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!
