List of plantations in Louisiana

This is a list of plantations and/or plantation houses in the U.S. state of Louisiana that are National Historic Landmarks, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, listed on a heritage register; or are otherwise significant for their history, their association with significant events or people, or their architecture and design.[1][2][3]

Color key Historic register listing
National Historic Landmark
National Register of Historic Places
Not listed on national or state register
NRHP reference number Name Image Year designated Town, Parish Parish Notes
87000849 Acadia Plantation Thibodaux Lafourche Parish, Louisiana Demolished 2010
83000554 Afton Villa Gardens St. Francisville West Feliciana Destroyed by fire in 1963. Gardens and ruins open Daily 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, March 1 to June 30 and October 1 to December 1
91001046 Aillet House 8/9/1991 Port Allen West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana Built in 1830; French-Creole Architecture
01000007 Albania Plantation House Jeanerette Iberia
Albemarle Plantation House Napoleonville Assumption Owned and in continuous operation by the original family since 1839.
96001263 Allendale Plantation 11/1/1996 Port Allen West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana Owned by Henry Watkins Allen, the last Confederate Governor of Louisiana; Burned to the ground by Union troops in 1862
82000469 Ardoyne Plantation House Houma Terrebonne
80004476 Arlington Plantation Lake Providence East Carroll
82000457 Arlington Plantation House Franklin St. Mary
82004676 Arlington Plantation House Washington St. Landry
79001050 Ashland (Belle Helene) May 4, 1979 Geismar Ascension
72000552 Asphodel Plantation and Cemetery Jackson
87000729 Audubon Plantation House Baton Rouge
82000434 Avondale Plantation Home Clinton East Feliciana
07000424 Bagatelle Plantation House Sunshine
79001056 Battleground Plantation Sicily Island
Belle Grove White Castle Iberville
79001083 Bennett Plantation House Alexandria Rapides
91000705 Bocage Plantation Darrow Ascension Built in 1837, possibly designed by James H. Dakin
83000527 Bouverans Plantation House Lockport
80001709 Breston Plantation House Columbia Caldwell
83000503 Buckmeadow Plantation House Lake Providence East Carroll
79001103 Butler Greenwood Plantation St. Francisville West Feliciana
82002754 Calliham Plantation House Hamburg
84002859 Calumet Plantation House Patterson St. Mary
79001069 Carter Plantation Springfield
82002757 Cashpoint Plantation House Elm Grove Bossier
92000583 Caspiana Plantation Store Natchitoches
88001049 Cedar Bend Plantation Natchez
76000965 Cedars Plantation Oak Ridge
82000442 Chatchie Plantation House Thibodaux Lafourche
73000869 Cherokee Plantation Natchitoches
77001519 Chretien Point Plantation Sunset
85000970 Clarendon Plantation House Evergreen Avoyelles
75000857 Cottage Plantation St. Francisville West Feliciana
84000144 Crescent Plantation Tallulah Madison
73000868 Darby Plantation New Iberia
86001054 Desire Plantation House Vacherie
73002132 Destrehan Plantation March 20, 1973 Destrehan St. Charles
87000851 Dixie Plantation House Franklin
85002759 Ducros Plantation Thibodaux
94000742 Dulcito Plantation House New Iberia
82002791 El Dorado Plantation House Livonia Pointe Coupee
88003135 Emilie Plantation House Garyville
75000848 Enterprise Plantation Jeanerette Iberia
91001386 Evergreen Plantation April 27, 1992 Wallace
30°01′37″N 90°38′22″W / 30.02690°N 90.63958°W		 St. John the Baptist The most intact plantation in the South with 37 national landmarked buildings.
88000102 Fairhaven Plantation House Zachary
93000821 Fairview Plantation House Ethel
Frogmore Plantation Frogmore, LA Museum quality steam powered cotton gin. Plantation tour a Rand McNally as a "Must See Site" in the South/Southeast and by AAA Southern Traveler Magazine as one of the top three favorite attractions in the tri-states of Ark/La/Miss. Featured in PBS documentaries.
82004674 Frozard Plantation House Grand Coteau
93001548 Godchaux-Reserve Plantation House Reserve
97000967 Gracelane Plantation House Baton Rouge
92000510 Graugnard Farms Plantation House St. James
82000451 Harlem Plantation House Pointe à la Hache Plaquemines
78001438 Hazelwood Plantation Laurel Hill
86003129 Homestead Plantation Complex Plaquemine
70000842 Homeplace Plantation House April 15, 1970 Hahnville
29°58′16″N 90°24′27″W / 29.97105°N 90.40758°W		 St. Charles
04001470 Hope Plantation House Garyville
80001694 The Houmas September 27, 1980 Burnside Ascension
87002449 Inglewood Plantation Historic District Alexandria Rapides
01000669 Katie Plantation House Breaux Bridge
06000317 Kenilworth Plantation House St. Bernard
71000362 Kent Plantation House Alexandria Rapides
84000145 LaBranche Plantation Dependency October 18, 1984 St. Rose St. Charles
02001296 Landry Plantation House Youngsville
93000322 Lane Plantation House Ethel
92001842 Laura Plantation Vacherie St. James Plantation heiress and manager Laura Lacoul Gore's (1861-1963) autobiography Memories of the Old Plantation Home: A Creole Family Album (Nov. 2000) tells the family's history and her experience living at the plantation
78001426 Laurel Valley Sugar Plantation Thibodaux Lafourche
93000694 LeBeuf Plantation House New Orleans
94000705 Linwood Plantation Manager's House Newellton
79001057 Lisburn Plantation House Ferriday
74000924 Live Oaks Plantation Rosedale
80001748 Logtown Plantation Monroe
77000678 Loyd Hall Plantation Cheneyville Rapides
02001603 Lucky Plantation House Sunshine
73000860 Madewood Plantation House May 4, 1983 Napoleonville
29°55′39″N 90°59′39″W / 29.92738°N 90.99426°W		 Assumption
83000548 Plantation January 3, 1998 Derry
29°42′53″N 90°49′08″W / 29.714722°N 90.818889°W		 Schriever
79001071 Magnolia January 3, 2001 Derry
31°33′11″N 92°56′33″W / 31.55294°N 92.94240°W		 Natchitoches
86000253 Magnolia Lane Westwego Jefferson
72000549 Magnolia Mound Plantation House Baton Rouge East Baton Rouge
87002135 Marengo Plantation House Jonesville
83000533 Mary Plantation House Braithwaite Plaquemines
72000556 Melrose Plantation May 30, 1974 Melrose
31°05′16″N 92°58′03″W / 31.08771°N 92.96756°W		 Natchitoches
80001769 Monte Vista Plantation House Port Allen
87002505 Montegut Plantation House LaPlace
82000444 Montrose Plantation House Tallulah Madison
82000468 Moro Plantation House Waterproof Tensas
06000779 Moss Grove Plantation House Jonesville
76002167 Moundville Plantation House Washington
80001717 Mount Hope Plantation House Baton Rouge East Baton Rouge
79001094 Myrtle Grove Plantation May 10, 1979 Waterproof Tensas
74002185 Myrtle Hill Plantation House Gloster
78001439 Myrtles Plantation St. Francisville West Feliciana
76000966 Narcisse Prudhomme Plantation Natchitoches
85000976 Narrows Plantation House Lake Arthur Jefferson Davis
80001733 Nottoway Plantation House White Castle Iberville
74002187 Oak Alley Plantation December 2, 1974 Vacherie
30°00′15″N 90°46′33″W / 30.00427°N 90.77593°W		 St. James
92000036 Oak Grove Plantation Dependencies St. Francisville West Feliciana
79001073 Oakland Plantation January 3, 2001 Natchez
31°39′54″N 93°00′12″W / 31.66500°N 93.00333°W		 Natchitoches
80001720 Oakland Plantation House Gurley East Feliciana
79001072 Oaklawn Natchez
73000878 Oakley Plantation January 25, 1973 St. Francisville West Feliciana John James Audubon worked here as Eliza Pirrie's art tutor, for four months in 1821. He painted 32 of his famous Birds of America during that time. Audubon's wife Lucy also taught at Oakley.
80001697 Oakwold Plantation House Evergreen
80001764 Orange Grove Plantation House Houma
90001748 Ormond Plantation House November 11, 1990 Destrehan St. Charles
77000665 Palo Alto Plantation Donaldsonville Ascension
70000258 Parlange Plantation May 30, 1974 Mix
31°39′54″N 93°00′12″W / 31.66500°N 93.00333°W		 Pointe Coupee
03001064 Pegram Plantation House Lecompte Rapides
71000360 Pitot House New Orleans Orleans
84001347 Pleasant View Plantation House Oscar Pointe Coupee
80004251 Judge Felix Poche' Plantation House Convent
87002136 Poplar Grove Plantation House Port Allen West Baton Rouge Parish
01000943 Residence Plantation House Houma
79001064 Richland Plantation Norwood East Feliciana
80001736 Rienzi Plantation House Thibodaux Lafourche
80001771 Rosale Plantation St. Francisville West Feliciana
76000974 Rosalie Plantation Sugar Mill Alexandria Rapides
73000880 Rosebank Plantation House Weyanoke
01000765 Rosedown April 5, 2005 St. Francisville
30°47′46″N 91°22′15″W / 30.79602°N 91.37095°W		 West Feliciana
99001039 Sandbar Plantation House Port Allen
74002186 San Francisco Plantation House May 30, 1970 Reserve
30°02′51″N 90°36′20″W / 30.04753°N 90.60554°W		 St. John the Baptist
78003448 Santa Maria Plantation House Baton Rouge
82000445 Scottland Plantation House Tallulah Madison
86001495 Sebastopol Plantation House St. Bernard
72000553 Shadows-on-the-Teche May 30, 1970 New Iberia
30°00′09″N 91°48′54″W / 30.00254°N 91.81499°W		 Iberia Mrs. Francis Weeks (Magill) Prewitt and her children Ida Magill and Agustin Magill were among the over 200 people, many of whom were of plantation society, who perished in the 1856 Last Island Hurricane. The children are buried on the grounds.
95000387 Smithfield Plantation House Port Allen
83000558 Solitude Plantation House St. Francisville West Feliciana
74002188 Southdown Plantation Houma
82000470 St. George Plantation House Schriever Terrebonne
05000987 St. Joseph Plantation Vacherie
75000849 St. Louis Plantation Plaquemine Iberville
79001104 St. Maurice Plantation St. Maurice Pointe Coupee
03000680 Star Hill Plantation Dependency Star Hill
98000570 Stephanie Plantation House Arnaudville
82000432 Synope Plantation House Columbia
79001059 Tacony Plantation House Vidalia
80001731 Tally-Ho Plantation House Bayou Goula Iberville
99000257 Trio Plantation House Rayville
Uncle Sam Plantation Convent St. James
02000297 Valverda Plantation House Maringouin Pointe Coupee
77000677 White Hall Plantation House Lettsworth Pointe Coupee
87001475 Whitehall Plantation House Monroe
92001566 Whitney Plantation Historic District Wallace St. John the Baptist
88000977 Wildwood Plantation House Jackson
98000702 Woodland Plantation West Pointe à la Hache Plaquemines

Historical background of the plantation era

Upland or green seeded cotton was not a commercially important crop until the invention of an improved cotton gin in 1793. With an inexpensive cotton gin a man could remove seed from as much cotton in one day as a woman could de-seed in two months working at a rate of about one pound per day.[4] The newly mechanized cotton industry in England during the Industrial Revolution absorbed the tremendous supply of cheap cotton that became a major crop in the Southern U.S.

At the time of the cotton gin’s invention, the sub tropical soils in the Eastern U.S. were becoming depleted, and the fertilizer deposits of guano deposits of South America and the Pacific Islands along with the nitrate deposits in the Chilean deserts were not yet being exploited, meaning that there were fertilizer shortages, leading to a decline in agriculture in the Southeast and a westward expansion to new land.

Transportation at the time was extremely limited. There were almost no improved roads in the U.S. or in the Louisiana Territory and the first railroads were not built until the 1830s.[5] The only practical means for shipping agricultural products more than a few miles without exceeding their value was by water. This made much of the land in the U.S. unsuitable for growing crops other than for local consumption.

Under ownership of Spain, New Orleans held the strategically important location between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. The Carondelet Canal, which was completed in 1794, connected the Tremé section of New Orleans with Bayou St. John, giving shipping access to Lake Pontchartrain as an alternative route to the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. gained rights to use the New Orleans port in 1795. See: New Orleans#History

Louisiana (New Spain) was transferred by Spain to France in 1800, but it remained under Spanish administration until a few months before the Louisiana Purchase. The huge swath of territory purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 was sparsely populated. During the Thomas Jefferson Presidency, a high priority was to build roads to New Orleans, specifically the Natchez Trace and the Federal Road through Georgia, initially intended to facilitate mail delivery.

The Napoleonic Wars and the Embargo Act of 1807 restricted European trade, which did not recover until the end of the War of 1812 in 1815. The Year without a summer of 1816 resulted in famine in Europe and a wave of immigration to the U.S., with New Orleans being the destination of many refugees. The return of good harvests in Europe along, with the newly cleared and planted land in the Midwest and Mississippi River Valley and improvements in transportation, resulted in a collapse in agricultural prices that caused the 1818-19 depression. Agricultural commodity prices remained depressed for many years, but their eventual recovery resulted in a new wave of land clearing, which in turn triggered another depression in the late 1830s. Cotton prices were particularly depressed.[6]

Until the development of the steamboat, transportation of goods on major rivers was generally accomplished either with barges or flatboats, floated downstream or pushed upstream with poles or by hand using overhanging tree limbs. On the Mississippi River, most shipping was down river on log rafts or wooden boats that were dismantled and sold as lumber in the vicinity of New Orleans. Steam-powered river navigation began in 1811-12, between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New Orleans. Inland steam navigation rapidly expanded in the following decades. Railroads appeared before the Civil War, though at first were used to link waterways. After the Civil War, railroads took over most of the hauling of goods.

It was during the period of expanding steam transportation that plantation agriculture dominated the Southern economy, with two-thirds of the millionaires in the U.S. living in Louisiana, mostly between Natchez, Mississippi, and New Orleans. The surviving plantation homes range from relatively modest dwellings to opulent mansions, some containing original furnishings and many with period furniture.

Due to poor transportation and slow industrialization, plantations tended to be somewhat self-sufficient, growing most of their own food, harvesting their own timber and firewood, repairing farm implements, and constructing their own buildings. Many slaves were skilled blacksmiths, masons, and carpenters who were often contracted out. Cloth, shoes, and clothing were imported from Europe and from the Northeast U.S.

The self-sufficiency of plantations and cheap slave labor hindered economic development of the South. Contemporary descriptions cite the lack of towns, commerce, and economic development.

Besides the necessity of river transportation, the soils near the rivers and old river channels contained the best soil, where the sandy and silty soil settled, increasing the height of the natural levees. The clay soil settled farther away from the rivers and being less stable, it slumped to muddy back-swamps.[7] The plantations in the vicinity of St. Francisville, Louisiana are on a high bluff on the east side of the Mississippi River with loess soil, which was not as fertile as the river alluvium, but was relatively well-suited to plantation agriculture.

Slave housing

Slave quarters at Magnolia Plantation, Natchitoches Parish, LA IMG 3473

Examples of slave housing can be found on many of the extant plantations.

A contemporary account from the 1903 memoirs of a resident of the White Castle describes slave housing as being more comfortable than many white people had in Europe (although it is not known whether all slave housing was up to the standards the writer was familiar with, or of surviving examples). Surviving slave housing appears to be better than Engels' description of some of the mill workers' housing in The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844. Engels described much housing consisting of a single room occupied by eight to ten unrelated individuals of both sexes with no toilet facilities and often no furniture. The occupants slept on piles of sawdust or straw.

Examples of slave housing at Laura and San Francisco plantations are wooden buildings with two or three separate rooms, including the kitchen, and furnished with one or more bedsteads and a few other pieces of furniture. These were intended to house a single family.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Plantations in Louisiana.

References

  1. ↑ "How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation," (PDF), National Register Bulletins, National Park Service. Retrieved March 22, 2007.
  2. ↑ National Park Service (April 2007). "National Historic Landmarks Survey: List of National Historic Landmarks by State" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
  3. ↑ National Park Service. "National Historic Landmark Program: NHL Database". Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  4. ↑ Roe, Joseph Wickham (1916), English and American Tool Builders, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, LCCN 16011753. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (LCCN 27-24075); and by Lindsay Publications, Inc., Bradley, Illinois, (ISBN 978-0-917914-73-7).
  5. ↑ Taylor, George Rogers. The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860. ISBN 978-0873321013.
  6. ↑ North, Douglas C. (1966). The Economic Growth of the United States 1790-1860. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-00346-8.
  7. ↑ See soil surveys of the various parishes.