Field Studies 05 - Oak Alley and Laura

Field Studies
Oak Alley Plantation and Laura Plantation
Anthony DelRosario Studio in Building Preservation Professors G. Cizek, M. Thomas, and H. Knight Master in Preservation Studies Tulane School of Architecture
PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight March 26, 2010
On March 19, Studio in Building Preservation made our fifth field trip of the semester to Oak Alley Plantation (Fig. 1) and Laura Plantation (Fig. 2). We were able to compare the two most popular plantations for cultural tourism in Louisiana. Previously, we have compared Evergreen Plantation and Whitney Plantation, two large intact plantations of similar age but in different stages of preservation. Also, we toured two Creole raised plantation houses, Destrehan Plantation House and Homeplace Plantation House, that were built during the same period (and likely by the same craftsmen) but differ in size and amount of preservation work. In addition, we were able to compare two masonry fortifications, Fort Jefferson and Fort Pike, which differed in time period, size, and amount of preservation work. During the weekend trip to St. Francisville and Natchez, we visited a number of sites where we saw various fund raising tactics, preservation methods, and interpretation approaches. Oak Alley Plantation is one of most, if not the most, well-known plantations along the Mississippi River. The iconic 800 feet long double row of 300 year-old oak trees helps draw over one hundred thousand visitors per year. Also, according to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form, Oak Alley is the finest of the few remaining full peripteral plantation houses. The house, originally known as Bon Sejour, was built in 1837 to 1839 by George Swainey for Jacques Tlsphore Roman (NRHP). The design is thought to have been provided by Joseph Pilie, Madame Romans father who was an architect (NRHP). The Greek Revival house features twenty eight colossal Doric columns in a peripteral colonnade (Fig. 3). Unlike the other plantation houses that we have visited along River Road below Baton Rouge (Destrehan, Homeplace, Whitney
Anthony DelRosario Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture
and Evergreen), Oak Alley is square in plan with a central hall. In Natchez, we saw two large houses with a central hall, Melrose and Stanton Hall. According to the plantations website, restoration of Oak Alley was one of the first along the Great River Road and began the trend toward saving old plantation homes in this area. In 1925, Andrew and Josephine Stewart purchased the plantation from Whitney Bank and hired Richard Koch to perform extensive restoration. The interiors represent a significantly early professional restoration, predating restoration at Colonial Williamsburg (NRHP). 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 (NRHP). During the Stewarts ownership, the propertys slave cabins were torn down. Also, the Stewarts requested to have a third dormer added to the roof on each side. According to the house tour, as a widow in the 1960s, Mrs. Stewart opened the first floor of the house for tours for twenty five cents per school class. In addition, Mrs. Stewart created a non-profit foundation, which would be known as the Oak Alley Foundation, in order that the home and 25 acres of ground would remain open for all to share (Oak Alley website). The house was named a National Historic Landmark in 1974, two years after the death of Mrs. Stewart. According to Professor Cizek and Professor Thomas, the nomination form stated that the house contained a good mixture of antique furniture (from 19th Century) and contemporary furniture (from early 20th Century). However, currently the house does not contain many items from the period that Mrs. Stewart resided in the house and is presented as an interpretation of the mid 19th Century. Also according to Professor Cizek and Professor Thomas, during the early years of the
house open to tours, Mrs. Stewarts maids were the original guides giving an unsophisticated interpretation. Currently, the house tour led by hoopskirt clad women is of the variety that Professor Cizek would call Moonlight and Magnolias similar to the tours that we experienced at Longwood and Stanton Hall in Natchez. The main house at Oak Alley Plantation is in need of serious repair. Over the years, previous repairs have been done quickly and cheaply. Two major problems are the columns and the exterior electrical work. Several of the columns show severe damage that includes buckling (Fig. 6) due to the improper use of Portland cement (Fig. 4). Also, the exterior electrical duct that runs along the top of the ground floor has exposed a large gap (Fig. 5). I would suggest to the Oak Alley Foundation that traditional methods of repair would be more appropriate for the situation and would save money in the long term. Laura Plantation is located four miles down River Road from Oak Alley Plantation. The proximity of the plantations facilitates tourists to easily visit both in one day within a span of a few hours. In fact, classmate Bryan Block saw guests from his Block-Keller House Bed and Breakfast at both plantations. The main house at Laura Plantation (Figs. 7 & 8) is a French Creole raised cottage that is of briquette-entre-poteaux construction with a brick ground floor. According to Professor Cizek, the house was built circa 1805 possibly by Charles Paquet, the same free man of color that built Destrehan and possibly Homeplace. Destrehan is a French Creole raised cottage also of briquette-entre-poteaux construction with brick ground floor; Homeplace is a French Creole raised cottage of
bousillage-entre-poteaux construction with brick ground floor. However, the National Register of Historic Places nomination form from 1992 states that the house was constructed circa 1820 and that St. James Parish historians contend that Laura was built circa 1810 and remodeled in 1821. I would be interested in seeing the full nomination form, not just the text of significance and contributing elements from the pdf found at the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation's National Register website, to find out who filled out the nomination form and his background in order to understand why he stated a construction date of 1820. History of Laura Plantation as a cultural tourism site can be traced to 1989 when Professor Cizek conducted a Tulane class that created HABS drawings for the house. His involvement helped spur Norman Marmillion to create Laura Plantation Company, a for-profit group that acquired the property in 1993. The next year Laura Plantation opened to the public and became one of Louisianas most visited tourist attractions. According to Professor Cizek, 62 new businesses were created nearby after the quick success of Laura Plantation. However, on August 9, 2004, the house was engulfed by fire. According to Norm Marmillion in an article from The Advocate, the old Creole construction method saved the house from total destruction because the posts and beams were 25 percent bigger than they needed to be and the fire did not burn through them (Fig. 9). The video Reconstructing Creole is a wonderful documentary about the story of Laura Plantation and the rebuilding after the fire. In the video, Norman says that Laura is 200 years of puzzles. These puzzles include not only the lives of the people that lived at Laura but also the methods in which the house was constructed. As a House of Thirty, the house was built using an early form of prefabrication where large
pieces were built in the field and interlocking pieces numbered with Roman numerals from one to thirty to be matched on site (Fig. 10). The thirty of a House of Thirty refers to the number of column supports that run from floor to ceiling across the house. Laura Plantation was designated best history tour in the U.S. by Lonely Planet Travel (Matrana, 256). This was due to the dedication that Norman Marmillion put into the research of the plantation. According the article in The Advocate, while on a University of New Orleans committee studying New Orleans tourism, Norman interviewed people visiting plantations and found "at least 80 percent of the people visiting these houses were looking for how the people lived and didn't want to see antiques but wanted to know history." While researching the history of the people that lived at Laura, the memoirs of Laura Locoul Gore were discovered in St. Louis. These and many other documents were used to create a tour that told a robust story of Creole life on a plantation including those of slaves. The story of slavery was not glossed over such as on the Magnolia and Moonlight tours of Oak Alley, Longwood, or Stanton Hall. The tour of Laura embraces that fact that Alce Fortier collected folktales in French about Compair Lapin from the Senegambian former slaves that would be the basis of what we know as the Br'er Rabbit stories. Oak Alley Plantation and Laura Plantation both attract over one hundred thousand visitors a year. Oak Alley presents a romanticized interpretation of plantation life where visitors can enjoy a Mint Julep while being told about the antiques found in the house. On the other hand, Laura presents an informative interpretation of plantation life where visitors learn about the Creole life that includes not only the Creole people born in Louisiana of European heritage but also the Creole people born from plantation
owners and their slaves. Laura Plantation has been restored after the tragic fire using traditional methods employed by the local company Milton Freewater Construction. Conversely, Oak Alley has been employing repair techniques that have not been successful.
Sources
Blitzer, Carol Anne. Rising from the Ashes: Laura Plantation Restored After Catastrophic Fire in 2004. The Advocate. December 17, 2006. Block, Jennifer John. Reconstructing Creole. [S. l.]: Fresh Media Productions, 2006. Explore the History and Culture of Southeastern Louisiana: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. <http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/travel/louisiana/index.htm> Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey Collection. <http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/> Laura Plantation documentation. <http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/la0288/> Oak Alley Plantation documentation. <http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/la0544/> Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation's National Register Website. <http://crt.louisiana.gov/hp/nationalregister/historicplacesdatabase.aspx>. Laura Plantation House National Register document. <http://crt.louisiana.gov/hp/nationalregister/nhl/document2.asp?name=47007001. pdf> Oak Alley Plantation National Register document. <http://crt.louisiana.gov/hp/nationalregister/nhl/document2.asp?name=47012001. pdf> Matrana, Marc R. Lost Plantations of the South. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009. Oak Alley Plantation website. <http://www.oakalleyplantation.com>
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Images
Figure 1: Oak Alley Plantation House
Figure 2: Laura Plantation House
Figure 3: Peripteral colonnade of colossal columns at Oak Alley
Figure 4: Portland cement used to repair column at Oak Alley
Figure 5: Damage from electrical duct at Oak Alley
Figure 6: Severe buckling of column at Oak Alley
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Figure 7: Laura Plantation house front
Figure 8: Laura Plantation house rear
Figure 9: Scorched floor beams at Laura
Figure 10: Mark of 15 for the House of 30 at Laura
All photographs were taken by the author.

Field Studies 05 - Oak Alley and Laura

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Field Studies 05 - Oak Alley and Laura

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Field Studies

Oak Alley Plantation and Laura Plantation

Anthony DelRosario Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture

Anthony DelRosario Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture

Anthony DelRosario Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture

Anthony DelRosario Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture

Anthony DelRosario Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture

Figure 1: Oak Alley Plantation House

Figure 2: Laura Plantation House

Figure 3: Peripteral colonnade of colossal columns at Oak Alley

Figure 4: Portland cement used to repair column at Oak Alley

Figure 5: Damage from electrical duct at Oak Alley

Figure 6: Severe buckling of column at Oak Alley

Anthony DelRosario Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture

Figure 7: Laura Plantation house front

Figure 8: Laura Plantation house rear

Figure 9: Scorched floor beams at Laura

Figure 10: Mark of 15 for the House of 30 at Laura

All photographs were taken by the author.

Anthony DelRosario Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture

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