Evergreen Plantation | |
Nearest city | LA 18, Wallace, Louisiana |
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Coordinates | 30°01′38″N90°38′26″W / 30.02722°N 90.64056°W |
Built | 1790, 1832 |
Architect | John Carver |
Architectural style | Greek Revival, Federal |
NRHP reference No. | 91001386 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | September 25, 1991 [1] |
Designated NHL | April 27, 1992 [2] |
Evergreen Plantation is a plantation located on the west side of the Mississippi River in St. John the Baptist Parish, near Wallace, Louisiana, and along Louisiana Highway 18. The main house was constructed mostly in 1790, and renovated to its current Greek Revival style in 1832. The plantation's historical commodity crop was sugarcane, cultivated by enslaved African Americans until emancipation.
The plantation operated until about 1930, when the Depression resulted in the owners abandoning the house. The plantation continued to produce sugar cane under the direction of the bank that owned it, and it is still a working sugar cane plantation today. The house was extensively restored during the 1940s, with 300,000 bricks from the demolished Uncle Sam Plantation used in the restoration. [3]
The plantation includes 37 contributing buildings, all but eight of them built before the Civil War, making it one of the most complete plantation complexes in the state and the South. Of great significance are the 22 slave quarters, arranged in a double row along an allée of oak trees.
Among the outbuildings are a garconnière, where young bachelors of the family or male guests could stay; a pigeonnier for keeping pigeons (a sign of status among the planters); an overseer's cottage; and late 19th-century barns.
Because of its quality and significance, the plantation was included among the first 26 featured sites on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1992 for its rich architectural legacy. [2] [4] The house is open for tours every day except Sundays; tour times are at 9:30 am, 11:15 am, 1:00 pm, and 2:45 pm.
Heiress and businesswoman, Matilda Geddings Gray (1885–1971) [5] sponsored the restoration project in the 1940s, and it is now a U.S. National Historic Landmark. [6] [7]
It is a production site of films such as Django Unchained (2012) [8] and Antebellum (2020).[ citation needed ]
St. John the Baptist Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 42,477. The parish seat is Edgard, an unincorporated area, and the largest city is LaPlace, which is also unincorporated.
Natchez is a village in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 597 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Natchitoches Micropolitan Statistical Area. The village and parish are part of the Cane River National Heritage Area.
Wallace is a census-designated place (CDP) in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 570 at the 2000 census. It is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area. The rural community is on the west bank of the Mississippi River and easily accessible to Interstate 10 via the Gramercy Bridge.
Established in 1994, the Cane River Creole National Historical Park serves to preserve the resources and cultural landscapes of the Cane River region in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Located along the Cane River Lake, the park is approximately 63 acres and includes two French Creole cotton plantations, Oakland and Magnolia. Both plantations are complete in their historic settings, including landscapes, outbuildings, structures, furnishings, and artifacts; and they are the most intact French Creole cotton plantations in the United States. In total, 65 historic structures and over a million artifacts enhance the National Park Service mission as it strives to tell the story of the evolution of plantation agriculture through the perspective of the land owners, enslaved workers, overseers, skilled workers, and tenant farmers who resided along the Cane River for over two hundred years. This park is included as a site on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.
Oak Alley Plantation is a historic plantation located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, in the community of Vacherie, St. James Parish, Louisiana, U.S. Oak Alley is named for its distinguishing visual feature, an alley or canopied path, created by a double row of southern live oak trees about 800 feet long, planted in the early 18th century — long before the present house was built. The allée or tree avenue runs between the home and the River. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architecture and landscaping, and for the agricultural innovation of grafting pecan trees, performed there in 1846–47 by a gardener.
The Cane River National Heritage Area is a United States National Heritage Area in the state of Louisiana. The heritage area is known for plantations featuring Creole architecture, as well as numerous other sites that preserve the multi-cultural history of the area. The heritage area includes the town of Natchitoches, Louisiana and its national historic district. Founded in 1714, it is the oldest community in the territory covered by the Louisiana Purchase. Cane River Creole National Historical Park, including areas of Magnolia and Oakland plantations, also is within the heritage area.
Laura Plantation is a restored historic Louisiana Creole plantation on the west bank of the Mississippi River near Vacherie, Louisiana, (U.S.), open for guided tours. Formerly known as Duparc Plantation, it is significant for its early 19th-century Créole-style raised big house and several surviving outbuildings, including two slave cabins. It is one of only 15 plantation complexes in Louisiana with this many complete structures. Because of its historical importance, the plantation is on the National Register of Historic Places. The site, in St. James Parish, Louisiana, is also included on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.
The Levi Jordan Plantation is a historical site and building, located on Farm to Market Road 521, 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of the city of Brazoria, in the U.S. state of Texas. Founded as a forced-labor farm worked by enslaved Black people, it was one of the largest sugar and cotton producing plantations in Texas during the mid-19th century, as well as a local center of human trafficking.
Shadows-on-the-Teche is an American 3,750 square feet (348 m2) historic house, garden, and cemetery. Formerly a working sugar cane plantation with enslaved labor, it is located in New Iberia, Louisiana, United States. Built in 1834 for planter, David Weeks (1786–1834) and his wife Mary Conrad Weeks (1797–1863). The property is also home to the Shadows-on-the-Teche cemetery.
Oakland Plantation, originally known as the Jean Pierre Emmanuel Prud'homme Plantation, and also known as Bermuda, is a historic plantation in and unincorporated area of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Founded as a forced-labor farm worked by enslaved Black people for White owners, it is one of the nation's best and most intact examples of a French Creole cotton plantation complex. The Oakland Plantation is now owned by the National Park Service as part of the Cane River Creole National Historical Park.
Magnolia Plantation is a former cotton plantation in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001, significant as one of the most intact 19th-century plantation complexes in the nation, as it is complete with a suite of slave cabins and numerous outbuildings and period technology. Included in the Cane River Creole National Historical Park, Magnolia Plantation is also a destination on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. It is one of two plantations in the park; the other is Oakland Plantation.
Melrose Plantation, also known as Yucca Plantation, is a National Historic Landmark located in the unincorporated community of Melrose in Natchitoches Parish in north central Louisiana. This is one of the largest plantations in the United States built by and for free blacks. The land was granted to Louis Metoyer, who had the "Big House" built beginning about 1832. He was a son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin, a former slave who became a wealthy businesswoman in the area, and Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer. The house was completed in 1833 after Louis' death by his son Jean Baptiste Louis Metoyer. The Metoyers were free people of color for four generations before the American Civil War.
The Whitney Plantation Historic District is preserved by the Whitney Institute, a non-profit whose mission is to educate the public about the history and legacies of slavery in the Southern United States. The district, including the main house and outbuildings, is preserved near Wallace, in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, on the River Road along the Mississippi River. Habitation Haydel was founded in 1752 by Ambroise Heidal, one of the many German immigrants who colonized the river parishes in the 18th century. His descendants owned it until 1860. In 1867 it was sold to businessman Bradish Johnson who renamed it Whitney.
Louisiana African American Heritage Trail is a cultural heritage trail with 38 sites designated by the state of Louisiana, from New Orleans along the Mississippi River to Baton Rouge and Shreveport, with sites in small towns and plantations also included. In New Orleans several sites are within a walking area. Auto travel is required to reach sites outside the city.
St. Augustine Catholic Church and Cemetery, or the Isle Brevelle Church, is a historic Catholic parish property founded in 1829 near Melrose, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. It is the cultural center of the Cane River area's historic French, Spanish, Native American and Black Creole community.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana.
Matilda Geddings Gray was an American heiress, businesswoman, art collector, and philanthropist.
Godchaux–Reserve Plantation, also known as Godchaux–Boudousquie Plantation, and the Reserve Plantation, is a former plantation, former site of a sugar refinery, and once included a historic house built in 1764, located in Reserve, St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana.
Richard Koch was an architect who specialized in architectural conservation and the restoration of historically significant buildings. He emphasized buildings in New Orleans, Louisiana. Koch worked with the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) during the Great Depression. He was an early leader of the Vieux Carré Commission.