Traveling the first Gold Coast Louisiana’s Great River Road
Written: May 12 '02 (Updated May 16 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Living history, wonderful houses, and exceptional photo opportunities
Cons: Crowds, traffic congestion, hot and humid in the summer
The Bottom Line: Louisiana’s “Great River Road” is the largest collection of ante bellum plantation houses in the country
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| Howard_Creech's Full Review: River Road |
Louisiana's legendary Great River Road is actually a loosely defined 80-mile corridor of small two lane state highways along both sides of the Mississippi between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The area is famous for some of the Old South’s most renowned great houses. Names like Destrehan, San Francisco, Evergreen, Oak Alley, Laura, Nottoway, Tezcuco, and Houmas House inspire romantic visions of white-columned manor houses surrounded by live oaks draped with Spanish moss.
Visitors are most likely to concentrate on the opulent mansions, but in reality plantations were agricultural factories focused on producing a cash crop and processing it for sale. Each plantation was a self-contained community where the sugarhouse, slave quarters, and river landing were much more important to the economic health of the operation than the great house.
During the first sixty years of the nineteenth century almost two thirds of all the millionaires in the United States lived along a one hundred and fifty mile stretch of the Mississippi River between Natchez, Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana. Most of the millionaires in Louisiana lived on old Royal Land Patents, long, wedge shaped pieces of land with narrow river frontages. The French and Spanish Crowns had granted the original deeds for these huge plantations to prominent Creole families.
Some of these “gold coast” plantations were purchased by wealthy American planters from Virginia, Kentucky, the Carolinas, and Georgia after the United States bought the Louisiana territory from Napoleon in 1803, but many are still in the hands of the descendants of their original owners. North of Baton Rouge cotton was king, the raw material that drove the textile mills of the Northeastern U. S. and Great Britain. South of Baton Rouge the preferred cash crop was sugar, known as white gold, an expensive and popular luxury item. Sugarhouses ran day and night to convert the cane into sugar to satisfy the young nations sweet tooth.
The slavery based plantation economy of ante bellum Louisiana revolved around the Steamboats that picked up cotton, sugar, molasses, and indigo from the levy landings at every plantation. The shallow draft riverboats rode low in the water with heavy cargoes of agricultural goods bound for markets in New Orleans, the Northeastern U. S., the Caribbean, and Europe. The boats landed oriental silk, English china, French furniture, Thoroughbred horses and Bourbon whiskey from Kentucky, Jamaica Rum, and New York, Paris, and London fashions for the residents of the great houses. Today the “Great River Road” connects visitors to the largest collection of historic Ante Bellum homes and working plantations in the country, to a romantic past filled with the ghosts of Southern belles and aristocratic planters. Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler would have been right at home.
The plantation lifestyle was doomed by the Civil War, but unlike their counter-parts in Georgia and Mississippi, the great houses along the River Road saw little damage during the conflict. New Orleans quickly fell to the Yankees and commercial steamboat traffic on the Mississippi dried up almost overnight and the plantation economy wasn’t able to operate profitably without access to markets. After the war many wealthy planters found themselves bankrupt, forced to sell off large parcels of their land in order to feed their families and hold onto their homes.
After the war, a down at the heels form of genteel poverty became the norm for the residents of the great houses, a situation that continued into the early years of the twentieth century. The roaring twenties, the decade that ended with the stock market crash and the Great Depression dawned in Louisiana with an outbreak of Sugar Mosaic disease that destroyed the already shaky agricultural economy of the area. Financial collapse forced many of the old families off what remained of their plantations and great house after great house was abandoned and fell into ruin. Chemical companies attracted by the newly dredged deep water Mississippi channel (which provided ocean going ships access to Baton Rouge and New Orleans) and cheap riverside land, bought many of the old plantations. A few of the magnificent old houses became quarters for chemical company executives, but many were allowed to deteriorate to the point of collapse.
Elmo Morgan’s depression era photos for New Orleans’ Times-Picayune newspaper poignantly illustrate the abject poverty that was prevalent along the river, once the richest area in the United States. The neglect and deterioration are also chronicled in Clarence John Laughlin’s classic 1948 photography book Ghosts Along the Mississippi. Laughlin’s sensitive and occasionally surreal black and white photographs of the ruins of the magnificent old Plantation Houses were instrumental in creating a grassroots movement to save and restore the area’s architectural treasures. Shortly after World War Two a determined coalition of historic preservation groups geared up to save the magnificent old houses, and by the late seventies the area had regained most of its former glory.
Today the “Great River Road” is an area of startling contrasts; sugarcane fields, moss draped live oaks, and stately ante bellum mansions stand side by side with petrochemical plants, subdivisions, busy suburban highways, and bustling commercial strips. It’s a chaotic mixture of old and new, tacky and traditional, beautiful and ugly, but for dedicated travelers and students of history much of the area’s past remains to be enjoyed.
If you begin (or end) your tour in Baton Rouge visit Magnolia Mound Plantation, probably the best remaining example of the combined architectural styles that influenced wealthy colonial settlers in French Louisiana. The Creole style incorporates local materials, French and West Indian design elements, and the ubiquitous wrap around “galleries” that made it possible for the residents to cope with the heat and humidity of the lower Mississippi valley. Magnolia Mound, built in 1791, utilizes bousillage (clay-rich mud, Spanish Moss, and deer hair) walls with a wooden exterior. The house is one of the oldest wooden buildings in Louisiana and sits on a low ridge overlooking the Mississippi River. This magnificent French Colonial house and the fine collection of antique furnishings vividly illustrate the lifestyle of wealthy eighteenth century Creole colonists. 2161 Nicholson Drive (225) 343-4955 http://www.magmound@aol.com
On the West Bank of the River
Just south of Baton Rouge is the charming village of Plaquemine. The town was completely inundated in the 1927 Mississippi River flood.
“Louisiana 1927”
What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has done
To this poor crackers land. *
Plaquemine is a good place to cross the river. You can take the ferry (every 30 minutes) to the East bank or stop for a meal at the City Café 53945 Main St. (225) 687-7831. The "CC" is an “intimate” local restaurant where everyone knows everyone else. The Café has been run by the same family since before the 1927 flood. The food is great, portions are huge, prices are reasonable, and the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed. “Blue Plate” specials, country cooking, and Louisiana style Italian dishes are specialties. Try the Chicken fried steak with white gravy and order a side of fresh cut onion rings.
Nottoway
Just south of Plaquemine is the house known as the White Castle. A wealthy Virginian named John Randolph built Nottoway in 1859. It’s the largest ante bellum mansion in Louisiana and features a bowling alley, indoor plumbing, hand-painted Dresden porcelain doorknobs, and a huge formal ballroom. Legend has it that Nottoway was saved from destruction during the Civil War because a Yankee naval officer was smitten with the beauty of one of Randolph’s eight daughters. Union gunboats patrolled the river between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, sometimes using the great houses for target practice. There’s a Yankee canon ball (that hit the house) on display in the dining room.
Six of Randolph’s eight daughters were married in the “White Castle” but one daughter, Sally, lost her beau during the war. She never married and died of a broken heart. Her ghost is seen from time to time wandering the halls of the great house. Rooms are available (with meals) for overnight guests. Nottoway is about 80 miles north of the New Orleans on Louisiana Highway 18. The best place to photograph the house is from the top of the levee on the river side of Hwy 18. Scenes for the TV mini-series “North and South” (1985) were filmed in the formal dining room at Nottoway. Just south of Nottoway in Donaldsonville you can cross the river on the “Sunshine” Bridge (named for Louisiana’s singing Governor Jimmie Davis, who wrote and recorded the classic “You are my Sunshine”)
Laura Plantation
Laura Plantation is unique along the river road for several reasons. It is one of only a few remaining examples of the raised Creole "big house" architectural style and has a rare collection of period outbuildings including six slave quarters. The Plantation evolved from a French Royal Land patent granted in 1755. The house was built in 1805 and the Plantation’s name comes from the last descendant of the Dupare family (who bought the property in the last years of the eighteenth century) Laura Locoul. Laura Plantation is reputed to have been the original home for one of the former slave storytellers on whom Joel Chandler Harris based his Uncle Remus character. Harris’ stories in dialect of Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear (based on Americanized African folk tales) were immensely popular in the closing years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century. Walt Disney’s “Song of the South” 1946, one of the first combined live action/animated features was based on Harris’ "Legends of the Old Plantation" (1881) Laura is located just upriver from Vacherie at 2247 La Hwy 18. The house is open daily (except New Year's day, Mardi Gras Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) Call 1-888-799-7690 or Email creolaura@aol.com. You can visit the Plantation’s website at www.lauraplantation.com
Oak Alley Plantation
Oak Alley is probably best known for the magnificent alley of three hundred year old live oaks that leads from the river to the house. Nobody knows exactly who planted the twenty-eight huge old trees but they predate the 1839 house by at least 100 years. Jim Brandenburg’s beautifully framed front-lit photograph of the house seen through the alley of ancient trees has become a familiar icon for Deep South plantation houses. This landmark antebellum mansion was built, on the site of an earlier house, by a wealthy French planter for his young bride. The Greek Revival home was one of the first to be rescued from the deterioration and neglect that followed the Civil War. Overnight accommodations are available in antiques furnished Creole cottages on the property. Rooms have neither telephones nor televisions, an omission that is designed to enhance the plantation experience. Oak Alley is about 45 miles from New Orleans, just off La Hwy 18 in Vacherie.
If you visit during the Christmas season you can take part in one of Louisiana’s most charming cultural customs. Along the levees that line both sides of the ”River Road” on Christmas Eve, huge bonfires burn to light the way for “Papa Noel” who brings gifts for good boys and girls not in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, but in a pirogue (a flat bottomed “Cajun” bayou boat), pulled by a team of alligators. The bonfires light “Papa Noel’s” way all over the state, but the most impressive displays are in Gramercy and Vacherie, on opposite sides of the river. The St. James ferry runs between Vacherie on the West bank and Gramercy on the East bank. The bonfires are usually built of willow logs in a teepee shape, although more fanciful “log” structures ranging from steamboats to the Gramercy High School are popular as well. The Gramercy fire department operates a very popular concession that sells Gumbo, Jambalaya, dirty rice and other popular Cajun/Creole dishes, if you get hungry.
A note for photographers, getting the bonfires on film is best accomplished by walking down the river side of the levee, and shooting up. Find a bonfire that is burning nicely, with several people close by, set up your camera on a tripod and bracket shutter speeds between 1/30th of a second and two seconds (with ISO 100 slide/print film). A moderate wide angle (28-35mm) at its maximum aperture (f2.8) will freeze the flames and light the revelers well. Don’t try to capture the Steamboats full of tourists (up from New Orleans) The boats are lit from stem to stern with thousands of Christmas lights but they never stop moving, and with a one or two second exposure, all you’ll get are colorful blurs.
From Vacherie you can take a short detour down La. Hwy 20 to Thibodaux and turn North on La. Hwy one to Napoleonville (named by a veteran of the Napoleonic wars in honor of the little Corporal) and visit Madewood Plantation. It required eight years to cut, shape, and trim the native cypress timbers (the slaves who did the work called this “making wood”) fire the bricks, and construct the magnificent house. Louisiana photographer Clarence John Laughlin devoted several pages of his classic 1948 book Ghosts Along the Mississippi to the Madewood Plantation House. Madewood was one of the largest sugar plantations in the south, with more than two hundred slaves and the “Sugar House” ran twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. Tours, (and for those who would like try to the “Plantation” experience) overnight lodging, and meals are available. (504) 369-7151. Madewood was the locale for the film "A Woman Called Moses" (1978) starring Cicely Tyson, Will Geer, and Robert Hooks. This classic Greek Revival home is one of the prettiest plantation houses in Louisiana. Retrace your route to Vacherie
On the East Bank of the River
Houmas House
Houmas House in located on the East Bank of the river just after you cross the Sunshine Bridge at Donaldsonville. Robert Aldrich’s Classic 1965 Gothic Southern horror film, “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte” (starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, and Bruce Dern) was filmed in this house. The magnificent old late eighteenth century home is truly one of Louisiana’s grandes dames, once the heart of a thriving 20,000 acre sugar plantation, the restored house and gardens are all that’s left. The plantation’s fields are now part of an intensely ugly and ecologically repugnant Du Pont chemical plant.
The Greek Revival house is situated in a beautiful sylvan setting amid 200-year-old live oaks, formal boxwood gardens, a camellia garden, and a 200 foot wisteria arbor (with three different varieties of wisteria). Guided tours (every 30 minutes) and a Gift Shop. Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day (504) 473-7841 Houmas House is about sixty miles from New Orleans on La Hwy 942 near Burnside.
San Francisco
San Francisco is completely different from every other plantation house on the River Road. The house looks like it would be more at home somewhere up north. The combination of baroque, carpenter gothic, and Victorian architecture and design elements make the house look sort of like a grounded Steamboat. In fact the architectural term "steamboat gothic" was coined to describe this 1856 house. No one knows why the house was named San Francisco.
The interior of the house is just as unique as the outside. It features painted ceiling murals, faux marbling and faux wood graining throughout, and Victorian furnishings. Novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes wrote her popular novel "Steamboat Gothic" to describe the family that (in her imagination) lived in the house. San Francisco is about 35 miles from New Orleans on La Hwy 44 in Garyville/Reserve.
Destrehan
Destrehan Plantation is the oldest plantation house (built in 1787) in the lower Mississippi Valley. The French Colonial style house was one of the locations used in the Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt film of Ann Rice’s popular novel, Interview with the Vampire. During the Civil War the house was commandeered by the Federal Government and used to house freed slaves. Its owner was in England as the Confederate ambassador to the Court of Saint James. Destrehan is located on La Hwy 48 less than 25 miles from New Orleans. It’s an easy day trip from the Crescent City. Open daily (except Major Holidays) 13034 River Road, Destrehan, Louisiana (504) 764-9315
Lagniappe**
If you’re not tired of the Ante Bellum South yet, here’s an excellent side trip from Baton Rouge. Follow U. S. Highway 61 (the Great Blues Highway) north to the Port Hudson State Commemorative Area. Confederate fortifications at Port Hudson and Vicksburg allowed portions of the Mississippi River to remain in rebel hands until 1863. A Union offensive to capture Port Hudson was one of the most brutal battles in the Civil War and the longest siege in U. S. military history. The Port Hudson fortifications commanded the low bluffs overlooking a curve in the Mississippi River just south of Baton Rouge. River traffic had to slowly maneuver through the curve right under the guns of the Rebels. More than 30,000 Federal troops were assigned the task of wresting the heights from the 7,000 Confederate defenders. Yankee commanders ordered suicidal frontal attacks on the four and a half miles of earthen breastworks protecting the Rebel position. Union forces suffered horrendous casualties and the Confederates were forced to eat rats during the 48-day siege.
African American troops saw their baptism of fire at Port Hudson where they fought with great gallantry. Their heroism hastened the acceptance of black troops in the Union army. When Vicksburg fell in July of 1863, the Confederate Commander at Port Hudson surrendered, giving Union forces complete control of the Mississippi River and cutting the Confederacy in half. Port Hudson became the primary recruitment and training site for African American troops for the remainder of the Civil War. The siege of Port Hudson resulted in over 12,000 combined Union/Confederate casualties.
Many of the African American troops who first saw action during the Port Hudson siege chose to remain in the military after the Civil War ended. These former slaves and northern freedmen formed the cadre of the 9th and 10th U. S. Cavalry Regiments, the famed Buffalo Soldiers of the Plains Indian Wars. Port Hudson Commemorative Area (U.S. Hwy 61, Zachary, LA (225) 654-3775)
From Port Hudson follow U. S. Hwy 61 to the charming little town of St. Francisville, in the heart of English Louisiana. When France lost Canada to the English after the French and Indian War in 1759, the French government transferred ownership of the vast Louisiana territory to Spain to prevent the English gaining control of the Mississippi River watershed. France regained title to Louisiana in 1803 and sold it to the United States (Napoleon needed cash to continue his fight with the English in Europe) but the east bank of the Mississippi River remained under Spanish control, nominally part of Florida.
Wealthy American planters lured by weak Spanish control and cheap land settled in West Florida. In 1810 American settlers in West Florida rebelled against Spanish rule and seized Baton Rouge (the province’s capital) and declared a republic. President James Madison authorized Louisiana's Governor to take control of West Florida (giving the United States control of the Gulf Coast from Pensacola to the Texas border. Louisiana was quickly admitted to the union, with its capital in Baton Rouge under the control of American settlers, rather than in New Orleans which was controlled by wealthy Creole families. The territory on the east bank of the Mississippi River has been known as the Florida Parishes ever since.
St. Francisville is a charming little town with more than 140 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. The traditions and history of this region are very different from the rest of Louisiana. The churches here are Methodist, Episcopal, and Baptist, rather than Catholic. The cemeteries look like those in New England or the Midwest, with very few above ground burials. The architecture is like what you might see in Georgia or Alabama. Restaurants in the area serve barbecue, fried catfish, southern fried chicken, chicken fried steak, and potatoes rather than Jambalaya, Gumbo, "dirty rice" and crawfish.
Many of the old plantations in the area around St. Francisville are still working farms. Today they grow pecans, and raise beef cattle. Most of these magnificent old houses are open to the public and a few are of more than passing historical interest. While working at Oakley House (as tutor for the children of the plantation's owner) America’s most famous naturalist and wildlife artist, John James Audubon spent all his free time wandering the countryside and struggling to complete his book of American Birds.
Some of the old plantation houses are now Bed & Breakfast Inns, like the Butler Greenwood Plantation, a working farm (504) 635-6312, or for the truly fearless the Myrtles Plantation, (504) 635-6277 a beautiful home built in 1796. The Myrtles is reputed to be the "most haunted house in America". If you visit St. Francisville don’t miss the chance to have lunch at the Magnolia Café
121 E. Commerce St. (504) 635-6528. From St. Francisville you can return to Baton Rouge, or continue northward on U. S. Hwy 61 to Natchez and then on to Clarksdale (birthplace of the blues) and finally Memphis, home of Graceland and Sun Records.
*Randy Newman from the album “Good Old Boys” 1974. The best version of this beautiful song is by Aaron Neville from his “Warm your Heart” album
**Louisiana French for “an unexpected surprise, a treat you did not anticipate, or a little something extra”
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Just “cut ‘n’paste the URL into your browswer’s address bar.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Howard_Creech
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Member: Howard Creech
Location: Louisville, KY
Reviews written: 334
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About Me:
Photographer/Writer fascinated by Movies, Music, Books, American Diner Food, History, "Popular Culture", and Travel.
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