Poplar Grove Plantation (Louisiana)

Last updated

Poplar Grove Plantation House
Poplar Grove Plantation, Port Allen, LA 2014-06-28 01-10.jpg
USA Louisiana location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location3142 North River Road, Port Allen, Louisiana, 70767
Coordinates 30°29′36″N91°12′10″W / 30.49333°N 91.20278°W / 30.49333; -91.20278
Architect Thomas Sully
NRHP reference No. 87002136 [1]

The Poplar Grove Plantation, also once known as Popular Grove Plant and Refining Company, [2] is a historic building, site and cemetery, the plantation is from the 1820s and the manor house was built in 1884, located in Port Allen in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States. [3] [4] The site served as a sugar plantation worked by enslaved African Americans, starting in the 1820s by James McCalop. [5] [6] Starting in 1903, the site was owned by the Wilkinson family for many generations.

Contents

The house has been on the list of National Register of Historic Places, since December 14, 1987, for its architectural importance. [7]

History

Poplar Grove was established in the 1820s by James McCalop, he came from North Carolina and had combining several smaller tracts of land. [6] The site was originally 1,438 acres. [6] McCalop had owned enslaved African Americans. [8] [2] On one side of this plantation was the Mulatto Bend community (along US Route 190), the home of blues musician Slim Harpo. [2] [9]

Joseph L. Harris acquired Poplar Grove Plantation in 1885. [6] [2] The Poplar Grove Plantation manor house was part of the Banker's Pavilion at the 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition held in Audubon Park, New Orleans. [10] [11] In 1886, the structure was purchased by Harris and moved by way of barge down the Mississippi River to Port Allen, Louisiana. [3] [12]

Horace Wilkinson, who managed the plantation for Harris had purchased it in 1903. [6] Horace Wilkinson was a descent of General James Wilkinson. [12] The earlier days of the plantation featured on the property a sugar mill, workers' quarter, a chapel, barns, corn crib, and a commissary store. [6] The sugar mill at Poplar Grove, which produced raw sugar and molasses, was operated until 1973. [6]

Once slavery was outlawed after 1865, sharecropping was common in the Southern United States during (and after) the Reconstruction era. [13] In 2002, a cabin burned down on the property, it had previously been used for sharecropping. [12]

Since 2010, the steam engine for the plantation is moved and now on display at the LSU Rural Life Museum. [14]

Architecture

The plantation house structure was built by architect Thomas Sully, and is a single story, framed with a galleried porch. [3] The floor plan has been modified from the original design. [3] The architecture style features a combination of Chinese, Italianate, Eastlake, and Queen Anne Revival elements. [3]

It is surrounded on three sides by a gallery porch with ornate decorations, including jigsaw cut Chinese dragons surrounding the top of the porch gallery, Eastlake abacus inspired spindles, and Queen Anne Revival style multi-pane windows and 60 stained glass windows. [3] The structure had half-timbered gable at the entrance, and originally had two parlors. [3] The roof has an elaborate Italianate modillion cornice. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baton Rouge, Louisiana</span> Capital city of Louisiana, United States

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it had a population of 227,470 as of 2020; it is the seat of Louisiana's most populous parish (county-equivalent), East Baton Rouge Parish, and the center of Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area, Greater Baton Rouge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana</span> Parish in Louisiana, United States

West Baton Rouge Parish is one of the sixty-four parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Established in 1807, its parish seat is Port Allen. With a 2020 census population of 27,199 residents, West Baton Rouge Parish is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana</span> Parish in Louisiana, United States

East Feliciana Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 19,531. The parish seat is Clinton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Allen, Louisiana</span> City in Louisiana, United States

Port Allen is a city in, and the parish seat of, West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States. Located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, it is bordered by Interstate 10 and US Highway 190. The population was 4,939 in 2020. It is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisiana State University</span> Public university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US

Louisiana State University is an American public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near Pineville, Louisiana, under the name Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. The current LSU main campus was dedicated in 1926, consists of more than 250 buildings constructed in the style of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, and the main campus historic district occupies a 650-acre (260 ha) plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Watkins Allen</span> American politician

Henry Watkins Allen was a member of the Confederate States Army and the Texian Army as a soldier, also serving as a military leader, politician, writer, slave owner, and sugar cane planter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnolia Mound Plantation House</span> Historic house in Louisiana, United States

The Magnolia Mound Plantation House is a French Creole house constructed in 1791 near the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Many period documents refer to the plantation as Mount Magnolia. The house and several original outbuildings on the grounds of Magnolia Mound Plantation are examples of the vernacular architectural influences of early settlers from France and the West Indies. The complex is owned by the city of Baton Rouge and maintained by its Recreation Commission (BREC). It is located approximately one mile south of downtown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnolia Cemetery (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)</span> Cemetery in Louisiana, US

Magnolia Cemetery is a 10-acre (4.0 ha) cemetery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evergreen Plantation (Wallace, Louisiana)</span> United States historic place

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Longwood (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)</span> Historic house in Louisiana, United States

Longwood is a plantation located at 15417 River Road in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, which was listed on National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Directly across the street is a levee holding back the Mississippi River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rienzi Plantation House</span> Historic mansion in Louisiana, US

Rienzi Plantation House is a historic mansion located at 215 East Bayou Road in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bayside (Jeanerette, Louisiana)</span> Historic house in Louisiana, United States

Bayside is plantation comprising a historic plantation house built in 1850 by Francis DuBose Richardson on the Bayou Teche near Jeanerette, Louisiana, United States. Richardson, a classmate and friend of Edgar Allan Poe, purchased the land for a sugar plantation.

John Hill of Homestead Plantation was a wealthy industrialist, sugar planter, philanthropist, and benefactor of Louisiana State University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bocage Plantation</span> Historic house in Louisiana, United States

Bocage Plantation is a historic plantation in Darrow, Ascension Parish, Louisiana, about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Baton Rouge. The plantation house was constructed in 1837 in Greek Revival style with Creole influences, especially in the floorplan. Established in 1801, the plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 20, 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audubon Plantation</span> Historic house in Louisiana, United States

The Audubon Plantation is a Southern plantation with a historic mansion located at 21371 Hoo Shoo Too Road, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allendale Plantation</span> United States historic place

Allendale Plantation, also known as the Allendale Plantation Historic District, is a historic site and complex of buildings that was once a former sugar plantation founded c. 1855 and worked by enslaved African Americans. It is located in Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caspiana Plantation Store</span> Historic building, former plantation store

Caspiana Plantation Store is an American historic building and a former plantation store built in 1906, located at 1300 Texas Street in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The store served as part of the crop-lien system, during the time of sharecropping which impacted the lives of many African American workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinclare Sugar Mill Historic District</span> Sugar mill and plantation in Louisiana

The Cinclare Sugar Mill Historic District is a historic industrial and residential complex on the former Marengo Plantation in unincorporated West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. The district is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River between Brusly and Port Allen and across from Baton Rouge. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Hawkins, Martin (September 19, 2016). Slim Harpo: Blues King Bee of Baton Rouge. LSU Press. pp. 5–6. ISBN   978-0-8071-6454-9.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Louisiana Department of Historic Preservation National Register (August 1987). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Poplar Grove Plantation House". National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior . Retrieved May 25, 2021. (with accompanying nine photos from 1987)
  4. ↑ Fricker, Jonathan; Fricker, Donna; Duncan, Patricia L. (1998). Louisiana Architecture, A Handbook on Styles. University of Southwestern Louisiana. Center for Louisiana Studies. Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana. ISBN   9781887366236.
  5. ↑ "James McCalop". The Times-Picayune. September 6, 1844. p. 2. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Poplar Grove Plantation, West Baton Rouge Parish, LA". West Baton Rouge Museum. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Poplar Grove Plantation House". NPGallery Asset Detail, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior . Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Slave Ownership History for MCCALOP, James in Petition 20884630". Race and Slavery Petitions Project, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  9. ↑ Smith, Johanna Lee Davis (2012). Mulatto Bend: Free People of Color in Rural Louisiana, 1763-1865. Tulane University, New Orleans. p. 151.
  10. ↑ "NPS Form 10-900, Poplar Grove Plantation House, #87002136". National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
  11. ↑ Vestiges of Grandeur: Plantations of Louisiana's River Road. Richard Sexton (photographer), Alex MacLean (photographer), Eugene Darwin Cizek (contributor). San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books. 1999. pp. 110–111. ISBN   9780811818179.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  12. 1 2 3 "Sharecropper Cabin Destroyed By Fire" . Newspapers.com. The Daily Advertiser. March 29, 2002. p. 12. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  13. ↑ Eva O'Donovan, Becoming Free in the Cotton South (2007); Gavin Wright, Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy Since the Civil War (1986); Roger L. Ransom and David Beckham, One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation (2nd ed. 2008)
  14. ↑ "LSU's Rural Life Museum Dedicates New Visitor Center" . Newspapers.com. St. Mary and Franklin Banner-Tribune. February 16, 2010. p. 8. Retrieved May 25, 2021.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.