Louisiana's Great River Road; stately plantation homes reflect the romance of the Old South

Travel America, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Carolyn Thornton

A RED ROOF, YELLOW stucco walls, blue columns, and porch railings make the 1805 Laura Plantation stand out. The rainbow of colors distinguished French Creole plantations from the white-columned mansions built by their American neighbors along Louisiana's Great River Road. Aside from its colorful facade, Laura's new "Slaves in Creole Louisiana'! tour sets it apart as one of few plantation homes describing the life of African-American field workers and house servants.

The complex near Vacherie includes two manor houses, Creole cottages, and slave quarters where Uncle Remus's "Brier Rabbit" folktales were first recorded in America. Guides entertain with a wealth of anecdotes selected from the 1,500-page diary of Laura Lacoul, from which the plantation takes its name. There are so many stories that narratives about Laura's owners, women, slaves, and children vary by season and events.

In the 1700s and 1800s, the Mississippi River served as the only highway, a means to transport goods to market and receive fancy furnishings from distant ports. Land holdings tagged the river at one end and stretched for miles inland, giving everyone equal access to the river. These long and skinny "long-lots" still show up today on aerial maps of the area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Now, Highways 48, 44 and 942 on the east bank and Highways 18 and 1 on the west follow the Mississippi's serpentine flow. Ferries and bridges allow travelers to zig and zag between banks. Each home reveals different aspects of plantation life.

Begin with the oldest plantation home left intact in the lower Mississippi Valley: Destrehan (Hwy. 48), only eight miles from New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport on the east bank. Built in 1787 in the French Colonial style with a West Indies-type hip roof, Destrehan utilized bousillage-entrepoteaux, or mud-between-posts construction. A cutaway section on the upper, main level of the home shows the lasting quality of this material--a mixture of camel hair, Spanish moss, straw, crushed oyster shells, and mud.

Before levees were built, the Mississippi frequently overflowed. Destrehan was designed for this eventuality with living quarters above an open storage area on the lower level. Side wings, called garconniers, were added later to accommodate the family's 14 children. Originally the kitchen was detached to keep the heat and threat of fires from the main house. A "whistling walk" connected the two. While carrying food to the dining room, servants whistled to guarantee they weren't sampling the food.

In the 1970s San Francisco Plantation (Hwy. 44 at Reserve) was meticulously restored to replicate the splendor of the home's 1850s golden age. Outside, pale blue cisterns flank the galleried Steamboat Gothic mansion. A louvered attic collected cross breezes to cool the home. Inside ceilings were embellished with cherubs, birds, flowers, and scrolls. Faux marbled fireplaces, floral carpeting, gilded mirrors, and a rainbow of wall colors added elegance to the furnishings. Such costly features help explain the home's original name of "Sans Fruscins," French slang for "without a penny in my pocket."

Highway 44 continues past the former site of Tezcuco. The 1855 Greek Revival raised cottage burned in 2002, but outbuildings--a chapel, blacksmith shop, commissary museum, gazebos, and cab ins--remain. The African American Museum and Gallery, which had been located here, has been moved into a temporary location in Donaldsonville (on the west bank).

In the late 1800s Houmas House (Hwy. 942) was the largest sugarcane producer in the state. John Burnside purchased Houmas and 12,000 acres in 1858 for $1 million. During the Civil War he declared immunity as a British subject and saved the home from destruction by Union troops. In 2002 the home and 35 acres sold for $2.9 million. After several months of restoration, Houmas House reopened for tours last summer. At the time of the auction, the new owner acquired many unique items, particularly from the kitchen, which has been brought back to the way it was. Other items include a bed and candlestick used in the movie Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, which was filmed here with Bette Davis.

Oak Alley (1837-39) on the west bank at Vacherie (take the Sunshine Bridge to Hwy. 18) exemplifies adaptive restoration. Furnishings reflect the comfortable 1920s lifestyle of the Andrew Stewarts, who rescued and made Oak Alley their country home. It was the first of the Great River Road plantations to be restored.

A spectacular avenue of live oaks--a quarter-mile long and more than 250 years old--frame the pink stucco Greek Revival manor. This setting has drawn filmmakers, from the soap opera Days of Our Lives to the movie Interview with a Vampire. Cottages on the grounds welcome bed and breakfast guests, and the Oak Alley Restaurant serves breakfast and lunch.

To roach Laura Plantation, also on the west batik, backtrack to the Sunshine Bridge to connect with Hwy. 1. Afterward, continuing toward Baton Rouge, Nottoway (Hwy. 1 at White Castle) stands as the grande dame of plantation homes and the largest in the South. Notable features of this 1859 Greek Revival and Italianate mansion are 200 windows and 165 doors--an opening for each day of the year. The original slate roof covers 53,000 square feet divided into 64 rooms. It was built with 16 fireplaces, six staircases, 22 columns, and three flushable toilets (a novelty in its day).