complex, and irregular skyline which epitomizes, more than most contemporaneous country houses in Louisiana, the Victorian picturesque aesthetic.

The facade presents a sequence of gables, dormers, and towers, among which are a squat circular tower with a spire and two tall, narrow square towers with dormered spires. The effect is of an illustration from a child’s fairy-tale book. From the front, the wide facade gives the impression that the house is enormous. In fact, it is for the most part only one room in dept, making it easier for breezes to cool the interior. Much of the house is fronted by a two-story gallery on paired columns; the left side of the house with the circular tower has a two-story gallery on shaped single colunms and delicate Eastlake ornament. Windows are variously shaped and sized. The building is just as rich in textures as it is in silhouette, with scalloped and diamond-shaped shingles, clapboards, slate roofs, filigree bargeboards, and stained glass. The interior features a large entryliving hall, which also is richly elaborated with scroll-sawn filigree ornament, paneling, and a wide staircase.

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Magnolia Plantation – Schriever, LA

 

Magnolia Plantation, built in 1834 but architectural evidence suggests c. 1855, is a private residence located on Louisiana Highway 311, west of New Orleans and three miles south of Schriever, Louisiana. Originally built for Thomas Ellis and remained in his hands until 1874, when he sold it to Captain John Jackson Shaffer, C.S.A.  Captain Shaffer’s descendants still occupy the home.

The plantation was built to cultivate sugar cane, which was a critical part of Terrebonne Parish’s antebellum economy. The plantation house is one of six surviving Greek Revival plantation houses in the parish.

The house and farming acreage have descended through the same family for over 300 years. They opened the gardens to the public in 1870 to raise money are save the plantation from being sold at auction like many others. While the family still owns the house and farming acreage, the National Park Service now owns the rest of the land and many of the historical buildings, such as the slave quarters and Overseer’s House. They are part of the Cane River Creole National Historical Park.

Magnolia Plantation was also used in 12 Years a Slave. The actual plantation where Solomon Northrup, the free black man depicted in 12 Years a Slave, was kept no longer exists and Magnolia is the nearest of them to the site Northrup wrote about. Magnolia stands in for the home of William Ford (played by Benedict Cumberbatch in McQueen’s film), who originally purchased Northup at a slave auction in New Orleans.

#goplantations #louisiana #louisianaplantation #12yearsaslave #magnoliaplantation

 

 

 

Roseneath Plantation – Gloster, LA

Roseneath Plantation, built in the 1840’s, was the plantation home of the Means Family – a name long part of the history of that area.  The home is a two-story wooden structure with square wooden pillars on the upper and lower galleries, and has a galleried ell at the rear.  At each end of the shingled, gabled roof is an outside chimney.

The date for Roseneath requires some explanation.  The house was built for William Bundy Means of South Carolina and has been occupied continuously by the Means family.  The date passed down through the generations is 1846.  The Register staff of the Division of Historic Preservation is very familiar with the development of the Greek Revival in DeSoto Parish and would probably have assigned an 1850’s date based solely on the architectural evidence, although it is certainly not entirely conclusive.  Most of the features could be 1840’s or just as easily 1850’s.  The family date of 1846, however, seems too early for the front doorway and interior cornices.  The former has Italianate brackets and capitals very similar to those on the doorway of a nearby house with a documented date of 1859.  The richly molded interior cornices, with a layer of molding on the ceiling as well, are typical of 1850’s houses and are basically transitional Greek Revival-Italianate.  The strongest architectural evidence for an earlier date is the use of Federal-looking fluted door and window surrounds both upstairs and down on the main block, although it is not impossible for this feature to be found in an 1850s house out in the country.  In short, the architectural evidence is not absolutely conclusive, and the 1846 date is not completely impossible for the house as a whole.

You might be more familiar with this plantation house if you were a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse series True Blood on HBO.  Home of Bill Compton, an ex-confederate soldier, turned Vampire King of Louisiana located in Bon Temps, LA.

In the series, the house has large double doors which serve as the front door. The house has a large foyer with stairs leading to the second floor.  To the left, there is a den area and to the right is the main living room.  Beneath the staircase, there is a door which leads to a trap door.  This trap door leads Bill and Jessica to their underground sleeping quarters.  The kitchen, first floor bedroom and first floor bathroom have never been shown; however a bedroom and bathroom upstairs has been seen and used.

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The exterior of Bill’s house were originally shot at the Roseneath Plantation.  After shooting the original establishing shots at the plantation, the producers then built a replica of the front of the house in California.  This was a result of the original plantation owners forbidding any future filming at the house, because they objected to the show’s content.

Compton House Replica

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Belle Grove Plantation – White Castle, LA

photo credit: Johnnie Canova

Belle Grove, also known as Belle Grove Plantation, was a plantation and elaborate Greek Revival and Italianate-style plantation mansion near White Castle in Iberville Parish, Louisiana.  Completed in 1857, it was one of the largest mansions ever built in the South, surpassing that of the neighboring Nottoway.  Nottoway is often cited as the largest antebellum plantation house remaining in the South.  The masonry structure stood 62 feet (19 m) high and measured 122 feet (37 m) wide by 119 feet (36 m) deep, with seventy-five rooms (including a jail cell) spread over four floors.

Belle Grove was owned by John Andrews, a wealthy sugar planter originally from Virginia.  Andrews owned over 7,000 acres (2,800 ha) spread over several plantations, with Belle Grove having ³⁄₄ mile (1.2 km) of river frontage.  He founded Belle Grove during the 1830s, with Dr. John Phillip Read Stone as a partner.  Andrews assumed full ownership in 1844, when the partnership was dissolved.  By the 1850s, his more than 150 slaves were producing over one-half million pounds of sugar each year.

Andrews built the mansion from 1852 to 1857 at a cost of $80,000, not including the free (slave) labor or the plentiful cypress lumber and hand-made bricks produced on the plantation.  The house was designed by New Orleans architect Henry Howard.  Andrews had a legendary rivalry with the owner of Nottoway Plantation, John Randolph. This competition even extended to their mansions, with both massive structures designed by Howard in a mix of the Greek Revival and Italianate styles.

Henry Ware purchased the home from John Andrews after hearing him say he wanted to sell it down in New Orleans.  Henry Ware and his descendants owned and operated the plantation for sixty-five years. Two of Henry’s sons eventually acquired the estate , James Andrew Ware and John M. Ware.  James married Mary Eliza Stone and John married Marie-Louise Dupre'( she was related to Jacque Dupre’ former governor of Louisiana ).  Every first born daughter named Marie-Louise in straight succession for four generations since.

Eventually, James and Mary Eliza Stone acquired the entire estate and John and Marie-Louise owned Dixon Grove plantation.  Their son John Stone Ware known as Stone Ware was well educated by private tutors and later attended Tulane University.  Harnet Kane interviewed Stone and he told of his isolation and noted that he was a “spoiled brat, hardly fit to live with .  I had, I guess, anything a kid could ask, except maybe companionship.”  One observer noted, Stone had, “all the composure in the world.”  After several years of crop failures, John Ware and his wife left in 1924.

The American Civil War and ensuing collapse of the plantation economy, Andrews sold the home and plantation in 1867 to James Ware, for the meager sum of $50,000.  The Ware family continued to live and farm the plantation until the early 1920s.  After several bad crop years, they were forced to sell the home.  From 1925 onwards the house sat vacant.

The post-War era at Belle Grove saw the finely crafted home rot away in Louisiana’s harsh environment.  Neglect allowed a roof leak to expand and destroy one wing of the mansion.  Several owners purchased the home, each with aspirations of restoration, but none had the means necessary in the lean years of the Great Depression and World War II to stop the onslaught of rapid decay.  On March 17, 1952, a mysterious fire during the night destroyed what remained of the house.

Now the only thing that stands around the oak tree filled landscape, is the historical plaque marker.

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