|
Pigeonnier and plantation store within
the Whitney Plantation Historic District
Photo: 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.
Historic district buildings including the Whitney Plantation
Main House, plantation store, and French Creole barn
Photo: Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation
|
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 hereafter. 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 Formosa Plastics Corporation purchased the land in 1990
and has pledged to preserve and restore the house and outbuildings
as a museum of Creole culture.
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.
Information
provided by The Louisiana Office of State Parks
|
