The Southern Belle

The Southern belle (derived from the French word belle, 'beautiful') is an archetype for a young woman of the American Old South's upper class. The "Southern belle" supposedly epitomized Southern hospitality, a cultivation of beauty, and a flirtatious yet chaste demeanor. In a modern context, the term may also be used for a débutante from the southern United States.

External Links:

Growing Up White in the South

 MTV's True Life episode titled "I'm a Southern Belle"

Source: Wikipedia

 

The Houmas Plantation

The Houmas house, designed in the Greek Revival style Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana Rear of The Houmas house Photograph from National Register collection

The Houmas house is significant in the area of architecture as an excellent example of a plantation house designed in the peripteral mode of the Greek Revival. It represents an important regional variation of the Greek Revival, which typified many of the grandest residences in the deep South. Houmas house is also historically important because under owner John Burnside in the 1850's and 60's it was the center of the largest slave holding in Louisiana. With over 800 slaves, it represented the largest economic unit in the prevailing slave economy of the state's pre-Civil War period. The plantation house began in the late 18th or early 19th century as a two-story, pitched roof brick building with end wall chimneys and a stuccoed exterior. The house had two rooms on each floor with a central staircase, six over six windows, and exposed beams, some of which were beaded. Although it presents a historic appearance, this old portion of the house has been much reworked. Changes made by Dr. Crozat include the removal of the stairs, the addition of an upstairs hall with a Palladian window, the replacement of the fireplaces and mantels, and the installation of closets and cupboards.

In 1840 a square plan, two and a half-story, peripteral style mansion of stuccoed brick was built in front of the original portion. The normal rear gallery was omitted because of the close proximity of the old house. The 1840 portion is three rooms deep with a wide central hall plan. It has a graceful helix staircase set in a rear vestibule opposite a corresponding curving wall. The dining room and front parlor connect by means of wide doors. Significant exterior features include the handsome colossal Doric galleries, the Federal arched dormers, the cupola, and the movable louvered shutters. The axial formal garden, which extends to the sides and rear of the house, is largely the result of work done by former owner Dr. George Crozat in the 1940's. In the 1940's Dr. Crozat demolished a pair of rooms which had connected the older portion with the 1840 portion, and built a glazed breezeway with an arch at each end. He also installed a modern kitchen and bathrooms in the 1840's portion.

The Houmas is located at 40136 Hwy. 942 in Darrow. Fortunately, the house was not damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but please check with them directly to confirm the current hours of operation. The Houmas is open for guided tours by costumed interpreters daily 10:00am to 5:00 February- October; and 10:00am to 4:00pm November-January, except on major holidays. Call 225-473-7841 or visit the plantation's website for further information.

Source: Internet

Tezcuco Plantation

Tezcuco-front entrance Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana Tezcuco's exterior extends to the restored landscape Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana

Please Note: Unfortunately, Tezcuco Plantation was completely destroyed by fire in May 2002. 


Tezcuco was a one-story, frame, Greek Revival plantation house located on the east bank of the Mississippi River about a mile and a half south of Burnside. Except for a few alterations, the residence retained its original c.1855 appearance on both the exterior and interior, until destroyed by fire in 2002. The grounds also included a contemporaneous Creole cottage, which echoes the architecture of the main house. Tezcuco was built for Benjamin Tureaud around 1855. He was the grandson of Emanuel Bringier and the son of Augustin Dominique Tureaud, both plantation owners. The plantation remained in the Tureaud family until 1950 when Dr. and Mrs. Robert H. Potts purchased it. The present owner obtained it in 1982 and restored Tezcuco and furnished it with antebellum antiques, some of which included pieces by the famous New Orleans cabinetmakers, Mallard and Seignouret. Tezcuco contained a number of details that distinguish it as an exceptional example of the raised Creole cottage, including the ironwork in an elaborate grape and vine pattern found on the two side porches and of the railing on the front porch. The raised house rested on a stuccoed brick basement with similar piers under the galleries and porches. The hip roof had gabled, pedimented dormers with entablatures and pilasters.

Tezcuco's plan amounted to an enlarged and developed version of the traditional Creole plantation house plan. The traditional form has a hall-less plan, three rooms wide and one room deep with rear cabinets flanking a gallery. Tezcuco's plan was similar in concept, but was more enlarged. Its floor plan was more elaborate and developed than that of the typical plantation house of the period. The 15-foot ceilings gave the rooms an unusual grandeur and spaciousness. While the Greek Revival influence was prevalent in the house, the Italianate style was also present in the somewhat heavier, more pronounced mantels, ceiling medallions, ironwork and foliated plaster cornice work. Around 1955, a small room was added to the rear of each of the side porches in order to install modern bathrooms. A modern kitchen, housed in a sunporch, was added on the side porch on the upriver elevation. A vestibule entry to the basement was also constructed next to the front steps.

Tezcuco was located at 3138 State Hwy. 44 in Darrow. 

Source: Internet

St. Emma Plantation House

 
St Emma Plantation, located about four miles south of Donaldsonville and just west of the Bayou Lafourche, is a fine example of a large mid-19th-century Greek Revival plantation house. Built in 1847, St. Emma was owned from 1854 to 1869 by Charles A. Kock, one of the leading sugar planters and large slaveholders of Louisiana. Kock also owned the nearby Belle Alliance plantation, and between the two there lived 300 slaves. Born in Breman, Germany, in 1812, Charles A. Kock had become one of the largest sugar producers in Louisiana. St. Emma and the nearby plantation of Palo Alto figured in a Civil War battle, known as the "Battle of Koch's Plantation," in the fall of 1862. Confederate troops quartered in the sugarhouses of the two plantations skirmished with Union forces marching south from Donaldsonville to Thibodaux. The advancing Union army lost 465 men.

St. Emma Plantation House stands five bays wide and three rooms deep, all around a central hall, following a standard raised plantation house plan, though St. Emma is somewhat larger than other examples. Both the front and rear facades have five-bay galleries which are formed of brick posts on the lower story and paneled wooden pillars on the upper story. There are no interior stairs and both staircases are set within the galleries. The house has a brick lower story and a circular sawn frame upper story. Although the upper story is the main floor, there are rooms on the ground floor as well, which appear to be original to the house. The exterior doors have three ventricle panels rather than the usual two. They are encompassed within ear-molded frames with pediment-shaped tops, and the sidelights are separated from the doors by full pilasters rather than molded stripes. Today, St. Emma plantation is furnished with a superb collection of Empire-period furniture.

St. Emma Plantation House is located at 1283 South Hwy. 1, four miles south of Donaldsonville and is open by appointment only. Call the Ascension Parish Tourist Commission at 225-657-6550..

Source: Internet

Madewood Plantation

Madewood Plantation House Photograph from the National Historic Landmark collection Second floor collonade of Ionic columns Photograph from the National Historic Landmark collection

Built in 1840-48, Madewood Plantation House reflects the aspirations of its original owner, Colonel Thomas Pugh, a member of a prominent and wealthy Louisiana family. Madewood represents one of the finest and purest examples of the Greek Revival style architecture in a plantation home. In a grove of oaks and magnolias, facing Bayou Lafourche, Pugh and his architect, Henry Howard, constructed a house whose classical splendor would surpass that of the neighboring plantations. Madewood was the manor house for the group of plantations that Pugh acquired in the 1830's and 40's, which eventually totaled some 10,000 acres. Sugar cane production brought economic prosperity to the area around Bayou Lafourche in the first part of the 19th century. While Madewood is one of many plantations along the bayou, it stands out for its architectural grandeur, which is unique in its blending of its Classical features with indigenous material. The grounds today include the main house and attached kitchen, and in the rear, the carriage house, the Pugh family cemetery, Elmfield Cottage and the Madewood slave quarters.

The house is built of bricks made on the plantation, while the exterior is covered with stucco, scored to represent masonry blocks and painted white. The proportions are carefully determined, the six fluted Ionic columns rise two stories, with the central portion retaining the character of a Greek temple. Two one-story wings, echoing the predominant elements of the main house, complete the facade. The interior contains 23 rooms, with floors of heart pine, doorframes and moldings of cypress, painted to resemble oak (or faux bois). Each doorway is signed by the artist, Cornealieus Hennessey. Elsewhere, the woodwork, including the cypress mantelpieces, has been painted to resemble marble or exotic woods. The Harold Marshall family purchased the property in 1964 and undertook a major restoration of the home, which was completed in 1978. The property is now owned by their sons, but is open to the public daily and is the center for an annual arts festival and other cultural events.

Madewood, a National Historic Landmark, is located at 4250 Hwy. 308, Napoleonville. It is open for tours 10:00am to 4:30pm daily, except on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. Call 985-369-7151 for further information. 

Source: Internet

Oak Alley Plantation

Double row of oak trees about Oak Alley Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, the Foundation for Historical Louisiana Oak Alley up close Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, the Foundation for Historical Louisiana

Originally named Bon Sejour, Oak Alley was built in 1837-39 by George Swainey for Jacques Telesphore Roman, brother of Andre Roman who was twice governor of Louisiana. Joseph Pilie, Jacques Telesphore Roman's father-in-law, was an architect and is thought to have provided the design of Oak Alley. Oak Alley's most distinguishing architectural feature is a full peripteral (free-standing) colonnade of 28 colossal Doric columns. Such plantation houses were once scattered along the Mississippi valley, though Oak Alley is probably the finest of those remaining. In 1866, Oak Alley was sold at auction to John Armstrong. Several owners followed Armstrong, and by the 1920s, the house was is in a state of deterioration. Andrew and Josephine Stewart purchased the property in 1925 and hired architect Richard Koch to conduct an extensive restoration. The pale pink of the plastered columns and walls and the blue green of the louvered shutters and gallery railing were color choices of Mrs. Stewart at that time. Square in plan, the interior has a central hall from front to rear on both floors. At each end of both halls the doors have broad fanlights and sidelights framed with slim, fluted colonnettes. Rooms at the first floor rear were partitioned and adapted to modern uses at the time of restoration in the 1920's.Equally significant is the impressive double row of giant live oak trees which form the oak alley, about 800 feet long, from which the property derived its present name. Planted before the house was constructed in 1837, this formal planting is a historic landscape design long recognized for its beauty. An important event in American horticultural history occurred in the winter of 1846-47 when Antoine, a slave gardener at Oak Alley, first successfully grafted pecan trees. His work resulted in the first named variety, Centennial, and the first commercial pecan orchard at nearby Anita Plantation. Josephine Stewart established a nonprofit organization to manage Oak Alley after her death. This Greek Revival showplace is now open to the public for tours.

Oak Alley Plantation, a National Historic Landmark, is located on 3645 State Hwy. 18 in Vacherie. Fortunately, the house was not damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but please check with them directly to confirm the current hours of operation. Oak Alley is normally open daily 9:00am to 5:30pm from March-October and 9:00am to 5:00pm from November-February. Tours are available for a fee and groups are encouraged to call ahead. Call 1-800-442-5539 or visit the website for more information.

Source: Internet

The Judge Poche Plantation House

Judge Felix Poche Plantation House, front Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, the Foundation for Historical Louisiana Judge Felix Poche Plantation House, front and side view Photograph from National Register collection

The Judge Poche Plantation House is significant in the areas of architecture and local history. Architecturally, the Judge Poche Plantation House stands as a fine example of a raised plantation house built under the influence of the Victorian Renaissance Revival. This can be principally seen in its large front dormer with its oeil-de-boeuf motifs and in its arcaded front gallery. This decorative treatment is unusual because most plantation houses were characterized by Greek Revival styling. The Judge Poche Plantation House is locally significant because of its association with Felix Pierre Poche, Civil War diarist, Democratic Party leader, and prominent jurist. Poche built the house around 1870 and maintained it as his residence until 1880 when he moved to New Orleans. It served as his summer house from then until 1892, at which time he sold the property. Poches Civil War diary is regarded as an important source for scholars, especially those studying the war east of the Mississippi in the waning months of the conflict. Poche, who was bilingual, kept his journal in French. It has since been translated and published and is one of the few Confederate diaries describing the war in Louisiana that is in print.

After the war Poche returned to St. James Parish, resumed his law practice, and assumed an active role in the Democratic Party. In January 1866, he was elected to the Louisiana Senate to fill a vacancy occasioned by a resignation and served in this capacity until the adoption of the new state constitution in 1868. He attended the biannual Democratic party conventions from 1868 to 1876 and was a member and president of the 1879 party convention which nominated Governor Wiltz. Poche was also a member of the 1879 constitutional convention. On the national level he was an alternate delegate to the 1872 and 1876 Democratic conventions and was a Tilden elector in 1876. In addition to these accomplishments, Poche was a well-known jurist. In 1880 he was appointed associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court and served in this position until 1890 when his term expired. Poche was also one of the founders and charter members of the American Bar Association. At a social reunion in 1876 at Saratoga he originated the idea of a national association for his profession and proposed it to several others there. The idea was adopted and in 1877 the association met for the first time. Today the house had been adapted into a bed and breakfast.

The Judge Felix Poche Plantation is located at 6554 State Hwy. 44, in Convent. Tours are available Monday-Sunday at 10:00am and by appointment; there is a fee. Groups are encouraged to call ahead. For further information, or to make reservations at the bed and breakfast, call 225-562-7728 or visit the website.

Source: Internet

Laura Plantation

Laura Plantation house Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana Two slave quarters at Laura Plantation Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana

Situated on River Road between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the Laura Plantation complex is located just upriver from the west bank community of Vacherie. The plantation is significant for its raised Creole plantation "big house" and its rare collection of outbuildings, including six slave quarters, that illustrate the development of a sugar cane plantation from the antebellum period well into the 20th century. The land on which Laura plantation stands was originally owned by André Neau, who obtained it through a French royal land grant in 1755. In the late 1700's, the plantation became the property of the Dupare family and was divided between two family members in 1876. The house continued in the hands of Dupare heirs until 1891, when Dupare descendant Laura Locoul sold the property to A. Florian Waguespack. A condition of the sale was that the plantation and house continue to be called "Laura". Constructed c.1820, the main house at Laura has a raised brick basement story and a briquette-entre-poteaux (brick between posts) upper floor. The house is special because of its Federal style interior woodwork and Norman roof truss. In Louisiana, far more Creole houses with Greek Revival woodwork have survived than have those showing Federal influence. Few examples of the Norman roof truss construction technique survive, and they are usually found in very early Creole houses.Although Creole residences once dominated the rural landscape of central and southern Louisiana, today perhaps only 300 to 400 examples of these buildings remain standing outside New Orleans. Of these, the majority are small or moderately sized one-story houses, while only approximately 30, including the main house Laura, are members of the distinct group of substantial raised plantation houses regarded as the apex of the Creole style. Little attention has been given to preserving the coterie of dependencies that were the "workhorses" of cotton and sugar production on Louisiana plantations. Historically the state was dotted with hundreds of plantation complexes such as Laura, but today they are rare survivors. One of about 15 surviving plantation complexes in the state, Laura might be compared to Whitney or Evergreen plantations in St. John the Baptist Parish. Thus, it is a very important visual reminder of the large agricultural enterprise common in antebellum and post-war Louisiana.

Laura Plantation is located on River Road midway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The home is open for tours daily, except for Creole holidays (New Year's, Mardi Gras, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas). The first tour is at 10:00am, the last at 4:00pm. Gates close at 5:00pm. There is a fee for admission and groups are encouraged to call ahead. Call 225-265-7690 or visit the website for more information. 

Source: Internet

The Whitney Plantation Historic District

Pigeonnier and plantation store within the Whitney Plantation Historic District Courtesy of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation  Historic district buildings including the Whitney Plantation Main House, plantation store, and French Creole barn Courtesy of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation

The Whitney Plantation Historic District is located on a 3,000-foot stretch of the famous, historic River Road in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Aside from the raised Creole main house, originally erected in 1803, the district contains an overseer's house, a rare French Creole barn, a manager's house, a plantation store, a two story tall pigeonnier (structures used by upper-class French for housing pigeons), and the 1884 Creole and Greek revival style Mialaret House, as well as other sites of historic interest. The Creole mansion and dependencies are grouped in a cluster, which forms the focal point of the district. Sugarcane and rice were the principal crops during the historic period, and Whitney's fields are still planted in cane. The district's plantation house is architecturally important statewide as one of Louisiana's most important examples of Creole architecture. Nationally, the art produced within the Whitney Plantation House, including the wall murals dating between 1836 and 1839, are important. Whitney's surviving French Creole barn is the last example known to survive in the State.

The plantation that came to be known as Whitney appears to have been founded by Ambrose Haydel. A German, Haydel immigrated to Louisiana with his mother and siblings in 1721 and married shortly thereafter. Ambrose Haydel and his wife may have lived on the Whitney land tract as early as 1750. By the end of the 18th century, Haydel's sons, Jean Jacques, and Nicholas, owned adjoining plantations which included and expanded upon their father's original holdings. It was apparently Jean Jacques who built the Whitney main house around 1790 and expanded it around 1803. In 1820, he sold the property to his sons Jean Jacques, Jr., and Marcellin. Marcellin eventually gained total control of the rest of the family's land, and commissioned the 1836-1839 remodeling. The plantation remained in the family's hands until it was sold to a Northerner, Bradish Johnson, after the Civil War. It was Johnson who actually named the property Whitney in honor of his grandson, Harry Payne Whitney.

The Whitney Plantation Historic District is located of Hwy. 18 in Wallace. All of the buildings within the district are privately owned, and not open to the public.

Source: Internet

Evergreen Plantation House

Evergreen Plantation House Photograph from the National Historic Landmarks collection The standard row pattern of slave quarters, lost throughout much of the South, can still be seen at Evergreen Photograph from the National Historic Landmarks collection

Evergreen is only one of eight major Greek Revival style plantation houses remaining on the historic River Road. These "Gone With the Wind" era houses lined River Road on the eve of the Civil War, but many more have been lost over the years than have survived. Characteristic of these homes, Evergreen's original French Creole farmhouse was completely remodeled in 1832 by Pierre C. Becnel. As a result of this expansion, the "big house" features stuccoed-brick Doric columns that extend from the ground to the roof on the wide double galleries, and boasts two remarkable fanlight doorways at the head and foot of the winding double stairway servicing the galleries. Evergreen is significant not only because of the existence of its main building along River Road, but also because of the remains of the plantation complex. With two pigeonniers (structures used by upper-class French for housing pigeons), two garconieries (dwellings for a family's young boys), a privy, a kitchen, a guesthouse, an overseer's house, and a double row of 22 slave cabins, Evergreen is unique. It is one of only a handful of plantations that evoke what major plantations resembled in the antebellum period of America's history. Usually only the main house of the planter's family have endured the ravages of time.

Over the decades, the most serious change to Evergreen as a plantation complex has been the extensive fabric replacement evident in the slave quarters. Some noteworthy original features, such as chimneys, shutters, and doors remain, but nearly 150 years of patching, repairs, and reconstruction have caused alterations. It is surprising that these quarters, retaining their original appearance and double row configuration, have survived at all. There is very little documentation on these buildings, although it is clear that they are indeed antebellum. The 1860 census lists Lezin Becnel and his brother, the then owners of the plantation, as having 103 slaves in 48 dwellings. The only known historic map of the plantation is the Mississippi River Commission map of 1876, which shows 22 cabins in the same configuration and location.

Evergreen Plantation, a National Historic Landmark, is located on State Hwy. 18, in Wallace. The house is open to the public by reservation only. Call 504-201-3180 to arrange a visit.

Source: Internet

San Francisco Plantation House

San Francisco Plantation House Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana Historic view of San Francisco, c.1891 Photograph courtesy of San Francisco Plantation and Lagniappe Tours

The opulent San Francisco Plantation House is a galleried house in the Creole manner that has been pictured in American, British, and Swedish periodicals as one of the major sites of the New Orleans area. Constructed between 1849-50, the San Francisco Plantation House is one of the most ornate of Louisiana's plantation houses. San Francisco, with its potpourri of architectural designs, its immense and ornate roof construction, and the paintings decorating the ceilings and door panels in the house's parlors, exemplifies the "steamboat Gothic" style. The exterior of the home resembles a layer cake, with a simple ground floor where brick columns support the gallery across the front and halfway back the sides. A double stairway leads from this gallery to the second floor gallery where fluted wood columns with cast-iron Corinthian capitals support an overhanging deck. The main living area is on the second floor instead of the ground level. The attic is a Victorian construction that gives the house a unique look with the hip roof pierced by tall dormers with diamond-paned, Tudor-arched windows.

San Francisco's floor plan is unique as well, but the interior's primary significance lies in the fine murals attributed to Dominique Canova. The cost of San Francisco Plantation House, along with the paintings and other interior decorations, may have given rise to the house's name. One legend holds that the French phrase "son saint-frusquin," or "the shirt off his back," was a description of what the construction of the house cost its first owner, Edmond Marmillion. This became mistranslated into San Francisco. Another legend holds that the name celebrated the port of entry to northern California, then undergoing the gold rush of 1849. A further legend states that the name changed from Sans St. Frusquin to San Francisco when Achille D. Bougere purchased the plantation house in 1879. San Francisco was originally preserved by the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Clark Thompson. The house is now owned by the San Francisco Plantation Foundation and has been restored to its former glory.

San Francisco Plantation House, a National Historic Landmark, is located on Highway 44, off River Road, three miles upriver from Reserve. Fortunately, the house was not damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but please check with them directly to confirm the current hours of operation. The Plantation is open for tours 10:00am to 4:30pm March through October and 10:00am to 4:00pm November through February (except major holidays); there is a fee. Please call 985-535-2341 for further information. 

Source: Internet

Homeplace Plantation

Homeplace Plantation House Courtesy of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation  Historic view of Homplace, c.1900 Photograph from National Register collection

Homeplace Plantation, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970, is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River in St. Charles Parish. Constructed between 1787 and 1791, it is one of the finest and least altered examples of a large French Colonial raised cottage left standing. Similar in plan to another National Historic Landmark, Parlange in Point Coupee Parish, Homeplace is two rooms deep and four rooms across with a 16 foot-wide gallery on all sides, providing separate access to each of the second story rooms for cross ventilation. The upper story walls are constructed of cypress timbers in-filled with clay and Spanish moss. The lower story, with its thick brick walls and floors, contained seven service rooms, including the large dining room, a pantry, two wine rooms, a hall, and two storage rooms. The wine rooms still retain some of the original wine racks and the dining room walls are decorated in original green-gray and white Italian marble tiles.

Once the center of a large sugar plantation, Homeplace was originally surrounded by slave's quarters, pigeonniers (structures used by upper-class French for housing pigeons), a carriage house, and other dependencies used in plantation operations. Only the carriage house remains to the right rear of the house. An interesting feature of the house are tall brick pillars at the south end that once supported a large wooden cistern that supplied water to the house. The builder and first owner of Homeplace are unclear, but documents show that the plantation was owned by both Pierre Gaillard and Louis Edmond Fortier during its early years. The Fortier family owned the house until 1856 and it changed hands a number of times before Pierre Anatole Keller purchased the property in 1889. Keller dismantled the sugar production operation and tore down the sugar mill in 1894. Adding stairs to the front of the house in 1900, in addition to the original side stairs, the Keller family modernized the house and made some minor alterations. The Keller family continues to own the property today.

Homeplace Plantation House, a National Historic Landmark, is located in Hahnville along State Hwy. 18, half a mile south of the post office. It is privately owned, and not open to the public.

Source: Internet

Destrehan Plantation House

Destrehan Plantation Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana Destrehan Plantation before renovation Photograph from National Historic Landmarks collection

One of the oldest and best-documented buildings from the State's colonial period, Destrehan Plantation House represents three major phases of construction and illustrates the changes in architectural style in Louisiana. Erected in 1787 by Charles Paquet, Destrehan Plantation was purchased by indigo planter Robert Antointe Robin DeLogny and his family. Besides his profitable indigo cash crop, DeLogny's local claim to fame was his famous son-in-law, Jean Noel Destrehan, who married his daughter Marie-Claude in 1786. Destrehan was the son of Jean Baptiste Destrehan de Tours, royal treasurer of the French colony of Louisiana, and it is from him that both the name of the plantation and the name of the town are derived. After DeLogny's death in 1792, the Destrehans inherited the plantation and house. While under the ownership of the Destrehan family, both the house and grounds went through considerable periods of change. In the 19th century the major cash crop at Destrehan became sugarcane rather than indigo and the house went through two further phases of construction. The original gallery columns were replaced in the 1830's or 40's with massive Greek Revival Doric columns of plastered brick and the cornice was altered accordingly. Its original colonial appearance was altered with the post-colonial addition of semi-detached wings.

In the 20th century, the use of the grounds and house underwent yet another change. The house served as a facility of a major oil company, when Louisiana made the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Destrehan Plantation House consists of a central, two-story house with open galleries on three sides and flanking two-story wings separated from the main body of the house by the side galleries. The central unit, the oldest part of the house, is composed of masonry columns on the ground floor and wood columns on the upper. At one time a colonnade had surrounded the central unit. The roof is double- pitched all around.

Destrehan Plantation is located at 13034 River Road, one half mile east of Destrehan Bridge. Fortunately, the house was not damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but please check with them directly to confirm the current hours of operation. The Plantation is open for guided tours by costumed interpreters 9:00am to 4:00pm, daily (except major holidays). The Plantation celebrates an Anuual Fall Festival the second week-end in November. There is a fee for admission, special group rates are available. Call 985-764-9315 or visit the plantation's website for more information.

Source: Internet

Entryway to the Carter Plantation House Courtesy of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation Rear of the Carter Plantation House Courtesy of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation

The Carter Plantation House is situated on property acquired by James Rheem under a Spanish land grant in 1804. In 1817, Thomas Freeman became the first African-American man to own property in Livingston Parish when he acquired the pine forest that he would transform into what has come to be known as the Carter Plantation. He was also the first African-American to record a legal transaction in the Greensburg District. By the year 1820, Freeman had built the renowned, Federal style house and remained there with his wife and five children until 1838 when he sold the house and land to then current state representative and later sheriff of Livingston Parish, W. L. Breed. Breed died in Carter House in 1843 while still serving as the parish's sheriff. After Breed's death, George Richardson, acquired the plantation. Richardson lived at Carter Plantation House until his death in 1858. It is Richardson's descendants who carried the surname Carter by which the plantation is known.

Carter Plantation House is one and a half stories high, with front and rear galleries and a central hall plan with 2 rooms on each side. The old rear kitchen and dining room, which was a separate building, burned in the late 19th century; a kitchen and dining room wing on the rear of the house replaced it. There are four main fireplaces in the house, feeding into two interior chimneys. As an early 19th-century house which was built by a free black man and lived in by an important local political figure, the Carter House is significant in the area of African-American history, as well as local politics and government. The Carter House also enjoys a degree of architectural significance as a local example of a raised plantation house. A pine forest area surrounds Carter House and its immediate grounds. The landscape features, including shrubs, flowerbeds and the lake, are comparatively recent in origin.

Carter Plantation is located along State Hwy. 1038, south of US Hwy 190, at 23475 Cater Trace, Springfield, LA. Carter Plantation is now open to the public as a golf and residential community with hotel accommodations and dining. The Carter House is the real estate center and is open to the public. Visit the Carter Plantation website at www.carterplantation.com or call 225-294-7555. 

Source: Internet

The Fritz Salmen House

Fritz Salmen House Courtesy of the Capital Resource Conservation and Development Council Interior of the Salmen House Photograph from the National Register collection

The Fritz Salmen House is a one-and-one-half-story frame residence located on a large lot bordering one of Slidell's major thoroughfares. Built around 1900, the Fritz Salmen House is locally significant because of its close association with Fritz Salmen, founder of the brickyard which was Slidwell's first major industrial facility. The home was Fritz Salmen's residence from its construction until his death in 1934. The Salmen Brothers Brick and Lumber Company was the economic mainstay of Slidell from its founding in the 1880s through at least the second decade of the 20th century. Stylistically, the Fritz Salmen House features elements from both the Colonial Revival and the Queen Anne styles. The Colonial Revival decorative features include it's overall symmetrical, boxy shape, a pillared porch wrapping around two sides of the building beneath the home's main roof, a hipped roof with prominent central shed dormers, and a double entrance door. The dwelling's surviving Queen Anne style characteristics include textured shingles on the sides of the dormers; one intact bay window; and corbelled chimney tops.Slidell's birth coincided with the arrival of the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, which surveyed the townsite in 1883. At the time the parish was already well known for its fine clay deposits, which had furnished the raw material for brick making since well before the Civil War. When Swiss immigrant Fritz Salmen arrived in 1886, Slidell became a center of brickmaking. With his two brothers, Jacob and Albert, Fritz established a small brickworks in which the employees made bricks by hand. True entrepreneurs, the brothers soon branched out, establishing The Salmen Brothers Brick and Lumber Company in 1886. Next, they expanded into shipbuilding in 1914 and then this portion of the business branched off into its own company, the Slidell Shipbuilding Corporation on Bayou Bonfouca. After the economic boom years during World War I, Fritz and Albert, the surviving brothers, began to cut back their operations. By 1926, a new company owned the original brick and lumber plant, but the Salmen brothers, in their seventies, operated a smaller brick and lumber plant along the bayou.

The Salmen House is located at 127 Cleveland Ave. in Slidell. The house is now a restaurant and special event venue. Groups tours can be arranged by calling 1.866.672.8866, visit Patton's for dining information.

Source: Internet

Sullivan House Courtesy of the Capital Resource Conservation and Development Council{photo2} Rear view of historic site {courtesy2}

The Sullivan Home, built in 1907 in Bogalusa, Louisiana, is historically significant for its association with William Henry Sullivan. Known in his time as "the father of Bogalusa," Sullivan, as general manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company's Bogalusa operations, was in complete charge of the construction of the plant and entire town of Bogalusa. Sullivan held authority in Bogalusa as the head of its lumber camp until he became the town's mayor in 1914 - an office he kept until his death in 1929. By 1929, under Sullivan's direction, the Great Southern Lumber Company had built a company-owned town of 10,000 people. At the time of his death William Sullivan was Vice President and General Manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company, Executive Vice President of the Bogalusa Paper Company, and a Director of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad. His house is significant in three areas--architecture, industry, and local history.Set on a large wooded lot, the house is a symmetric, two-and-a-half-story frame edifice, which combines elements from the Colonial Revival and Queen Anne styles. The Colonial Revival characteristics may primarily be viewed from the house's exterior; these characteristics include its three-bay colossal order gallery, the front door, the ballroom, Palladian window motif, and dormers. The most architecturally significant Queen Anne feature of the house is its rigid, mannered style. This is exemplary of Queen Anne styled homes built at the turn of the century and expresses the trend to move away from the irregularity of the larger, older Queen Anne houses. The workers in the town came to refer to the home as "Official Quarters." It is located in a section of town called "Little Buffalo" or "Buffalotown" since it was the residential district where many of the company officials who had come from Buffalo, New York, had their homes. The Sullivan House was the largest and grandest of the homes in this section of town.

The Sullivan House is located at 223 S. Border Dr., just off Ave F (Hwy 1075) in Bogalusa. The house is privately owned, and not open to the public. 

Source: Internet

The Cottage Plantation House

Cottage Plantation house, built with Doric columns Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana Cottage Plantation, two buildings meet in "L" shape Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana

The Cottage Plantation House was built from 1795 to 1859 and consists of three buildings joined together. The architecture reflects both Spanish and English influence. Built of virgin cypress, except the massive sills, the core of the house dates from the Spanish colonial era, beginning in 1795. Completed in 1859, the Cottage Plantation consisted of two buildings in the form of an "L," with the original house as part of the foot of the L. Standing complete as it did in antebellum days, the Cottage Plantation has in addition to the plantation home the old school house, outside kitchen, milk house, carriage house, barn, three slave houses, and other outbuildings. Every room was originally furnished with a hand carved fireplace mantle, some of extreme simplicity and others elaborate with fluted Doric columns and panels in a sunburst design.

Judge Thomas Butler (1785-1847) acquired the Cottage Plantation around 1800. Judge Butler was the first Criminal Court judge of the Florida Parishes and a member of Congress. Moving to the Mississippi Territory c.1807, after practicing law in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he became a Captain of a cavalry troop in the Mississippi Territory Militia in 1810. Appointed Parish Judge in 1812 and Judge of the Third District in 1813 by Governor Clairborne of Louisiana, he was elected to the Fifteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas B. Robertson. Re-elected to the Sixteenth Congress, he served until March 3, 1821. Butler was the owner of 12 sugar and cotton plantations, president of the board of trustees of the Louisiana College in Jackson, and a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. He died in St.Louis, Missouri, on August 27, 1848, and is interred on his plantation, "The Cottage."

The Cottage Plantation is located at 10528 Cottage Ln., off US Hwy 61, six miles north of St. Francisville, on the east side of the road. The Cottage offers bed and breakfast accommodations and tours daily from 9:00am to 4:30pm, there is a fee for admission. Closed on major holidays.

Source: Internet

Catalpa Plantation

Catalpa Plantation House, surrounded by large oak trees Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana Side view of Catalpa Photograph from National Register collection

Catalpa Plantation is one of numerous late Victorian cottages found across Louisiana, significant for the beautiful gardens that surround it. The oak trees lining the grounds were planted in 1814, and Catalpa's oak alley is thought to be the only one in Louisiana which has an elliptical shape. Primarily a cotton plantation in the antebellum period, Catalpa's grounds were devastated during the Civil War, and the plantation house burned. Mr. Fort, the owner, died during the Civil War. In 1885, his son, William J. Fort, rebuilt Catalpa and it is this house that still stands. Although it is often referred to as a "Victorian cottage," the house is in fact quite large. It has a two room deep main block with a central hall and a large rear wing with a central hall of its own. Double doors separate the two central halls. The rooms are large, and finished with standard late-19th century details. Catalpa Plantation House is important for its false marbled mantels. During the late-19th century manufactured cast-iron and slate mantels were sometimes given a marble treatment. This work was done by hand, but at the factory rather than on-site. The mantels at Catalpa are important as examples of Victorian art because they show the Victorian fondness for elaborately contrived effects.

The slave cabin behind the Catalpa Plantation was built of pit-sawn timber. Originally the cottage had no gallery, but a new roof and a gallery were added around 1900. North-northeast of the house is a sizable pond that, according to Fort family history, dates from the antebellum period. The pond is one of the surviving elements of what was once an extensive landscaped garden. Catalpa's alley is one of a limited number of plantation oak alleys which survive across the state. The exact date of the oak alley is uncertain, while family history indicates that it dates from the early 19th century, the scale of the trees indicates that the alley has stood for about 120 years.

Catalpa is located at 9508 US Hwy. 61, 5 miles north of St. Francisville. The house is open daily for tours 1:00pm to 4:00pm, but closed from December 15-January 31. There is a fee for admission. Call 225-635-3372 for further information.

Source: Internet

Myrtles Plantation

Myrtles Plantation Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana Myrtles Plantation and Gardens Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana

General David Bradford was forced to flee from President George Washington's army in 1794, because of his leadership role in the Whisky Rebellion. General Bradford arrived in Louisiana and obtained a Spanish land grant of roughly 650 acres. A wealthy judge and businessman from Washington County, Pennsylvania, Bradford showed interest in the area before the conclusion of the unsuccessful Whisky Rebellion forced him to settle there. Bradford built the plantation that was later named "the Myrtles" in 1797. He died in 1808, and his widow sold the land to her son-in-law, Clark Woodruff, a lawyer and friend of Andrew Jackson. In 1834 Woodruff sold it to Ruffin Gray Stirling, who restored the plantation. The Stirling family held the plantation until 1894, after which it passed through a succession of owners. Restoration efforts on the gracious 1 1/2-story country house began in the mid-1970's.

The house itself is a broad, low, rambling frame mansion with a clapboard exterior and was built in two halves. The first half, which was built in 1796, forms the western six bays of the main façade. These were increased in size due to mid-19th-century restoration, when the house also received a southward extension that almost doubled its size. The unusually long gallery is supported by an exceptional cast-iron railing of elaborate grape-cluster design. It is the interior detailing, however, which is perhaps the most important feature of the Myrtles Plantation. Most of the ground floor rooms have fine marble, arched mantles in the Rococo Revival style, with central console keystones or cartouches. Most of the rooms have plaster-ceiling medallions, no two of which are the same. All of the flooring and most of the windows in the house are original. The Myrtles Plantation is an outstanding example of the expanded raised cottage form that characterized many Louisiana plantation houses by the mid-19th century. The plantation house is touted as one of the most haunted houses in America, as it was the scene of a Reconstruction-era murder and other more natural deaths that have entered into local folklore over the years. Restored to its 1850's grandeur, complete with fine French furnishings and chandeliers, the Myrtles enhances its haunted-house reputation with candlelight mystery tours.

The Myrtles Plantation is located off US 61 North, in St.Francisville. It is open daily for tours 9:00am to 5: 00pm, with mystery tours at 8:00pm Friday and Saturday evenings; there is a fee for admission. The Myrtles also offers bed and breakfast accomodations, and a restaurant (closed Monday and Tuesday). Please call 225-635-6277 for further information.

Source: Internet

Butler-Greenwood Plantation

Butler--Greenwood Plantation, where 18th-century English gardens greet the visitor Courtesy of Capital Resource Conservation and Development Council{photo2} Rear view of historic site {courtesy2}

Standing as a fine example of an antebellum plantation house, Butler- Greenwood Plantation consists of 44 acres and a plantation complex including the plantation house, a gazebo, and a rear brick kitchen. The beauty of Greenwood lies in the landscape architecture surrounding this historic plantation home, and the side gardens flanking the house remain as one of the few extant examples of antebellum garden design in West Feliciana Parish. English and French stylistic garden features adapted to the Louisianan climate, as well as a sundial, summer house, garden gate and urns are the notable unique features of the Butler-Greenwood grounds. The north side garden is in the form of a geometric parterre, an ornamental garden with paths between the beds, reminiscent of the style developed in French gardens of the 16th and 17th centuries. In contrast to the formal geometric pattern of these sunken side gardens, the entrance of Greenwood, with its naturalized, free-flowing manner, is derived from the design of 18th-century English gardens.

In 1770, a physician named Samuel Flower came to the Baton Rouge area from Reading, Pennsylvania, and within a decade purchased the land where he would build Greenwood. In 1810 a fire destroyed the original Greenwood, but Flower built a larger house on the site, which is the present Butler-Greenwood Plantation home. Samuel Flower died in 1813, and the title of Greenwood eventually passed to his daughter, Harriet, who married Judge George Mathews in 1809. Mathews was an important figure in the early judicial history of the state, being one of the presiding judges of the Louisiana Supreme Court in its early phase. By 1860, Harriet and her son, Charles Mathews, were running a plantation of 1,400 acres worked by 96 African-American slaves living in 18 dwellings. After Harriet's death in 1873, the management of the estate fell on Charles's wife, Penelope. The history of Greenwood Plantation provides an excellent illustration of how southern women managed great southern plantations. The house possesses a degree of architectural significance despite the loss of its historic three-story side wing.

The Butler-Greenwood Plantation is located on 8345 US Hwy 61, 2 ½ miles north of St. Francisville The house features bed and breakfast accommodations and guide tours Monday-Saturday from 9:00am to 5:00pm, Sunday 1:00pm to 5:00pm for which there is a fee. Please call 225-635-6312 for further information. 

Source: Internet

Rosedown Plantation

The Great House of Rosedown Plantation, as seen from the oak allee Photo from National Historic Landmarks collection View of Rosedown Plantation gardens Photo from National Historic Landmarks collection

Rosedown Plantation, encompassing 374 acres in St. Francisville, is one of the most intact, documented examples of a domestic plantation complex in the South. It embodies the lifestyle of the antebellum South's wealthiest planters in a way very few other surviving properties can. The plantation's landscape is a laboratory for the study and interpretation of the cultural traditions of slavery, the life style of the gentry and scientific experiments in agriculture and horticulture. Rosedown was established in the 1830's by Daniel and Martha Barrow Turnbull, and remained in the hands of their descendants until the 1950's.

At its height, the plantation encompassed 3,455 acres, and included the typical components of cotton plantations of the mid-antebellum period in the South--agricultural acreage planted with the cash crop, fields of fodder crops, pastureland for cattle, stables for horses, yards and pens for poultry and other farm animals, the quarters of enslaved Africans (where they typically had their own individual garden plots), a kitchen garden, an orchard, and the pleasure, or ornamental, gardens adjacent to the main plantation house, or the "Great House." Over the years the acreage was subdivided and although the working portions of the plantation have vanished, both the house and the gardens survive. The c.1835 Federal-Greek revival style great house, complete with Grecian style wings c.1845, is at the head of a 660-foot long oak allee. It is typical of the small minority of great houses built by the South's wealthiest planters. Near the great house are several dependencies, most notably three latticed summerhouses and a Greek temple style doctor's office.

What distinguishes the landscape of Rosedown are its pleasure gardens, notable for their size, sophistication and refined plant collections. The gardens were the passion of Martha Turnbull and her garden diary provides invaluable insight into the story of the garden's planting and management. She recorded her first entry in 1836 and her last in 1895, a year before her death at the age of 87. Eighteen acres of ornamental pleasure gardens illustrate a combination of the axiality of the Baroque style and the winding paths of the picturesque tradition. Many of the plants introduced by Martha survive today, and include one of the earliest collections of camellias in the Deep South. She also relied heavily on plants imported from the Orient, such as cryptomeria, azaleas and crape myrtles. Due to the access available to Martha's life story through her own words, Rosedown reminds us of the central place that ornamental horticulture held in the lives of many people living in the plantation South during the antebellum period and its aftermath.

Rosedown's labor intensive gardens were made possible by an enslaved African workforce. The 1860 census indicated that 145 slaves were living in 25 houses on the plantation (an average of six people per house). The succession of Daniel Turnball after his death in 1862 indicates the occupations of only a few--carpernters, driver, blacksmith, cooks, carriage driver, house servant and washer woman. None are identified as gardeners, but Martha names individual slaves frequently in her diary, indicating that they were essential in the planting and maintence of the gardens. On-going archaeological investigations are being conducted to learn more about the lives of the African Americans who lived on the plantation.

Rosedown Plantation, now owned by the State of Louisiana, is located at 12501 La. Hwy. 10 in West Feliciana Parish. Fortunately, the house was not damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but please check with them directly to confirm the current hours of operation. It is open 9:00am to 5:00pm daily; closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's day. Guided tours of the main house are provided on the hour from 10:00am to 4:00pm. There is a fee for admission. For more information call 1-888-376-1867 or visit Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site's website. 

Source: Internet

Oakley Plantation House

Oakley Plantation House Courtesy of the Capital Resource Conservation and Development Council Kitchen and servants house located behind the main house Photograph from the National Register collection

Arriving at Oakley Plantation on June 18, 1821, the young aspiring naturalist John James Audubon wrote: "The rich magnolias covered with fragrant blossoms, the holly, the beech, the tall yellow poplar, the hilly ground and even the red clay, all excited my admiration." Audubon's stay at Oakley lasted only four months, but he painted 32 of his famous bird pictures here and developed a love for the beautiful West Feliciana Parish. Mrs. Lucy Pirrie brought the young Audubon to Oakley as a tutor for her daughter, Eliza. The arrangement required that Audubon spend half his time teaching drawing to Eliza, but he was otherwise free to roam the woods and work on his naturalistic paintings. For this Audubon was to receive 60 dollars a month plus room and board for himself and his 13-year-old pupil assistant, John Mason. Audubon returned at a later date to join his wife, then teaching there, and his son. He wrote, "Numerous pupils desired lessons in music, French and drawing. . .the dancing speculation fetched two thousand dollars; and with this capital and my wife's savings I was now able to foresee a successful issue to my great ornithological work." This work was later to become Audubon's famous Birds of America.Oakley Plantation House is located in the Audubon Memorial State Park in West Feliciana Parish. Construction on the house began in 1799, when Ruffin Gray, a successful planter from Natachez, Mississippi, moved here on land purchased from the Spanish authorities. Gray died before the house was completed, and his widow Lucy Alston oversaw its completion. She later married James Pierre of Scotland. Eliza, the daughter of James Pierre and Lucy, was born here in 1805, and it was her future education that introduced Audubon to the Felicianas. Oakley's interior has been restored to the Federal period style (1790-1830), reflecting its appearance when Audubon stayed here. The three-story home expresses the colonial architecture adapted to the geographical location. Oakley Plantation House contains 17 rooms, with front and side entrances leading to the landscaped grounds, which are shaded by oak and ancient crape myrtle trees.

Oakley Plantation House, within Audubon Memorial Park, is located 41/2 miles southeast of St. Francisville on State Hwy. 965., off US Hwy. 61. It is open 9:00am to 5:00pm daily, there is a fee for adults, but children under 13 and seniors are free. Call 225-635-3739 for more information or visit the park's website.

Source: Internet

The Parlange Plantation House

Parlange Plantation House Courtesy of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation Pigeonnier on grounds Courtesy of the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation

The Parlange Plantation House, built about 1750, is a classic example of a large French colonial plantation house in the United States. Exemplifying the style of the semitropical Louisiana country house, the Parlange Plantation House is a two-story raised cottage. The main floor is set on a brick basement with brick pillars to support the veranda of the second story. The raised basement is of brick, manufactured by slaves on the plantation. These walls, both inside and out, were plastered with a native mixture of mud, sand, Spanish moss and animal hair, then painted. The ground story and second floor contain seven service rooms, arranged in a double line. The walls and ceiling throughout the house were constructed of close fitting cypress planks. The house was once surrounded by a formal garden that was destroyed during the Civil War. During this conflict, Parlange alternatively served as Union headquarters for General Nathaniel Banks and his army as well as Confederate headquarters for General Dick Taylor. Built by Vincent de Ternant, Marquis of Dansville-sur-Meuse, the Parlange Plantation House remains largely intact.

Vincent de Ternant received the plantation grounds from a French land grant and developed the 10,000 acres into an active plantation facing the False River. When de Ternant's son Claude inherited the plantation, he changed the cash crop from indigo to sugarcane and cotton. When Claude died his second wife, Virginie remarried another Frenchman, Colonel Charles Parlange, from whom the plantation took its name. Together they had one son, also named Charles, who survived the Civil War to begin a distinguished career as a State Senator, United States District Attorney, Lieutenant Governor, Federal judge, and finally Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. When Virginie died, Charles and his wife moved to New Orleans and Parlange was left to tenants for the next 20 years until Charles' son, Walter, left New Orleans to return and take up the life of a plantation farmer. Today 1500 acres surround Parlange, which is still used as a cattle and sugarcane plantation.

Parlange Plantation is located on 8211 False River Rd./Hwy. 1 at New Roads. It is privately owned, but open by appointment only; there is a fee charged. Please call 225-638-8410 for further information. 

Source: Internet

A Glass Of Milk

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?” “You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.” He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”

As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.

Year’s later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She began to read the following words:

“Paid in full with one glass of milk”

Signed, Dr. Howard Kelly.

Source: Internet

The Clothes Line

A clothes line or washing line is any type of rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points (e.g. two sticks), outside or indoors, above the level of the ground. Clothing that has recently been washed is hung along the line to dry, using clothes pegs or clothes pins. Washing lines are attached either from a post or a wall, and are frequently located in back gardens, or on balconies. Longer washing lines often have props holding up sections in the middle due to the weight of the clothing.

More elaborate rotary washing lines save space and are typically retractable and square or triangular in shape, with multiple lines being used (such as the Hills Hoist from Australia). Some can be folded up when not in use (although there is a hazard of getting fingers caught, so there is usually a safety button).

In Scotland, many tenement buildings have a drying green which is a communal area predominantly used for clothes lines - it may also be used as a recreational space.

Comparison

Advantages of a clothes line

• Saves money 
• Zero greenhouse gas emissions per load (2 kg of greenhouse gas emissions from the average mechanical clothes dryer per load)
• Laundry smells "clothes-line fresh" without using chemicals
• Less fabric wear and tear
• Laundry items do not shrink (hot air from a mechanical clothes dryer may shrink items)
• No static cling
• Laundry items stay softer to the touch (mechanical clothes dryers tend to remove short, soft, fine fibers), and may be less wrinkled
• Laundry items often do not need ironing if line dried in a breeze
• Avoids the potential of airborne lint and reduced air quality
• Eliminates the noise from a mechanical clothes dryer
• Does not vent to the outside and waste the large volume of conditioned (heated or cooled) indoor air that a mechanical dryer's blower does.
• For a simple line drying arrangement (rope and clothes pins) the repair and replacement costs are about $20.00 per 1,000 loads of laundry or 2 cents per load. For non-commercial mechanical clothes drying the repair and replacement costs (including labor expenses) are about $200.00 per 1,000 loads of laundry or 20 cents per load.

Disadvantages of using a clothes line

• Putting laundry on a line usually takes more time than putting it into a mechanical dryer (as laundry items have to be hung up and fixed one by one).
• Laundry items need to be hung indoors during rainy weather, or may get wet if the weather changes.
• Neighbours may find it aesthetically unpleasant
• Risk of theft or vandalism of clothes
• Environmental contaminants such as soil, dust, smoke, automotive or industrial pollutants, pollen and bird and animal droppings can come in contact with clothing.
• Clothespins can leave imprints (including rust from the spring) on the clothes.

Drying laundry indoors

Laundry may be dried indoors rather than outdoors for a variety of reasons including:

• inclement weather
• physical disability
• lack of space for a line
• reduce the damage to fabrics from sun's UV rays
• legal restrictions
• to raise the humidity level indoors, and lower the air temperature indoors
• convenience
• to preserve privacy

Several types of devices are available for indoor drying. A drying rack or clotheshorse can help save space in an apartment or clothes lines can be strung in the basement during the winter. Small loads can simply be draped over furniture or a shower curtain pole. The drying time indoors will typically be longer than outdoor drying because of the lack of direct solar radiation and the convective assistance of the wind.
The evaporation of the moisture from the clothes will cool the indoor air and increase the humidity level, which may or may not be desirable. In cold, dry weather, moderate increases in humidity make most people feel more comfortable. In warm weather, increased humidity makes most people feel even hotter. Increased humidity can also increase growth of fungi, which can cause health problems.

An average-sized wash load will convert approximately 3165 joule of ambient heat into latent heat that is stored in the evaporated water. To determine how much heat has been converted in drying a load of laundry, weigh the clothes when they are wet and then again after the clothes have dried. The difference is the weight of the water that was evaporated from them. Multiply that weight in kg by 2,257, which is the heat of vaporization per kilogram, to obtain the number of Kjoules that went into evaporating the water, or multiply by 0.6250 to get kilowatt-hours. (Note: If the moisture later condenses inside the house, the latent heat will be converted back into ambient heat which could increase the temperature of the air in the room slightly.) To obtain a good approximation of the effect this would have in a particular situation, the process can be traced on a psychrometric chart.

Drying laundry in freezing conditions

Laundry may be dried outdoors when the temperature is well below the freezing point. First, the moisture in the laundry items will freeze and the clothing will become stiff. Then the frost on the clothes will sublimate into the air leaving the items dry. It takes a long time and it is usually much quicker to dry them indoors; however, indoor drying removes heat from the air so it is a trade-off between speed and energy efficiency.

Controversy in North America

A variety of interests are involved in the controversy about clothes lines, including frugal living, global warming, individual rights, the economy, private property, class, aesthetics, health, energy, national security and nostalgia. 

When mechanical dryers were first introduced, only well-to-do families could afford them and they became associated with affluence. However, now that most people can afford a mechanical dryer, clothes lines have become associated with a "home-town" character in neighborhoods because they are indicative of a low-crime area. (Outdoor clothes lines may be used less frequently in high-crime areas because of the risk of clothes being stolen - a worldwide phenomenon.) Also, environmental concerns and higher energy prices have created a new generation of clothes line advocates. Still, the old association with poverty persists in some people's minds.



The controversy surrounding the use of clothes lines has prompted many governments to pass "right-to-dry" laws allowing their use.  According to Ian Urbina, a reporter for The New York Times, "the majority of the 60 million people who now live in the country’s roughly 300,000 private communities" are forbidden from using outdoor clothes lines.



As of October 2009, the states of Florida, Colorado, Utah, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont had passed laws forbidding bans on clothes lines. Similar bills were under consideration in Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia. At least eight states restrict homeowners associations from forbidding the installation of solar-energy systems, and lawyers have debated whether or not those laws might apply to clothes lines. A British filmmaker, Steven Lake, is planning to release a documentary in 2011 titled Drying for Freedom about the clothes-line controversy in the United States.

In Canada, the province of Nova Scotia's first NDP government passed An Act to Prevent Prohibitions on the Use of Clotheslines on December 10, 2010 to allow all homeowners in the province to use clotheslines, regardless of restrictive covenants. The province of Ontario lifted bans on clothes lines in 2008.
Some other affluent suburban municipalities such as Hampstead, Québec or Outremont, Québec also prohibit clotheslines.

<sup>Pictures Of Clotheslines

 
Wooden Clothes Pins</sup>

 <sup>Clothes Line With Wooden Clothes Pins







T-Clothes Line






Source: Internet</sup>

More Southern Lingo

Aim To- plan to do

Airish- cold

Biggity- vain and overbearing

Bitty Bit- a small amount

Carry On- to carry on foolishness

Clodhopper- heavy work shoes or large shoes

Chunk- throw, toss

Cow Lick- hair standing out on one's head.

Directly- in a little while, or a couple of weeks

Dixie- Southern States of the U.S.A

Do Hicky- substitute name. Like the terms whata-ma-call-it or thinga-ma-jig

Falling Out- disagreement

Feisty- being frisky

Fixing To- about to

Hey- hello

Hold your horses- (be patient)

Honey- affectionate term

Laid Up- ill, hurt, unable to work

Mess-one who carries on, "He's a mess."

Much Obliged- thank you; hope to return the favor

Piddle- waste time, doing nothing

Playing Possum- playing dead

Reckon- think or supose so.

Shindig- dance or celebration

Smokehouse- Shed with a dirt floor where pork and other meats is cured, and then smoked.

Sorry- inferior quality, worthless, and lazy

Southern Belle- Southern lady

Spring Chicken- young thing

Sweet Talking Thing- has a good line

Tight- stingy with money

Wait On- serve or assist


White Lighting- moonshine whiskey

Worry Wart- one who is annoying

Ya'll or Y'all (can be spelled both ways)- you all, two or more people

Source: Internet

Southernisms

A whistling woman and a crowing hen never comes to a very good end. (be who you are)

Ain't that the berries! (that is great!)

As easy as sliding off a greasy log backward. (very easy)

Barking up the wrong tree. (you are wrong)

Be like the old lady who fell out of the wagon. (you aren't involved, so stay out of it)

Busy as a stump-tailed cow in fly time. (very busy)

Caught with your pants down. (surprised and unprepared)

Chugged full. (full and over-flowing)

Do go on. (you must be joking)

Don't bite off more than you can chew. (attempt what you can accomplish)

Don't count your chickens until they hatch. (first know the results)

Don't let the tail wag the dog. (the chief is in charge, not the Indians)

Don't let your mouth overload your tail. (talking too much)

Either fish or cut bait. (work or make way for those who will)

Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then. (everyone is sometimes lucky)

Every dog should have a few fleas. (no one is perfect)

Fly off the handle. (angry and lashing out)

Get the short end of the stick. (not invited and treated wrong)

Give down the country. (give someone a piece of your mind)

Go hog wild. (have a good time)

Go off half-cocked. (have only half the facts)

Go to bed with the chickens. (in bed early)

Go whole hog. (go for it all)

Gone back on your raisin. (deny heritage)

Got your feathers ruffled. (upset and pouting)

Happy as a dead pig in the sunshine. (doesn't grasp or worry what's going on)

Have no axe to grind. (no strong opinion)

Holler like a stuck pig. (someone mislead you)

I do declare. (usually means nothing)

In high cotton. (rising up in society)

In a coon's age. (been a long time)

Like a bump on a log. (lazy and doing nothing)

Like two peas in a pod. (act and think alike)

Mend fences. (settle differences)

Scarce as hen's teeth. (no such thing)

Sight for sore eyes. (Nice to you!)

Stomping grounds. (familiar territory)

Sun don't shine on the same dog's tail all the time. (you'll get what you deserve)

That takes the cake. (surprised)

Too big for one's britches. (someone taking themselves too seriously)

Two shakes of a sheep's tail. (done quickly)

Well, shut my mouth. (shocked and speechless)

Source: Internet