Come Home for Christmas in St. Francisville

Come Home For Christmas in St. Francisville
By Anne Butler

The theme of St. Francisville’s popular annual holiday parade is “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” and visitors the weekend of December 2, 3 and 4 will indeed experience that warm and welcome homecoming feeling as they enjoy this small town’s safe and family-friendly celebration called Christmas in the Country.
The whole weekend is packed full of fun, with spectacular seasonal decorations, musical entertainment throughout the National Register-listed downtown, breakfast with Santa, caroling and window-peeping, contemporary house tours, living nativity and even a symphony concert. Sparkling lights trace soaring Victorian trimwork and grace gallery posts to transform the entire picturesque little town into a veritable winter wonderland.
St. Francisville’s jovial mayor Billy D’Aquilla, just elected to serve an unprecedented ninth term in office, lights the town Christmas tree Friday evening, Dec. 2, with a welcoming reception, choral performance on the front porch of Town Hall by Voices in Motion at 5:30 p.m. and fireworks beginning at 6 p.m. Local shops as well as vendors in Parker Park downtown offer twilight shopping until 7. Hemingbough is the setting for the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s St. Francisville Chamber Series presentation Holiday Jazz, beginning at 7 p.m. and featuring the jazzed-up seasonal favorites performed by pianist Willis Delony and friends, plus a dessert reception (tickets available at Bank of St. Francisville; 225-635-6397).

Saturday, Dec. 3, begins at 7:30 a.m. with a prayer breakfast at United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, followed by Christmas on the Run, relays for life benefitting the American Cancer Society, with 1-mile Fun Run at 8 and 5-K at 8:30 a.m., both starting from Parker Park on Commerce Street (www.stfrumc.org).

Children won’t want to miss the Women’s Service League Breakfast with St. Nick at Jackson Hall of Grace Episcopal Church; there are three seatings at 8, 9:15 and 10:30 a.m. Reservations are encouraged, and advance tickets ($8) may be purchased online at www.womensserviceleague.com ). The Service League also has its usual fresh wreath and cookbook sale on Ferdinand St. throughout the weekend.

A Saturday house tour (10 to 4) benefits the wonderful parish library and showcases some unique contemporary homes. Tickets ($25 in advance, $30 day of tour) may be purchased at the library, The Conundrum bookstore, or online at www.brownpapertickets.com. Sponsored by Friends of the Library, featured homes exhibit a variety of architectural styles and include Charles and Kate Seal’s classic southern home with sweeping front gallery, Chip and Connie Hunter’s home filled with vintage touches and French influence, David and Angie Ray’s traditional home in The Bluffs golfing community, and Finney and Peter Couhig’s intriguing West Indies-style home.

St. Francisville’s oak-shaded Parker Park overflows with children’s activities, music, food and crafts vendors all weekend including Friday evening, and there will be entertainment throughout the historic downtown area. Dynamic Laura Lindsey gathers children under the tent in the park for Christmas storytelling at 11:30, and the Fugitive Poets perform from noon to 2. New this year in a little town gone crazy for rock painting/hiding/finding is a fun activity sponsored by WF Rocks under the tent at 12:30 Saturday, with guidance by talented Alaine Dibenedetto and her sister Angie in dotting/painting fun rocks which will travel to St. Jude Hospital to spread some joy. The group has brought out the creativity in residents of all ages and even has specially designed T-shirts, one of which will be provided free to finders of a dozen marked rocks hidden around town on Sunday. At 2:30 p.m. the West Feliciana Middle School choir performs under the park tent.
From 10 to 4 on Saturday, Oakley plantation house in Audubon State Historic Site presents Colonial Christmas cooking demonstrations in the outside kitchen, followed from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. by candlelight tours plus period music and wassail. In town, Saturday evening entertainment includes Twilight Shopping and music from 4 to 7 p.m., a Community Sing-Along at United Methodist Church on Royal Street from 6 to 7, a Live Nativity inside First Baptist Church on US 61 from 6 to 8, and “Peep into our Holiday Homes” to admire Christmas decorations in participating historic structures (also 6 to 8 p.m.).

The popular Christmas parade on Sunday, December 4, begins at 2 p.m. and traverses Ferdinand and Commerce Streets. Sponsored by the Women’s Service League, the parade features gaily decorated floats, marching bands, and of course Santa Claus riding atop a vintage fire truck. This year’s theme is “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” and there are not one but three grand marshalls being honored this year, all specially recognized award-winning local educators: Heather Howle, Terrance Williams and Janet Lathrop. Prior to the parade, the Angola Traveling Band from Louisiana State Penitentiary performs in Parker Park beginning at noon Sunday.

The enthusiastic sponsors of Christmas in the Country are the downtown merchants, and the real focus of the weekend remains the St. Francisville area's marvelous shops, which go all out, hosting Open Houses with refreshments and entertainment while offering spectacular seasonal decorations and great gift items. A variety of quaint little shops and galleries occupy historic structures throughout the downtown area and spread into the outlying district, each unique in its own way; visitors should not miss a single one.

The town’s longstanding popular anchor stores have been joined by a number of smaller boutiques offering a wonderful variety of wares—antiques, collectibles, original artworks, upscale and affordable clothing, housewares, decorative items, jewelry, books and children’s playthings-- to remind visitors how timeless is the excitement of small-town Christmas shopping at this exuberant celebration of the season.

Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: The Cottage Plantation (weekends), Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.

For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).

Fruitcake Weather in St. Francisville

Fruitcake Weather in St. Francisville

By Anne Butler

            Fruitcake Weather. That’s what beloved southern author Truman Capote called it in his wonderful Christmas Memory, when the first wintry winds blew down pecans to be shelled and when annual visits to the local bootlegger surrepticiously supplied the secret kick to the dozens of fruitcakes made by Capote, then an orphaned child, with an elderly relative whom he described as “still a child.”  The Christmas memories may have come from their home in rural Alabama, but all across the South and especially in St. Francisville, Louisiana, holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas were always special, and every old home’s gleaming mahogany sideboard groaned with the weight of homemade fruitcakes to which, every time anyone passed by, another little dash of brandy was added.

            So as the holidays approach, it is only natural that our thoughts turn to…food, desserts especially, rich holiday traditions gleaned from old family receipt books and tattered treasured clippings. Back in the era of Capote’s childhood, recipes were like antiques…they had to have provenance, so you could tell whose they were, where they came from, where they were served, who cooked them and who enjoyed the consumption. They were like old friends or family with familiar backgrounds, and you could tell by the name of the contributor whether the recipes would be any good or not.

In Plantation Recipes and Recollections compiled by Violet Pate, elderly keeper of the history of the oldest established black Baptist church in the St. Francisville area, she records the details for Oyster Dressing, noting that it was cooked for 30 years for Mrs. Lois Lester of Waverly Plantation at Bains by Violet Glover, who happened to be the charming grandmother of Baton Rouge mayor Kip Holden from whom he obviously inherited his brilliant smile. Even in the early days, its location right along the Mississippi River assured St. Francisville a bountiful supply of fresh holiday oysters shipped upriver by prosperous merchants as Christmas/New Year’s rewards for loyal patrons.

Early cookbooks came in all sizes and shapes. That whirlwind master marketer Marcelle Reese Couhig, familiarly known as Nootsie, hit the jackpot with beloved recipes like the internationally appreciated Asphodel Bread, on index cards in actual boxes, still sold today by descendants at their local bookstore. Her typically casual recipe for French 75 is below, reprinted from the Women’s Service League Feliciana Favourites cookbook, treasured compendium of offerings from all the good cooks of the area, first printed in 1981; an updated version, with all new recipes (but no contributor names), has just been released to fund worthy community projects undertaken by this volunteer group.

            Every local church and charity had its fundraising cookbook over the years. St. Francisville’s earliest residents being mostly English, the holiday recipes were heavy on Anglo influences…Charlotte Russe, Floating Island, Plum Pudding brought to table flamed by such liberal doses of brandy that wide-eyed children feared their grandmother would go up in smoke, mincemeat pie with plenty of hard sauce (see recipe below) to make it palatable, fruitcake so frequently doused over preceding weeks that visible fumes arose, much to the delight of tipsy great-uncles (didn’t every family have one?). The vintage cookbook published by Grace Episcopal Church, whose congregation first came together in the 1820s, included a recipe for “Old English Plum Pudding” said to have been brought from Liverpool “more than a century ago and age has not lessened its popularity.”

And eggnog. Lots and lots of eggnog. At Catalpa Plantation, as described in Audubon Plantation Country Cookbook with wonderful vintage images and lots of history accompanying the actual recipes, the late grande dame and gracious hostess Mamie Fort Thompson was quoted as insisting that in making the eggnog served at Catalpa’s famous Christmas parties, you could use half an eggshell as your jigger to measure the bourbon. She strongly recommended using the larger half!

Of course today our kitchen shelves groan under the weight of contemporary cookbooks from all over the world, from notable chefs (especially our wonderful Louisiana ones) and famous restaurants. And in St. Francisville itself we even have restaurants lending new influences to our holiday menus…Oriental, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Cajun. But there’s just something about those old cookbooks full of recipes as warm and welcoming as treasured old friends, and holiday visits to the St. Francisville area impart the same feeling.

Still, there’s  lots to do in St. Francisville besides eat. Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination.  A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: The Cottage Plantation (weekends), Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation (check locally; it has new owners), plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19^th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).  

In November Oakley features programs called “Forgotten Lives” (a quarters tour with emphasis on experiences of plantation slaves) November 6 from 12 to 4, and “Deck the Halls” on November 26 from 10 to 3, allowing visitors to “adopt a mantle” to decorate with period greens for Christmas. And as decorations go up throughout the historic downtown area of St. Francisville in preparation for Christmas in the Country the first weekend in December, the little rivertown becomes a sparkling winter wonderland.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.

For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.westfeliciana.us, www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).

MAMIE THOMPSON’S FAMOUS CATALPA EGGNOG

6 eggs, separated; 6 tbsp. sugar; 6 jiggers bourbon; 1 half-pint whipping cream, whipped; 3/4 cup milk (optional); nutmeg.

Beat egg yolks until very light. Add sugar. Beat. Beat egg whites, then gently fold into yolk mixture a little at a time. Pour bourbon over, to sort of cook the egg whites. Mix. Add whipped cream, folding in gently. If too thick, add up to ¾ cup milk. Refrigerate until very cold. Top with sprinkling of nutmeg.

VIOLET GLOVER’S OYSTER DRESSING

6 jars oysters, chopped; 10 slices bread, toasted and softened with milk; 1 stick butter; ½ cup onion; ½ cup celery; ½ cup bell peppers; salt and black pepper; 1 teaspoon Tabasco.

Drain oysters and save juice. Cook onions, celery and bell peppers in butter until tender (about 10 minutes of stirring so they won’t burn); add chopped oysters and toasted bread, then salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce. Pour ingredients into baking dish and cook in oven for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

GRANDMA’S HARD SAUCE (from Oil & GAStronomy)

1 stick real butter, softened; 2 cups confectioners sugar; brandy.

Beat butter, gradually adding sugar until creamy. Add brandy one tablespoon at a time to taste. Taste brandy. Add brandy to taste. Taste brandy. Add brandy to taste. Goes well on hot apple pie, mincemeat pie, or on a spoon. Grandma is always in a wonderful mood after making this recipe.

FRENCH 75

1 quart gin; 3 bottles champagne; 1 pint lemon juice; 1 cup sugar.

Chill gin and champagne for a couple of days in the fridge. Use one large chunk of ice in the bowl. Make it yourself in a plastic something in your freezer. Pour sugar over ice, then all the rest of the liquids. If you like it sweeter, make a simple syrup, but watch you don’t spoil your dinner. Serves approximately 25.

St. Francisville ROCKS!

St. Francisville ROCKS!
By Anne Butler

It seemed like such an innocuous, innocent little message, posted on Facebook by local med tech/mom Nancy Metz Arceneaux: “I think the painted rocks they are doing in various towns are so cool. Such a neat way to spread joy. Anyone interested in helping me get it started in St. Francisville?”

And in the way of small southern towns, word spread like wildfire, and before you knew it, there was an enticing painted rock under every bush, on every walkway, in every conceivable cubbyhole (other than mailboxes; that would be a federal offense). The little Louisiana rivertown of St. Francisville, like communities large and small all across the country, went rock crazy!

The craze, enthusiasts say, is a fun way to draw residents together, encourage creativity and pass along a positive message. It gets kids outdoors and away from technology for awhile, searching for rocks to paint themselves, carefully choosing inspirational messages or appealing images, executing the artwork, hiding the rocks and waiting for finders to excitedly post their discoveries on social media.

Mostly painted with acrylics and sealed with a spray sealant or Mod Podge, rocks can be designed and executed by all levels of artistic skill and creativity…colorful hearts or flowers, whimsical animals and birds, feather doodles, short sayings or supportive messages…executed in paints, permanent markers, fingernail polish, puff paints, embellished with tiny jewels or feathers or whatever the imagination can conceive. Concealed all over town, the painted rocks provide exciting hide-and-seek quests; they can also be used as gifts, conversation starters, paperweights, and for myriad other purposes. As Pablo Picasso put it, “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls,” and what joy even such simple artworks as painted rocks can bring.

St. Francisville is home to a growing population of creative souls, both young and old, and many of the rocks dispersed around town are truly works of art. Musician Joe Roppolo, who plays a mean harmonica with The Delta Drifters blues band, has recently been turning out beautifully decorated didgeridoos, those Australian Aboriginal wind musical instruments. Now he has created such gorgeous rocks with the same decorations that he has inspired a whole class in Mandala painting sponsored by the local umbrella arts organization called Arts For All.

Mandalas (Sanskrit for “circles”) are spiritual, ritual symbols representing the universe in Indian religion, the word now used generically to refer to any diagram or geometric pattern representing the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically. In spiritual traditions mandalas are used to focus attention or guidance, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction. Besides, they are just plain beautiful designs in which to lose oneself and, in Gandhi’s words, “in a gentle way, you can shape the world.” Psychologists like Carl Jung have considered mandalas as representative of the Self, the wholeness of one’s personality, and have said that creating them helps to stabilize and re-order one’s inner life.

The children of St. Francisville don’t quote Picasso or Gandhi or Jung as they shriek with joy at the discovery of each special rock, running through the town park or sports facility, through cemeteries (where Easter eggs are also hunted) and along bricked sidewalks, in restaurants or boutique shops or art galleries or doctors’ offices.

And beside each excited child is a grateful mom, one like speech pathologist Lucie Branton LeDoux. Not a week after Nancy Metz Arceneaux started the craze that swept her hometown, LeDoux posted her appreciation as she and her young son Will took a morning walk through St. Francisville looking for painted rocks and whatever else caught their fancy. “We live in the greatest town!” she said. “Took another walk this morning and here’s what happened. We talked about squirrels, why leaves can be seen in concrete, butterflies, pecans growing in trees, what a ‘memorial’ is (‘read the names again, Mama’), and what it means to ‘keep your eyes peeled’ for these beautiful rocks everyone is painting and leaving for others to find (my boy couldn’t stop smiling!) He told me our town is very pretty, everyone is so nice to each other, and he loves where we live, and I have to agree! Thank God we get to raise our children where I grew up! All that and a flower my boy picked for me! What a great morning!”

Nancy Metz Arceneaux, “mother” of St. Francisville’s rock obsession, called it “a way of bringing joy to others in a time where all we hear about is violence and hate. There are still good people in this world and in our beautiful town for sure, so why not spread LOVE instead of hate. Not only is it bringing joy to children but to adults as well.” And Lucie LeDoux added, “You know what I love most about WF Rocks (the Facebook page of the movement in St. Francisville, with images of excited children and rocks they have created or found)? It has gotten my children OFF technology and outside. Plus, we spent time as a family tonight painting rocks. How awesome is this? This is another win for children and families. This sweet little idea of yours could be game-changing for some people.”

Inspirational small-town morning strolls and painted rocks sharing the joy of life and the warm sense of community…just a few of the things St. Francisville is grateful for as Thanksgiving is celebrated. Small-town pleasures, small-town treasures.


Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: The Cottage Plantation (weekends), Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation (check locally; it has new owners), plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.
For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.westfeliciana.us, www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).

Fall is Fine in St. Francisville, LA

Fall is Fine in St. Francisville, LA
By Anne Butler

Autumn’s cooling temperatures tempt hikers into the rugged Tunica Hills, the falling leaves having opened up vistas not visible in summer’s tangled overgrowth and the mosquitoes, poison ivy and snakes no longer nuisances. The waterfalls of nearby Clark Creek Natural Area are an especially popular destination for outdoor recreation enthusiasts based in St. Francisville.

But hiking is not the only Happening in the Hills. Bucking bulls and barrel racers, garden parties and workshops on plantings, gifted artisans and musicians, ghost stories to scare the pants off visitors, even intrepid warriors dashing through mud and other challenging obstacles like the fearsome trail called The Beast: just another typical October in St. Francisville, certainly offering something for everyone.

Every Sunday in October the Louisiana State Penitentiary on LA 66 at Angola puts on “The Wildest Show in the South,” with a huge variety of prisoner hobbycraft sales, tons of food, inmate bands, and hair-raising rodeo events unique to this prison setting. Other than the ladies’ barrel racing, all rodeo participants are inmates in this enormous maximum-security penitentiary, and they keep the crowds on the edge of their seats from the moment the black-clad Angola Rough Riders charge into the ring at full gallop, flags flying. The covered arena seats over 10,000 and fills up every Sunday. Grounds open at 9 a.m. for the arts and crafts, and the fascinating state museum at the entrance gate will also be open, allowing visitors to make a full day of it. The rodeo starts at 2, and advance tickets are a must. Prison website at www.angolarodeo.com provides information and spells out regulations which must be observed on penitentiary grounds.

The Angola rodeo got its start in the 1960s, mostly for the entertainment of prison staff who sat on pickup tailgates or hay bales to watch a few inmates test their skills. But in 1965 a world-champion steer wrestler and bronc buster named Jack Favor made the mistake of picking up a couple of crooked hitchhikers bent on murder. Found guilty of involvement in the crime (he would be exonerated in a later trial), this Texas cowboy was sent to Angola and soon transformed the rodeo into a professional production attracting big-name entertainers and thousands of visitors, his contacts and vision adding excitement with such crowd favorites as the “Bust Out” when six bucking bulls and inmate riders enter the arena simultaneously, and “Guts & Glory” with inmates on foot scrambling to detach a ticket worth $100 from between the horns of an enraged Brahma bull.

Just as exciting is the Warrior Dash on Saturday, October 8, at the West Feliciana Sports Park, a down-and-dirty mud-covered survival-of-the-fittest footrace (info@redfrogevents.com or www.warriordash.com). Sponsoring some 150 event days since 2009, with more than 2.5 million participants across the country, Warrior Dash races have raised more than $12 million for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. The 5-K races take participants through a dozen world-class obstacles , much to the delight of spectators, promising lots of fun for runners of all levels and all ages 12 and over.

The annual Southern Garden Symposium in St. Francisville offers a change of pace, celebrating the area’s great gardening tradition and fostering its continuation by convening horticulture enthusiasts for a weekend of demonstrations, lectures and tours through the area’s glorious antebellum gardens. This year’s 28th annual event, combining prestigious speakers, historic surroundings and engaging social events, takes place Friday, October 14, and Saturday, October 15. Proceeds fund beautification projects, scholarships to LSU’s School of Landscape Architecture, and garden enhancements at state historic sites. For information, visit www.southerngardensymposium.org.

This being the season of witches and goblins, the spooky Myrtles Plantation Halloween Experience scares the pants off visitors every weekend evening throughout October as they tour what is billed as one of the most haunted homes in the country. For information, www.myrtlesplantation.com, 800-809-0565 or 225-635-6277.

The last weekend in October, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th, the Yellow Leaf Arts Festival draws crowds of art-lovers to oak-shaded Parker Park with its bandstand right in the middle of St. Francisville’s downtown National Register-listed Historic District. A festival called “authentic, genuine and full of small-town charm,” Yellow Leaf from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. showcases the works and talents of more than 50 artists and crafters who offer paintings, metal and woodwork, fabric art, books, sculpture, glass art, jewelry, carvings and lots more. This outdoor celebration of all things creative also includes art activities for children and local farmers with home-grown sweet potatoes both cooked and raw in bulk.

The Yellow Leaf Festival, they say, really is all about the art---no mass productions, no noisy generators, no train rides, although there are usually a few local kiddies hawking refreshments from little red wagons. There’s also great live music both Saturday and Sunday, with guitarist Verlon Thompson, The Fugitive Poets, The Wilder Janes, and others. Featured resident artist this year is quilter Judith Braggs, recognized for her amazing talent in rendering folk art scenes in textiles. Sponsors include the local umbrella arts agency called Arts For All, plus Birdman Coffee, West Feliciana Parish Hospital and the Bank of St. Francisville. For information, telephone 800-715-0510 or access online http://westfelicianaarts.com.

Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: The Cottage Plantation (weekends), Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation (check locally; it has new owners), plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.

For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).

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St. Francisville’s Got A Cure For Those Summertime Blues

St. Francisville’s Got A Cure For Those Summertime Blues
By Anne Butler

Think there ain’t no cure for those summertime blues? Well, the town of St. Francisville has a new promotional slogan, “We Love It Here,” and that holds true even for that most maligned and hottest month of the year, August. The month’s menu includes smoochin’ pooches, shopping ‘til we drop in the cool cool cool of the evening, and helping veterans while mooning over hotrods, old cars and motorcycles that remind us of drag races and assorted other automotive thrills from way back when.
Hottest ticket in town is the Wags and Whiskers Gala on Saturday, August 6, from 6 to 10 p.m. at Hemingbough just south of St. Francisville. This fun event is the major fundraiser for the West Feliciana Animal Humane Society and the “Bo” Bryant Animal Shelter, featuring live and silent auctions, crazy carnival-type activities like the “Fetch and Run” dash to doggie dishes filled with gift cards, Wine Toss, Corn Hole Toss, cash bar, fabulous food, dancing to live music by the popular Delta Drifters, Paws Boutique, a smooch-a-pooch kissing booth and photo ops with your own cellphone. Appealing shelter animals in colorful costumes longing for a home escort patrons through the entrance gates across the courtyard to elegant Hempstead Hall where all the action takes place.
Tickets to the gala are $25 and may be purchased at the Bank of St. Francisville, from shelter volunteers, or online through www.brownpapertickets.com (search Wags and Whiskers). Cut-off capacity is 500 guests, and those interested should purchase their tickets early, because this is one event that is supported by everyone in town. On-going operating expenses are staggering, even with parish reimbursement for food and cat litter, and the shelter hopes to be able to afford make a few needed improvements, including roll-up doors, better insulation, more kennels, so funding provided by the gala is crucial.

The gala is sponsored by the non-profit West Feliciana Animal Humane Society, whose dedicated and hard-working members coordinate volunteer and donor efforts for the James L. “Bo” Bryant Shelter in St. Francisville, opened in August 2012. Prior to this, the dog pound consisted of a few makeshift pens attached to the parish jail, where the four-legged inmates were pretty much on death row. Only a small percentage, 5% to 10%, were adopted out, mostly thanks to the efforts of a retired state trooper turned sheriff’s deputy, the late “Bo” Bryant; the rest met a sadder fate.

Now the low-kill shelter has a remarkable success rate (into the 90% range, more than 300 animals adopted last year) with reasonable fees for adopting to permanent or foster homes its rescued animals---dogs, cats, horses, pigs, even a snake!---some are homeless strays, some simply lost and able to quickly reunite with owners, but others have been removed from abusive situations or abandoned because of owner deaths or relocations.
This success rate is all thanks to the volunteers, shelter director Josette Lester says. When Fourth of July festivities meant extended periods of loud explosions for several nights near the shelter, volunteers arrived at dark and spent hours calming terrified animals. When hard freezes or extreme summertime heat make open-cage living uncomfortable or downright dangerous, volunteers take the more fragile animals to their own homes to temporarily foster them. On a daily basis they groom, tame, exercise, socialize, medicate, and transport animals in irresistible “Adopt Me” vests to public gatherings and events, as well as to generous local veterinarians who ensure that the animals are vetted, vaccinated and spayed at cut-rate cost. Some of the volunteers are children, who provide plenty of loving attention for animals often starved for affection.

Inmates from the nearby parish work-release facility voluntarily help and are especially needed for exercising the larger dogs; a grant pays for part-time employment of a couple of older staff to supervise them. But with the springtime explosion of kittens and puppies, there’s always a need for more volunteers to augment the core group keeping the shelter open, caring for animals, overseeing adoptions, cleaning and handling the multitude of requisite chores, plus related efforts in grant writing, fundraising, supply purchasing, carpentry (the new separate cat house was built with mostly volunteer labor), you name it. More foster homes for animals, especially those too young or injured to stay in the shelter, are needed, too, plus more donations of cash and supplies like collars and leashes, pet carriers, cat litter, old towels, pet food; and of course there’s always the need for more families willing to adopt.
Besides its stated mission to provide a safe, healthy, caring environment for animals under shelter care while searching for original owners or approved adoptive homes, the humane society also works to reduce pet animal over-population and has aTNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) program that, thanks to donations and local vets, has neutered or spayed dozens of feral cats.
Located in St. Francisville at 9946 West Feliciana Parkway, the Bo Bryant Animal Shelter is open to the public Monday through Saturday 9 to 4, Sunday 9 to 12 and 2 to 4. For shelter or humane society information, telephone 225-299-6787, 225-635-5801, or online http://wfahs.felicianalocal.com. The West Feliciana Animal Humane Society and the Bo Bryant Animal Shelter are particularly grateful for corporate and individual financial donors, as well as those donating auction items; the shelter is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization.
And on August 20 the popular annual Polos and Pearls evening event puts the sizzle into summer shopping and entices customers to St. Francisville’s National Register downtown historic district and outskirts beginning at 5 p.m. All the interesting little shops (and there are some wonderful new ones to complement the more established outlets) and galleries offer lots of extras---refreshments provided by local restaurants or caterers, live music or other entertainment, and plenty of bargains, making shopping after dark just plain fun. Visitors can drive or hop on the Highlands Bank trolley to visit participating stores throughout the downtown area on Ferdinand, Royal and Commerce Streets.
As an exciting added attraction for the Polos and Pearls event on Saturday, August 20, the Town of St. Francisville and Pointe Coupee Cruisers join to host a Car and Motorcycle Show from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Most vintage vehicles will be displayed along Commerce Street around oak-shaded Parker Park, the roar of revving motors echoing through the historic downtown area. One hundred percent of the proceeds raised through entry fees go to the Louisiana Veteran’s Foundation to benefit military vets. Registration fee is $25 and early registration is rewarded with a T-shirt; awards will be military collectible memorabilia. Registration forms should be mailed to Town of St. Francisville, Box 400, St. Francisville, LA 70775; for information, telephone 225-635-3873 or 225-287-4068, 225-718-4583 or 225-718-1111; online www.stfrancisville.net.
Another salute to veterans takes place August 31 through September 4th when the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall will be set up in the West Feliciana Sports Park. A 3/5-scale replica of the memorial wall in Washington,D.C., it is 288 feet long and stands six feet tall at the apex. A total of 58,227 names of servicemen and –women appear on the nation’s capitol wall, a simple, touching tribute to those who lost their lives in the Vietnam War, and this scaled-down traveling version draws respectful crowds of visitors as it moves across the country.
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and

Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation (weekends only), Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Sunday and Monday).
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.
For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).

Photographs by Darlene Reaves

St. Francisville’s Immigrants—then and now

St. Francisville’s Immigrants—then and now
By Anne Butler
It has been called the little town that’s two miles long and two yards wide, not much of an exaggeration, for the land falls off very steeply behind structures occupying the high ridge comprising its two main streets. As the area was under Spanish control as part of West Florida when it was laid out in 1807, St. Francisville’s two streets were dubbed Royal and Ferdinand in tribute to the Spanish crown. Royal boasts the most beautiful historic homes, but Ferdinand was originally the center of commerce and still is today, lined with boutique shops and art/antique galleries intermingled with Victorian cottages. This unusual mixture of residential and commercial structures gives a significant 24-hour presence to St. Francisville’s very-much-alive downtown, now designated in its entirety a National Register Historic District and a Main Street Community.

In the 19th century Ferdinand Street was a muddy dirt thoroughfare, scene of cattle drives and wagonloads of cotton being hauled down to the Mississippi River for shipment to markets around the globe. Below the bluff upon which St. Francisville developed, Ferdinand St. dropped down the hill by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church where the monks from across the river came to bury their dead safe from the floodwaters. Along the river below St. Francisville was the port city of Bayou Sara, developed in the late 1700s when flatboaters pulled over to spend the night on the trip to New Orleans, their boats loaded with produce from the Ohio Valley and points west.

During much of the 19th century, Bayou Sara was the most important port on the Mississippi River between Natchez and New Orleans, with a mile of warehouses to store cotton plus extensive residential and commercial structures, its riverbanks lined with steamboats. The West Feliciana Historical Society museum on Ferdinand Street has an impressive display of vintage images showing early life in Bayou Sara, many showing floodwaters up to the roofs of houses and stores, and raised wooden walkways to provide dry passage for shoppers during flood times. This, of course, is one of the only unlevee-ed stretches of the Lower Mississippi, and with no levees to hold the water in its channel, when the Mississippi is running high, floodwaters engulf all of the lowlying lands below St. Francisville. During the devastating floods of the early 20th century, most of Bayou Sara was washed away or destroyed, leaving only stands of cottonwoods, willows, and the Corps of Engineers Mat Field where concrete mats are manufactured to line levees to combat erosion.

While the outlying plantations were established primarily by Anglos leaving the East Coast after the Revolutionary War, the 19th century saw a great influx of immigrants from the Old Country, especially Germans, both Jewish and Gentile, settling in Bayou Sara and St. Francisville, bringing with them skills in merchandising and financing which were sorely lacking in what was essentially an agrarian society that existed precariously on credit. The Jews, of course, were anxious to escape religious persecution abroad, and Gentiles too welcomed the chance to forge a new and prosperous life.

A collection of letters from Max Nuebling, covering the period from October 1822 as he leaves his home in Germany to join his uncle in Louisiana to August 1826, gives in fascinating detail an intimate look at life in early Bayou Sara/St. Francisville, where Uncle Dieter Holl operated a store in his home, now known as Propinquity. Young Nuebling’s writings, preserved at the West Feliciana Historical Society, also shed light on the appeal of this fledgling new country, with all its promised opportunities and freedoms, to immigrants from the Old Country, making them willing to risk life and limb on ocean voyages that were fraught with dangers and must have seemed interminable.

“Good Lord, what a difference between the free and easy life here, and over there,” wrote Max Nuebling to his family back in Germany. “Overbearing people that look down upon everyone else, because they hold some kind of official position and think they are better than everyone else, are unknown here. A man here is valued here according to what he is, and what he can do, and not the position he holds. Our sheriff, who holds a high position here, is the most friendly man one can meet; he talks to everyone, and any man can talk to him. Liberty is the greatest gift of manhood, and here we have real liberty, and I have no intention ever to return to my old home and end my days as a slave. Of course, I want to see you again, but only on a visit, and then to return to the Free America.”

Today Bayou Sara is long gone, but St. Francisville continues to attract new residents from near and far. Consistently ranked as one of Louisiana’s most popular tourist destinations, the little town of fewer than 2,000 residents has just as much to offer those who live there as those who simply visit. New restaurants and groceries, new library and bookstore, new boutique shops and galleries, new sports park offering not only recreational opportunities for all ages but a new focus on homegrown festivals as well, new hospital under construction, great hiking and historic attractions...no wonder its current logo boasts “We Love It Here.”

Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation, Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.

There are several upcoming special events in St. Francisville during the month of June. The Walker Percy Weekend (June 3-5) attracts literary bon vivants to various downtown sites for a celebration of the late Louisiana novelist that features good food, craft beer and bourbon, live music, and discussions about books and southern culture under the live oaks. The following weekend, June 10-12, The Day The War Stopped is a Civil War re-enactment like no other, with evening graveside stories in historic Grace Church cemetery, vintage music and dancing, touching drama and a re-creation of the war-stopping burial of a Union gunboat commander complete with Yankee and Confederate Masons joining the Episcopal rector in the burial service.
For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).

Afton Villa Gardens: the plantation, the gardens, the gardener and the book

Afton Villa Gardens: the plantation, the gardens, the gardener and the book
By Anne Butler

Newly established contemporary gardens can showcase the latest in horticultural research, the newest plant varieties, the most up-to-date techniques. Old gardens, on the other hand, those glorious few left from the 19th century when gardening benefitted from unlimited labor, rich soil and the happy climate of south Louisiana, have a charm and character that can't be matched, the secret shadows and sun-dappled parterres of plantation pleasure grounds adorned with latticed summerhouses and brick pathways, with always a pleasant scent perfuming the air.
But combine the two, the historic and the modern, and the result would be magical, only attainable through a certain vision for what might be appropriate and a sensitivity to the spirit of the original without slavishly attempting an exact recreation. And that's just what the incredible grounds and gardens of Afton Villa are today, not so much a restoration as a rebirth, all thanks largely to Genevieve Munson Trimble.
Only one who dearly loves gardens and gardening would have been so bold (or foolhardy) as to undertake such an overwhelming project requiring not only fortitude but plenty of funding as well, for Afton Villa was a wreck in 1972 when Gen Trimble and her late husband Bud saved the property from development. The Afton Villa house, a fairytale Victorian Gothic castle with towers and turrets and forty rooms, had been lost to fire in 1963, and the extensive surrounding gardens, though brought back from ruin time and again through their history since the 1840s, were in sad shape.
The Trimbles not only determined to undertake the project, but persevered through four decades of voracious deer and marauding wild boar, pond levee blowouts and the savage winds of hurricanes uprooting enormous trees and altering the understory sun/shade dynamic more than once.
With the invaluable assistance of eminent landscape architect Dr. Neil Odenwald and hardworking head gardener/manager Ivy Jones, they worked a miracle, preserving and rejuvenating the gardens of Afton Villa not as a restoration but "as a reflection of their own sense of garden design." Today the famous half-mile oak allee, landscaped terraces and garden rooms, including the "garden in the ruins" on the brick foundations where the home once stood in this area historically known as the garden spot of the South, are among the St. Francisville area's most popular tourist and wedding destinations. And all it took was forty years of blood, sweat and tears, not to mention some 8,000 tulips, many thousand daffodils and narcissi, masses of bedding plants and azaleas, more than 250 pots filled with blossoming annuals, and some magnificent Italian statues overseeing with aplomb the house site that has been transformed from a place of tragedy into a place of beauty.
Now LSU Press has published Genevieve Munson Trimble's book, AFTON VILLA; BIRTH AND REBIRTH OF A 19-CENTURY LOUISIANA GARDEN, with gorgeous color images by several Louisiana photographers and from the author's personal collection. Successes, failures, struggles and triumphs, Mrs. Trimble includes it all, including her explanation of the necessity of respecting the soul of the old landscape. "We resolved to restore the spirit of the original garden, and to protect it as well. We would beautify, enhance, even superimpose our own ideas, but at the same time we would be very careful never in any way to obliterate the original footprint of the garden or the house. Whenever possible, we would use old nineteenth-century plants and ornamentation such as might have conceivably been contained there originally, but in the interest of practicality, availability and maintenance, we would be willing to make substitutions, so long as they were compatible with the spirit of the garden. What do I mean, one may ask, when I say the spirit of the garden? To me it means the ambiance that permeates or surrounds a garden. At Afton, I am referring to the almost indefinable aura of past grandeur and, even more than this, the ability to have sustained and risen above the rigors of unbearable tragedy."
This gracious gardener, she of the perfectly coiffed white hair and ever-stylish colorful outfits, hesitated in despair upon entering the avenue to Afton for the first time after the death of her husband in 2004. And then she caught sight of the old oak that stood alone at the end of the drive overlooking the ruins, planted by Bartholomew Barrow in 1828, witness to war and reconstruction, deaths and depressions, neglect and the ravages of winds and fire. And the old oak still stood, proud, covered in the resurrection fern that springs back to life after each rainfall, "symbol of endurance and a triumph of nature to overcome all disasters that would befall. Wasn't this, I thought with sudden clarity, exactly what had drawn Bud and me here in the first place? It was Afton Villa's miraculous ability to have risen, phoenixlike, out of the ashes of tragedy....I could not leave this garden behind."
Mrs. Trimble has received widespread recognition and many prestigious awards for her rescue of the Afton Villa Gardens as well as a number of significant projects in New Orleans. Her book is available at area bookstores and online, and the West Feliciana Historical Society in March joined the Southern Garden Symposium to host an immensely successful book-signing reception at Afton Villa.
The gardens of Afton Villa are open for public enjoyment seasonally, six months of the year; closed July, August, and September during summer heat and hurricane season, also closed January and February in the dead of winter. Other extensive gardens in the St. Francisville area that may be visited are Rosedown State Historic Site's 27 acres of 19th-century heirloom plantings and Imahara's Botanical Garden. A number of fine private landscapes are shown on the Spring Garden Stroll April 30, sponsored by the Feliciana Master Gardeners of the LSU Ag Center.
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and
Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation, Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara's Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state's most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville's extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.
For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special

2016 Audubon Pilgrimage

St. Francisville’s Spring Fling: Audubon Pilgrimage
By Anne Butler

The forty-fifth annual Audubon Pilgrimage March 18, 19 and 20, 2016, celebrates a southern spring in St. Francisville, the glorious garden spot of Louisiana’s English Plantation Country. For over four decades the sponsoring West Feliciana Historical Society has thrown open the doors of significant historic structures to commemorate artist-naturalist John James Audubon’s stay as he painted a number of his famous bird studies and tutored the daughter of Oakley Plantation’s Pirrie family, beautiful young Eliza. A year’s worth of planning and preparation precedes each pilgrimage, and with 45 years of experience under their belt, society members put on one of the South’s most professional and enjoyable pilgrimage presentations.

This year’s tour features several townhouses in St. Francisville’s National Register Historic District and two early plantations in the surrounding countryside, each illustrative of the interconnections of early homes and family histories.

The Cabildo, thought to have been built on Royal Street in St. Francisville as early as 1809 with handhewn joists and brick walls 22 inches thick, is a Spanish colonial structure used over the years as monastery, tavern frequented by Audubon, bank/counting house, West Feliciana’s first parish courthouse beginning in 1824, barbershop, grocery, hotel, drugstore, library, and now beautifully restored present residence of Peggy and Joey Gammill, preservation/conservation experts.

Vinci Cottage at Virginia, all of 1000 feet, was built in the forties of materials salvaged from the detached kitchen and servants’ quarters behind the 1817 historic townhouse on Royal Street called Virginia, perfect for owner Nancy Vinci’s “downsizing with dog.” Supplementing the postage-stamp lawn of this cottage is Woodleigh Garden, just across Royal, a beautifully landscaped hillside setting filled by owners Leigh Anne and Butch Jones with heirloom pass-along plantings and a pleasant brick courtyard with fountain.

The Myrtles, a raised English cottage begun in the late 1790s by Judge David Bradford, leader of the Whiskey Rebellion, was enlarged by subsequent owners throughout the 19th century. The long front gallery is graced with grape-cluster wrought iron, and inside rooms are formalized with elaborate plaster friezework and marble mantels in the twin parlors. John E. and Teeta Moss are the current owners.

Rosale Plantation, north of St. Francisville at Wakefield, was part of early settler Alexander Stirling’s enormous 1790s landholdings; when the elaborate brick house his daughter Ann Skillman built in 1836 burned in the 1880s, the family moved into the two-story schoolhouse, built the same time. Today the simple farmhouse with sweeping vistas of manicured oak-shaded lawns and multiple ponds is owned by Peter and Lynda Truitt.

Other popular features of the 2016 Audubon Pilgrimage include Afton Villa Gardens, Audubon (Oakley) and Rosedown State Historic Sites, three 19th-century churches in town and beautiful St. Mary’s in the country, as well as the Rural Homestead with lively demonstrations of the rustic skills of daily pioneer life. An Audubon Play will be performed several times daily on Saturday and Sunday in recently restored Temple Sinai. Daytime features are open 9:30 to 5, Sunday 11 to 4 for tour homes; Friday evening activities are scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m., Saturday soiree begins at 7 p.m.

The Historic District around Royal Street is filled during the day with the happy sounds of costumed children singing and dancing the Maypole; in the evening as candles flicker and fireflies flit among the ancient moss-draped live oaks, there is no place more inviting for a leisurely stroll. Friday evening features old-time Hymn Singing at the United Methodist Church, Audubon Play in Temple Sinai, Graveyard Tours at Grace Episcopal cemetery (last tour begins at 8:15 p.m.), and a wine and cheese reception at Bishop Jackson Hall (7 to 9 p.m.) featuring Vintage Dancers and young ladies modeling the pilgrimage’s exquisitely detailed 1820’s evening costumes, nationally recognized for their authenticity. Light Up The Night, the Saturday evening soiree, features live music and dancing, dinner and drinks beginning at 7 p.m.

For tickets and tour information, contact West Feliciana Historical Society, Box 338, St. Francisville, LA 70775; phone 225-635-6330 or 225-635-4224; online www.westfelicianahistoricalsociety.org, email wfhistsociety@gmail.com. A package including daytime tours and all evening entertainment Friday and Saturday is available. Tickets can be purchased at the Historical Society Museum on Ferdinand Street.
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and
Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation, Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.

For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).

Layers of History

St. Francisville’s Layers of History
By Anne Butler

Tunica-Biloxi Cultural and Educational Resources Center

St. Francisville, Louisiana’s popular Audubon Pilgrimage each March features West Feliciana’s fascinating historic plantation homes and gardens from the 19th century, but the history of the area goes much farther back than that. Indeed, some of the earliest roadways, sunken deep into the soft loessial soil with steep sides showing striations delineating the layers of history, began as game trails leading to watering holes, then as footpaths trod by the moccasins of the area’s earliest Native American occupants.

The 1680s journals of French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, mention the Houma Indian nation living on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River across from the mouth of the Red River around what is now West Feliciana Parish, and in 1686 explorer Henri de Tonti visited the Houma village. Peaceable farmers whose numbers in 1699 were recorded by Iberville as 350 men, it was the Houmas who marked the boundary of their hunting grounds with the tall red pole that gave Baton Rouge (Red Stick) its name. By 1706 the Houmas had been driven farther south by the Tunica tribe, fierce tattooed warriors as well as skilled traders, who moved near the present site of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. It was an ideal location for the continuation of their role as middlemen in the trading of commodities like salt, highly valued by both Indians and European explorers.

In 1731 the Tunica moved a few miles south to the site of Trudeau Plantation, and over the course of the next three decades, until 1764, the burial grounds at this Indian village would grow to include over 150 graves. It was the custom of the Tunica to bury valuables with the dead, and these graves contained not only the wealth of the tribe but also exotic imported goods attesting to their extensive trade with Europeans.

Tunica Indian's Artifacts

After joining the military campaign of Governor Galvez which overthrew British control in Baton Rouge, the Tunicas were rewarded with Spanish land grants in the Avoyelles Prairie, now the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Reservation in Marksville on the west side of the Mississippi River. The 2000 census showed 648 Tunicas on the reservation, which is run by an elected tribal council with its own police force, health services, education, housing authority, court system, and they also operate Louisiana’s first land-based casino.

But the Trudeau Landing burial grounds remained on the east side of the Mississippi River, undisturbed until the 1960s, when an amateur treasure hunter and Angola guard named Leonard Charrier from Opelousas, having pinpointed the location of the Indian village site by poring over old maps and journals, began excavating the graves, unearthing without landowner permission what came to be known as the Tunica Treasure.

Eventually estimated at 2½ tons of artifacts (Charrier cast aside the bones), his findings included not only intricate native pottery, calumets and three-legged cookpots but also large amounts of European trade goods, glass bottles, brass and copper items, flintlock muskets, iron tools, French faience pottery, lead-glazed bowls and stoneware. As Charrier explored possible sales for his booty, various respected archeologists and museums across the country got involved. The bulk of the artifacts were sent to the Peabody Museum at Harvard and later stored at the LA State Museum while a lawsuit over ownership of the treasure made its way through the cumbersome court system. The state of Louisiana eventually purchased the Trudeau Plantation property and the Tunica tribe was declared the legal owner of the burial goods. One significant upshot of the legal wrangling was passage of protective federal legislation called the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990.

Today the Tunica Treasure collection is housed on the reservation in Marksville at the Tunica-Biloxi Cultural and Educational Resources Center, a soaring architectural wonder housing a library, learning center, conference facilities, tribal offices, museum on Tunica tribal history, and a state-of-the-art conservation laboratory where a large percentage of the artifacts have been painstakingly restored.

Old Tunica Road by Darrell Chitty

Visitors to the St. Francisville area today have access to state preservation wilderness areas in these same Tunica Hills, and a drive along the Old Tunica Road between Weyanoke and Tunica offers a thrilling roller-coaster ride as it parallels the Mississippi River’s course, traveling along steep hills and deep hollows back through the centuries along paths once trod by the area’s earliest inhabitants. A favorite of hikers and bicycle racers because of the challenging terrain, the Old Tunica Road traverses some of south Louisiana’s most spectacular scenery, but it is not for the hurried or the faint-hearted during inclement weather, as some unpaved sections become impassable when wet without four-wheel drive. The road passes through the south tract of the Tunica Hills Wildlife Management Area, sunken between high roadside banks rising 20 or 30 feet above the roadbed and covered with mosses and wild ferns that thrive in the cool shady habitat. From St. Francisville, go north on US 61, left onto LA 66, left onto LA 968 and right onto Old Tunica Road, which eventually winds back out to LA 66 for a right turn to go back to US 61 and south into St. Francisville.

Less strenuous but just as challenging (mentally, at least) is St. Francisville’s popular annual Writers and Readers Symposium, bringing together an amazing group of authors and artists to speak about their creative processes and mingle with enthusiastic lovers of good literature at Hemingbough Conference Center on Saturday, February 20. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., with presentations by featured authors starting at 9, lunch at noon, a 1 p.m. author’s panel Q&A, followed by an hour-long autograph session at 2 p.m. An added visual treat will be A Novel Image, a competitive exhibit of photographs, paintings and sculpture matched with literary works. The Saturday symposium will be followed on Sunday by a Writers Workshop led by Margaret McMullan for both experienced and aspiring authors at the West Feliciana Parish Library from 9 to 4.

Margaret McMullan

Featured presenters this year are award-winning novelist Margaret McMullan, who released her moving seventh novel Aftermath Lounge on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina; Renaissance man Michael Rubin, jazz pianist, national speaker/humorist, and practicing attorney whose murder mystery The Cottoncrest Curse was published by LSU Press; New Orleans poet Mona Lisa Saloy returning to share a new book of poetry called Second Line Home; and noted Louisiana photographer Philip Gould and renowned public muralist Robert Dafford. The Public Art of Robert Dafford, one of Gould’s dozen books, features his superb images in both words and photographs of some of Dafford’s most memorable murals, painted in this country, Canada, France, Belgium and Great Britain, and both artists will be present for the symposium at Hemingbough.

For tickets, register online with credit card at www.brownpapertickets.com (OLLI members www.outreach.lsu.edu/olli). Advance fees for the symposium are $50; $60 at door. Writers Workshop fee is $150; limited scholarships are available. Online information is available at www.literatureandart.org.

Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation, Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.

For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).