16 January – New Orleans

We took the RV out for a run today along the River Road to visit some of the old plantation houses. After a fairly quick drive we arrived at Destrehan. During the 19th century, the plantation was a major producer of indigo and then sugarcane. One of the oldest homes in Louisiana, Destrehan Plantation was built in 1787 in a West Indian style with timber columns, but from 1839 they were replaced with the big white Greek revival columns so typical of the American antebellum homes of the time.

The home is most commonly associated with its second owner, Jean-Noël Destréhan, who served briefly as the first United States Senator from Louisiana in 1812. He was influential in the transition of the Orleans Territory to statehood. Owned privately until the early 1900s, Destrehan was purchased by an oil company who used it for offices and a club house for employees. In 1959, American Oil tore down the refinery, abandoning the site.

Due in part to an old legend that a pirate had hidden treasure in the house, treasure-seekers left gaping holes in the walls. Vandals also stripped the building of its Italian-marble mantels, cypress panelling, and glass window panes. Fortunately, a local sheriff prevented the theft of the plantation's original 1840s iron entrance gates and a 1,400 lb (640 kg) marble bathtub, rumoured to be a gift from Napoleon Bonaparte to the family. In their rush to escape, the thieves dropped the bathtub from a block and tackle they were using to move it, damaging it.

In 1971 the oil company gifted the site to the River Road Historical Society who have restored the buildings to their former glory.

After following the river for a while our next port of call was San Francisco, “the most opulent plantation in the South”. A big call, so we were keen to see if it measured up!

Built in 1853 in “Steamboat Gothic” style, the house is brightly coloured and features an unusual attic design for ventilation. The house is just as ornate inside with 5 artistically painted ceilings in the main rooms and faux marble, and faux woodgrain everywhere.

We had a guide who told us the history of the house, but her telling of it was quite different to the homes official website, which was a shame. We were told that the owner’s wife bankrupted him by bringing painters and decorators from Europe to create the ceilings, but the website says it was her father-in-law who commissioned a local New Orleans craftsman to do the work, and that he was in financial difficulty for the whole time he owned the estate. She also told us she “isn’t interested in all that historical stuff” and recounted a story about how the grey cornice border one of the ceilings had to be repainted “because men smoked cigars and the cigar smoke floated up and burned holes in the ceiling”. It detracted quite a bit from what could have been a very good tour.

In 1974 the San Francisco Plantation Foundation was created and the home underwent extensive restoration to return it to its glory days.

Our final tour of the day was at Laura, a Creole family plantation. The Creole style of building was heavily influenced by the Caribbean homes, quite different from the American antebellum columned Greek style of building. Less for show and more utilitarian, the main house at Laura reminded us of an old Queenslander.

The tour guide at this stop was excellent. Well versed in his history and all the family dynamics, he took us on a fascinating 90 minute walk around the house and all the outbuildings, giving us an in depth into life as both plantation owners and as slaves.

The history of the plantation is well researched and was helped by the publication of the memoirs of one of the owners. The Brer Rabbit tales were collected at the plantation and translated from French to English to be published.  

The stories of slavery were sad. We heard that 30 teenage girls were purchased to be breeding stock, to start the plantation slave population. One of the male owners (starting at the age of 65) fathered 3 children with a 16 year old slave girl and, despite being his own children, they were added to the slave count. Slaves who attempted to escape were branded like cattle with the plantation brand on their foreheads so they would be easily identified. By the onset of the Civil War, 186 workers were enslaved on this farm. Following the emancipation of slaves in Louisiana (1866), the great majority of these former slaves continued to live in the Laura Plantation quarters. They were paid wages as employees, but were paid in tokens that could only be spent at the plantation general store, and they were often in debt to the store and couldn’t ever earn enough to pay the debt.

In 1993 the site was bought by the Laura Plantation Company, restored, and opened to the public as a Creole cultural attraction.

So 3 houses, 3 very different types of architecture and 3 very interesting stories. Well worth the trip!