Friends in St. Francisville, La

Plantation Country Romance

2012-01-18T23:21:00.000-06:00

Plantation Country Romance: February in St. Francisville is for Lovers

By Anne Butler

When Martha Barrow of Highland Plantation returned to the St. Francisville area after completing her education at Madame Legoin’s fashionable educational institute in Philadelphia, she was 18 and in the sweet bloom of youth. She quickly caught the eye of handsome planter Daniel Turnbull, ten years her senior. Writing of the relationship some years hence, one of their granddaughters would say, “A mutual romance immediately commenced, little Cupid cast his darts and their hearts that instant caught the sunshine they through life had sought.” They were joined in matrimony in 1828 and their descendants for generations would occupy their magnificent home called Rosedown, now a state historic site where the wedding of the Turnbull’s daughter Sarah is regularly reenacted.

Not far away at The Cottage Plantation, back when letter-writing was an art form marked by fine penmanship and even finer sentiments, the plantation owner would write to his beloved wife the tedious details of an 1838 solitary sea voyage to New York and close by proclaiming his abiding love: “I have nothing further to say except to tell you what you have heard once or twice before, viz. that I love you with all my heart and mind,” to which she subsequently replied, “It would be impossible for me to express half the love I bear you.” Their lengthy union had already been blessed with a dozen children, and The Cottage too would remain the family home for a century and a half.

These early settlers in the St. Francisville area enhanced the verdant woodlands with fine homes surrounded by formal gardens and fields of flourishing crops. In the garden gazebos and vine-hung arbors, along the private parterre paths and on shady galleries graced with fanciful trim, many a romance blossomed. Today there’s still something about the peaceful pastoral setting that continues to inspire painters and poets, photographers and nature enthusiasts, and---yes, indeedy---most especially, lovers.

Social mores have drastically changed since suitors of yesteryear had to stealthily exchange love notes or surreptitiously steal kisses while strolling secret garden paths hidden from vigilant chaperones’ surveillance, but romance is still in the air. The St. Francisville area remains a popular lovers’ destination---for romantic getaways, for proposals, for weddings, for honeymoons. And the good folks of St. Francisville do all in their power to enhance the possibilities. February is the month for lovers, and not just on Valentine’s Day.

First, fall in love, maybe on a romantic getaway to one of the St. Francisville area’s Bed & Breakfasts, which run the gamut from historic townhouses (Barrow House & Printer’s Cottage, Shadetree, St. Francisville Inn) to antebellum plantations (Butler Greenwood, The Cottage, Greenwood, The Myrtles), from lakeside clubhouses (Lake Rosemound Inn, Hemingbough) to golf resorts (The Bluffs on Thompson Creek); there are also modern motel accommodations (Best Western and Magnuson). Equipped variously with Jacuzzis and fireplaces, porch swings and four-poster beds piled with fluffy comforters, some of the B&Bs are historic and some contemporary, some are in the country and some in town, and they all provide just the perfect backdrop for kindling a romance.

Then, pop the question, and the choice of romantic settings is unlimited, from down by the riverside to atop a gurgling waterfall in the Tunica Hills, from Victorian gardens colorful with blossoming camellias to oak-shaded parks and plantation grounds. Propose over a sumptuous candlelight dinner at St. Francisville’s fine dining venues (Oxbow Restaurant, Carriage House at The Myrtles), or dancing to the live band at Magnolia Cafe. Present the ring, maybe a designer one from Patrick’s Fine Jewelry, along with a box of fabulous chocolates from the local candy shoppe (The Shanty Too), and flowers from the local florist (Magic Maker).

The same fine restaurants provide splendid locations for bridesmaids’ luncheons and rehearsal dinners, as does the restaurant at The Bluffs and the more casual in-town eateries like Que Pasa, East Dragon, Cozy Corner Bistro; for the really casual, there’s a good pizzeria (Sonny’s). For catered sit-down meals, the St. Francisville Inn with its central courtyard and wine parlor is a prime destination. The gift and antique shops and the art galleries of St. Francisville offer a huge selection of unique one-of-a-kind wedding gifts.

As for wedding locations, there are a number to choose from, including several beautiful historic churches (Grace Episcopal, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic and United Methodist, all in the National Register-listed downtown historic district, and all with their own special requirements). For large ceremonies and receptions, Hemingbough with its lovely lake and grand Greek Revival Greenwood can accommodate hundreds, as can the fine full-service Victorian of the Felicianas. The Myrtles (30-50 guests, more at Ridgecrest) and Butler Greenwood Plantations (15-20 max) host smaller weddings beneath ancient live oaks hung with Spanish moss, and the two state historic sites (Rosedown and Audubon) have begun permitting outdoor ceremonies on their spectacular grounds, as has magnificent Afton Villa Gardens.

The Bluffs has a lovely small chapel, and popular informal venues in St. Francisville are the gazebo in Parker Park and historic Market Hall on Royal Street, as well as hilltop Shadetree. Sage Hill gift shop has a rear addition that’s ideal for small events. Feliciana Seafood caters and rents tables, chairs and other equipment, and other local caterers include Magnolia Café, Oxbow, and the superb upscale Heirloom Cuisine. Confections by Michelle furnishes divine wedding cakes (plus creative customized groom cakes ranging from crawfish pots to toothy sharks, from Tiger tailgating to duck hunting). There are several good local photographers for both engagement and wedding photos, and the retired Justice of the Peace (Kevin Dreher) officiates with just the right mix of meaningful dignity and relaxed charm (he’s the consummate storyteller; ask him to expound on some of the more unusual weddings at which he has officiated, in locations ranging from the state pen to elegant estates to doublewides where the cake was probably one of Michelle’s red-velvet armadillos).

And for the honeymoon and subsequent anniversaries, the St. Francisville area B&Bs can’t be beat, offering romantic charm and privacy, ensuring that the spirit of love and romance lives on. After all these years, Cupid’s darts are still being cast.

St. Francisville remains a year-round tourist destination featuring a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, offering periodic fascinating living-history demonstrations so visitors can experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from Chinese and Mexican 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. In February the West Feliciana Historical Society Museum hosts the travelling Smithsonian Institute exhibit called Journey Stories, free and open to the public, with a number of related activities and events.

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

Early Travels to St. Francisville

2012-01-18T23:11:00.000-06:00

Early Travels to St. Francisville, LA, Led to Some Lurid Descriptions

by Anne Butler

The four-laning of US Highway 61 and the new Mississippi River Bridge make it easy to reach St. Francisville these days, but in the 19th century, travels to this picturesque little Mississippi River village were fraught with perils and gave rise to some spectacularly gruesome newspaper dispatches.

In February, as the West Feliciana Historical Society museum, on Ferdinand St. in St. Francisville, hosts the travelling Smithsonian Institute exhibit called Journey Stories, the focus is on who we are and how we got here. St. Francisville and its now-vanished sister city Bayou Sara beneath the bluffs have got some fascinating tales to tell in this regard.

There were rough early roadways through the wilderness along which the initial settlement patterns could be traced, the pioneers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries braving attacks by Indians and bandits and wild animals as they descended the Natchez Trace into what was then Spanish territory to carve the early indigo and cotton plantations from the Feliciana wilderness. Even the main street of St. Francisville in the 1800s was the scene of cattle drives and heavy-laden wagons en route to the riverport at Bayou Sara below the hill. Muddy quagmires during wet weather and deeply rutted the rest of the time, these roadways led to some unfortunate accidents, buggies bouncing and overturning, with runaway horses compounding the problems. One of the earliest burials at historic Grace Episcopal Church, on the road leading through St. Francisville to the river, was that of baby Edward Baldwin, just five months old, whose cause of death in 1840 was listed as ‘flung from buggy,’ a not-uncommon occurrence.

And then there were the steamboat explosions and sinkings and wrecks like the February 1859 catastrophe of the steamboat Princess which nearly decimated the Feliciana bar. Having boarded passengers at the Bayou Sara landing, the fast packet was headed to New Orleans for the opening of the state Supreme Court and was packed with over 200 prominent passengers. Delayed by fog upriver, the boat was running behind schedule and its crew stoked the blazing fires and tried to make up for lost time. When the Princess exploded at Conrad’s Point just below Baton Rouge, over 70 passengers were mortally wounded. One was Lorenzo D. Brewer, St. Francisville attorney and owner of the historic townhouse called Virginia; transferred to the Natchez for a desperate return trip home, he died before reaching the Bayou Sara landing.

Passengers boarded these riverboats with not a little fear and trepidation despite the fact that many of the steamboats were floating palaces offering luxurious cabins and sumptuous meals. The newspapers of the day were rarely governed by the dictates of good taste and proper political correctness, and journalists had a field day coming up with ever-more scintillating stories of trials and tragedies in order to sell papers. One of the more flamboyant accounts appeared in a September 1843 extra edition of the Louisiana Chronicle, headlined “Bayou Sara, LA Steamer Clipper No. 1 Explosion, September 1843.”
Although only 14 persons were killed, ten others missing and feared dead, and nine wounded, the article calls this “one of the most terrible catastrophies which has ever happened on the Mississippi.” As the Clipper No. 1 was backing from her moorings at the Bayou Sara landing, she blew up “with an explosion that shook earth, air and heaven, as though the walls of the world were crumbling to pieces about our ears. All the boilers bursting simultaneously---machinery, vast fragments of the boilers, huge beams of timber, furniture and human beings in every degree of mutilation, were alike shot up perpendicularly many hundred fathoms in the air.”

“On reaching the greatest height” (and as the writer reached equally great heights of lurid description), “the various bodies diverged like the jets of a fountain in all directions, falling to the earth and upon roofs of houses, in some instances as much as 250 yards from the scene of destruction. The hapless victims were scalded, crushed, torn, mangled and scattered in every possible direction, many into the river, some in the streets, some on the other side of the Bayou nearly 300 yards---some torn asunder by coming in contact with pickets and posts, and others shot like cannon balls through the solid walls of houses at a great distance from the boat.”

Local physicians and residents rushed to the scene to help. “Our citizens generally, every man and mother’s son, appeared only anxious as to how they might render most service to the poor sufferers—white and black, without distinction.” Said the newspaper reporter, “The scene was such as we hope never to look upon again,” but steamboat explosions occurred with such distressing regularity that it was a wonder journeys were ever undertaken in those days, and it is a real tribute to the courage and determination of the early residents of St. Francisville that they had ever arrived or moved about at all.
The Journey Stories exhibit examines migration patterns across the country, augmented by a number of local lectures and special programs. On Saturday, Feb. 11, a walking tour highlights significant contributions of St. Francisville’s early Jewish immigrants, and at 3:30 at Audubon State Historic Site, a one-woman play entitled “Rachel O’Connor’s World” presents the life of one determined Feliciana plantation owner.

On Sunday, February 12, a 2 p.m. reception at the museum officially kicks off the Journey Stories exhibit. The exhibit stays up until March 19, and every weekend is filled with special activities and programs, all free and open to the public. On Saturday, Feb. 18, the museum presents Student Oral History Projects. On Saturday, February 25, Friends of the Library hosts its Celebration of Writers and Readers at Hemingbough, while Margo Soule speaks on Louisiana’s Native Americans at 2 p.m. in Audubon Market Hall. On Sunday, February 26, the featured program is Dr. Irene S. DiMaio Gerstacker’s Louisiana: Fiction and Travel Sketches from Antebellum Times through Reconstruction, at 2 p.m. in Audubon Market Hall. Saturday, March 3, a Gospel Music Fest in Parker Park from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. highlights the soulful songs of the early black churches. Tribute will also be paid to the country’s earliest standard gauge rail line that connected cotton plantations of the St. Francisville/Woodville area with the riverport at Bayou Sara, in a 2 p.m. program in the West Feliciana Courthouse.

The following Sunday, March 11, Louisiana’s Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne extols the virtues of the Bayou State in his entertaining presentation “Why Louisiana Ain’t Mississippi,” in the old courtroom at 2 p.m. The weekend of March 16 through 18th St. Francisville hosts the annual Audubon Pilgrimage, sponsored for four decades by the West Feliciana Historical Society to commemorate the 1821 stay of John James Audubon. Friday, March 16, will also mark the release of a new book, MAIN STREETS OF LOUISIANA published by UL Press, covering the wonderful historic Main Street downtowns across the state, especially timely as Louisiana celebrates its 200th birthday; St. Francisville is one of 33 Main Street communities featured, and a book release reception will be held in Town Hall, with author and photographer in attendance.

The river port of Bayou Sara is gone now, washed away by floodwaters, but St. Francisville atop the hill remains a year-round tourist destination featuring a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, offering periodic fascinating living-history demonstrations so visitors can experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from Chinese and Mexican 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

St. Francisville, La. Christmas in the Country

2011-11-16T12:26:00.000-06:00

CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA
by Anne Butler
Christmas in St. Francisville, historically the commercial center of surrounding English Louisiana cotton plantations, has always been a magical time. In the 19^th century, country folks from miles around would pile into wagons to do their weekly shopping in the little town’s dry-goods emporiums that offered everything from buggies to coffins, gents’ fine furnishings and ladies’ millinery. And at Christmas time, tiny tots would press their noses against frosted storefront windows to gaze with wistful longing at elegant china dolls and wooden rocking horses.
It’s still that way today, and the historic little rivertown’s Christmas in the Country celebration December 2, 3 and 4^th pays tribute to its heritage and showcases its continuing vitality as the center of culture and commerce for the entire surrounding region with an event-filled weekend designed to draw holiday shoppers into historic downtown St. Francisville.
Millions of tiny white lights trace soaring Victorian trimwork and grace gallery posts to transform the entire town into a veritable winter wonderland for Christmas in the Country, as special activities throughout the extensive National Register-listed downtown Historic District provide fun for the whole family at this celebration of the season, a joyful alternative to mall madness.
Beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, Santa Claus comes to town to kick off the Lighting Ceremony of the Town Christmas Tree, followed by a public reception at Town Hall hosted by jovial longtime St. Francisville Mayor Billy D'Aquilla and featuring performances by the First Baptist Church Children’s Choir and West Feliciana Middle School Choir. The Baton Rouge Symphony presents its annual concert of seasonal selections and dessert reception beginning at 7 p.m. at Hemingbough; tickets are available at the Bank of St. Francisville.
Saturday, Dec. 3, begins with a 7:30 a.m. Community Prayer Breakfast at United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall just off Royal St., followed by Breakfast with St. Nick for children at Jackson Hall next to Grace Church at 8 and 9:30 a.m., sponsored by the Women’s Service League (reservations recommended; call 225-718-3847). The Women’s Service League also sells fresh wreaths and pre-wrapped Plantation Country Cookbooks all weekend on Ferdinand St. next to the library, with proceeds benefiting local civic and charitable activities.
Throughout the day Saturday there will be children’s activities--spacewalk, pictures with Santa—plus the Main Street Band (noon to 2), handmade crafts and food vendors in oak-shaded Parker Park. There will also be entertainment in various locations throughout the downtown historic district, featuring choirs, dancers, musicians, and other performers.
The angelic voices of the Bains Lower Elementary children's choir—Voices in Motion-- are raised at the West Feliciana Historical Society Museum on Ferdinand St. at 10 a.m. From 9:30 to 10:30 the West Feliciana High School Performance Choir sings at the United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, followed from 11 to 11:45 by the school’s Beginning and Advanced Choirs. At 11:30 on Ferdinand St. the Junior Jazzercise group puts on a lively show, followed by a Shin Sun Korean Martial Arts demonstration. From 10 to 2 the Sweet Adelines’ Lyrical Quartet strolls and sings along Ferdinand and Royal Sts., while the Angola Inmate Traveling Band from Louisiana State Penitentiary performs across from Garden Symposium Park from noon to 4. The front porch of Town Hall is gospel headquarters with stirring performances from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. by the Williams Singers, Second Chance, New Beech Grove Baptist Church Male Chorus and the Sensational Soul Searchers, while New St. Luke Baptist Church Music Ministry also has a cookbook sale there.
Saturday’s highlight, of course, is the colorful 2 p.m. Christmas parade sponsored by the Women’s Service League. Dozens of gaily decorated parade floats vie for coveted prizes, accompanied by cheerleaders, bands, bagpipes, vintage cars, marching ROTC units and dancers. Santa rides resplendent in a magnificent sleigh pulled by Louisiana State Penitentiary's immense prized Percheron draft horses, groomed and gleaming in the sunlight with their sleigh bells jingling.
The Saturday parade this year has the theme “Rolling on the River,” its grand marshall the longtime local ferryboat captain, especially appropriate as St. Francisville prepares to host the travelling Smithsonian exhibit “Journey Stories” examining settlement routes and patterns across the country, with one of the most important early highways being the Mississippi River itself. Christmas in the Country publicity posters this year feature St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers.
The parade lines up on Royal St. and traverses Ferdinand and Commerce Streets, so don’t plan on driving through downtown St. Francisville mid-afternoon. At 6 p.m. on Saturday, the United Methodist Church on Royal St. hosts a Community Sing-a-long, while the First Baptist Church on US 61 at LA 10 sponsors its very popular Live Nativity from 6 to 8 p.m., reminding of the reason for the season.
In addition, Saturday evening from 6 to 8, visitors are welcomed for candlelight tours, period music and wassail at Audubon State Historic Site on LA Hwy. 965, where artist-naturalist John James Audubon tutored the daughter of plantation owners and painted many of his famous bird studies in the early 1820's. This historic home never looks lovelier than in the soft romantic glow of the candles that were its only illumination for its early years. During the day from 10 to 4, the historic site observes its annual holiday festival.
Christmas in the Country activities continue on Sunday, December 4, with in-town activities. 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 little shops, which go all out, hosting Open Houses with refreshments and entertainment for shoppers while offering spectacular seasonal decorations, great gift items, and extended hours. A variety of quaint little shops occupy historic structures throughout the downtown area and spread into the outlying district, each unique in its own way, and visitors should not miss a single one.
From the rich Victoriana of The Shanty Too, for thirty years the anchor of the downtown business community and always noted for eyecatching Christmas decorations, to the jewelry beautifully crafted from vintage buttons at Grandmother's Buttons, and the incredibly extensive selections of carefully chosen gift and decorative items at Hillcrest Gardens and Sage Hill Gifts, downtown St. Francisville is filled with fine shopping opportunities. Photographer Toni Ladnier and artists Herschel Harrington and Joe Savell (Backwoods Gallery) have studios displaying their own works, while the St. Francisville Art & Antiques, Avondale Antiques, Bohemianville Antiques, A Few of My Favorite Things and the newly opened Bayou Pickers shop feature vintage collectibles and fine furnishings. Femme Fatale specializes in fine fashions.
The Wine Parlor in the St. Francisville Inn has gift bottles of fine wines, and Birdman Books & Coffee has an eclectic selection of books. Ins-N-Outs, Wild Bunch Farms and Coyote Creek nurseries carry live seasonal plants to complement any decorating scheme. The tourist information center/museum in the West Feliciana Historical Society headquarters on Ferdinand St. has a great selection of books, notecards and prints, plus free maps showing locations of all of the other retail outlets, local plantations, restaurants and accommodations.
On the outskirts of town, intrepid shoppers won't want to miss the exquisite creations at Patrick’s Fine Jewelry, the fleur-de-lis decorative pieces at Elliott’s Pharmacy and an extensive collection of the latest in electronics at Radio Shack in Spring Creek Shopping Center, as well as Border Imports with huge selections of Mexican pottery, ironwork and concrete statuary on US 61 north. Most of the plantations in the St. Francisville area have gift shops, and a visit to those would permit enjoyment of spectacular seasonal decorations as well. Restaurants and B&Bs in the area offer gift certificates to extend the giving throughout the year.
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, but visitors find it especially enjoyable in the winter when the glorious 19th-century gardens are filled with blooming camellias. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19^th-century plantation life and customs.
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography. There are some fine little 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Smithsonian Show

2011-11-07T22:12:00.000-06:00

St. Francisville, LA, Anticipates
Sharing its Journey Stories
by Anne Butler
The Thanksgiving season is often a time of homecoming---going back to Grandma’s, where the roast turkey is stuffed with nostalgia and seasoned with stories---a time of sharing family histories and tall tales of the often treacherous travels our ancestors undertook to claim lands and establish new lives in a new country. How appropriate, then, for St. Francisville to now be making preparations to host the travelling Smithsonian Institution exhibit called Journey Stories, which opens the first week in February in the West Feliciana Historical Society’s museum/visitor center on Ferdinand Street right in the heart of St. Francisville’s National Register Historic District.
This fascinating exhibition has been designed to encourage small towns across the country to examine in depth just who we are and how we got here, revealing nationwide migration patterns as early pioneers braved the perils of travel in the days of dangerous ocean shipwrecks and riverboat sinkings, runaway teams and overturned wagons on rude rutted dirt tracks, plus pirates and outlaws, wild animals and wild Indians.
As compelling as these national records are, the localized ones are even more so. St. Francisville certainly had some unique settlement routes, from the Mississippi River bringing early Anglo pioneers to an area that reminded them of the rolling hills of the Old Country, to the sunken traces worn deep into the loessial soils by horse-drawn coaches and covered wagons, to the country’s earliest standard-gauge railroad line. The entire community has enthusiastically participated in the programs augmenting this exhibit, from young school children to the elderly discussing their memories, so residents and visitors alike stand to gain greater understanding of the builders and shapers of this community—the Native Americans and the immigrants from Europe and Africa and the Eastern Seaboard, some arriving of their own free will and others arriving in chains--and the pathways they took to get here.
Leading up to the opening will be related events to build anticipation, including the Rollin’ on the River-themed parade during St. Francisville’s immensely popular Christmas in the Country the first weekend in December; a Walking Tour of Jewish History on Saturday, February 11, led by Rebecca Kastil to highlight significant structures and contributions of St. Francisville’s early Jewish immigrants, beginning at 11 a.m. at Julius Freyhan School; and at 3:30 on Saturday, February 11, at the Oakley Plantation House in the Audubon State Historic Site, a one-woman play entitled “Rachel O’Connor’s World” featuring talented local thespian Kathryn Ward portraying a determined female Feliciana plantation owner and planter. CD guides available at the museum/visitor center for the duration of the exhibit offer an interesting self-guided driving tour through West Feliciana Parish history, and a map overlay by artist David Norwood contrasts the present roadways with the original ones by which the earliest settlers arrived.
On Sunday, February 12, a grand opening reception kicks off the Journey Stories exhibit at the West Feliciana Historical Society Museum at 2 p.m., hosted by the Women’s Service League. The exhibit stays up until March 19, and every weekend is filled with special activities and programs, all free and open to the public. On Saturday, Feb. 18, the museum hosts a presentation by Feliciana Filmmakers of Student Oral History Projects from 10 a.m. until noon. On Saturday, February 25, Friends of the Library hosts its Celebration of Writers and Readers, bringing together recognized authors and their fans at Hemingbough Convention Center beginning at 8:30 a.m., while Margo Soule will present a program on Louisiana’s Native Americans at 2 p.m. in Audubon Market Hall on Royal St. On Sunday, February 26, the featured program is Dr. Irene S. DiMaio Gerstacker’s Louisiana: Fiction and Travel Sketches from Antebellum Times through Reconstruction, at 2 p.m. in Audubon Market Hall, followed by a reception hosted by the St. Francisville United Methodist Church in the church fellowship hall.
Saturday, March 3, a Gospel Music Fest with local church choirs will be sponsored by the Rotary Club in oak-shaded downtown Parker Park from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. as tribute to the St. Francisville area’s only really original indigenous music, the soulful songs of the early black religious congregations. Tribute will also be paid to the country’s earliest standard gauge rail line, the West Feliciana Railroad that connected the cotton plantations of the St. Francisville/Woodville area with the riverport at Bayou Sara, in a 2 p.m. program presented by widely respected local historian Elisabeth K. Dart in the old courtroom of the West Feliciana Courthouse, followed by a reception sponsored by historic Grace Episcopal Church.

The following Sunday, March 11, Louisiana’s Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne, a wonderful speaker, extols the virtues of the Bayou State in his entertaining presentation “Why Louisiana Ain’t Mississippi,” in the old courtroom at 2 p.m., followed by a reception sponsored by the Julius Freyhan Foundation. The weekend of March 16 through 18th St. Francisville hosts the annual Audubon Pilgrimage sponsored for four decades by the West Feliciana Historical Society, commemorating the 1821 stay of John James Audubon by opening the doors to significant antebellum homes plus glorious 19th-century formal gardens, historic churches and a rural homestead where the rustic skills of early life are demonstrated. The evening of Friday, March 16, at 7 p.m., costumed re-creators rise from the graves in Grace Church’s beautiful cemetery to tell their own stories.
St. Francisville is the last Louisiana community to host Journey Stories; the exhibit comes down on March 19. But St. Francisville is a year-round tourist destination featuring a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, offering periodic fascinating living-history demonstrations so visitors can experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from Chinese and Mexican 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Photographs provided by the Smithsonian Institution.

2011-09-24T03:14:00.000-05:00

FALL IS WELCOMED WITH OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

by Anne Butler
Fall in the Feliciana hills brings fabulous autumn color to the woodlands and perfect cool temperatures for the outdoor activities that attract so many visitors to the area throughout October. Active individuals find this month ideal for hiking in the rugged Tunica Hills, once the snakes and poison ivy have retreated and the falling leaves open up scenic vistas not noticeable in the lush overgrowth of summer. Several state wildlife management areas, Clark Creek Natural Area with its rare waterfalls, Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge, and the Mary Ann Brown Nature Preserve offer hiking trails ranging from family-friendly Sunday strolls to challenging hills and steep hollows.

Less active souls find plenty of outdoor activities as well. Parker Park in the middle of St. Francisville’s National Register-listed downtown historic district is the setting for an October 15 Community Market featuring a variety of arts and crafts, and later in the month the park also hosts the very popular Yellow Leaf Arts and Mini-Sweet Potato Festival. This 9th annual festival will be held October 29 and 30, featuring more than 60 artists and craftspersons displaying their creations beneath the spreading live oaks. Among participants will be furniture maker Gordon Graham, potters Michael Miller and Craig Roth, stained glass artist Marjorie Blake, whimsical folk artist Laura Lindsey, and nationally recognized wildlife artist Murrell Butler. Artist in Residence in the park gazebo is the incredible nature photographer/author C.C. Lockwood, and live music will be provided by Jodi James, the Mosspickers, the Fugitive Poets, local songwriters, and Ann Savoy & Her Sleepless Knights. Besides celebrating the artists who continue to find creative stimulation in an area that has provided inspiration ever since John James Audubon painted a number of his famous bird studies there in the 1820s, the Yellow Leaf Festival also pays tribute to the sweet potato, longtime staple crop in a region whose economics and lifestyle once centered around agriculture. Crates of freshly harvested potatoes, plus prepared dishes, will be available.

The month of October is filled with a huge variety of other activities and events as well. On Friday, October 14, and Saturday, October 15, the twenty-third annual Southern Garden Symposium presents a series of workshops bringing in gardening enthusiasts from across the South to bask in the beauties of the glorious antebellum gardens for which the St. Francisville area is justly famous. Programs feature hands-on demonstrations and talks by such distinguished speakers as Southern Living’s Editor–in-Chief M. Lindsay Bierman, plus lunch, tea at White’s Cottage, and Speaker’s Gala at Wyoming Plantation. For information see www.SouthernGardenSymposium.org or call 225-635-3738.

The active St. Francisville Main Street program gets everyone into the Halloween spirit beginning on Friday, October 14 in Parker Park with a space walk and child-friendly Movie Under the Stars at dark; bring lawnchairs and blankets plus a donation of canned food for the Food Bank, and the Women’s Service League will be offering concessions. This is a fitting prelude to the fun Trick or Treat Down Main Street on October 31.

The last weekend of the month (Oct. 28-31) the Myrtles Plantation hosts its chilling Halloween extravaganza through a spooky historic house called one of America’s most haunted. The Audubon State Historic Site also observes the holiday on October 28 (6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) with an All Hallows Eve interactive program on Halloween superstitions and traditions of the 1800s, while on the 29th Rosedown Plantation State Historic site dons mourning garb to recreate a family funeral of the early 19th century. The 29th is also the date for the Friends of the Library fundraising book sale at the local library on Ferdinand St.

And there’s more! Every Sunday in October the Louisiana State Penitentiary on LA 66 at Angola puts on “The Wildest Show in the South,” with prisoner hobbycraft sales, tons of food, and hair-raising rodeo events guaranteed to be unlike any you’ve ever seen at any other rodeo. Other than the ladies’ barrel racing, all rodeo participants are inmates in this enormous maximum-security prison. The covered arena seats over 10,000 and fills up every Sunday; with road construction finally completed along US Highway 61 around St. Francisville, visitors should find traffic congestion less of a problem this year. Grounds open at 9 for the arts and crafts, and the fascinating state museum at the entrance gate will also be open. 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 prison property.

While October generally offers the most pleasant weather, St. Francisville is a year-round tourist destination area featuring a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, offering periodic fascinating living-history demonstrations so visitors can experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from Chinese and Mexican 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Photos by ptWalsh

UNIQUE WILDLIFE

2011-09-15T03:08:00.001-05:00

UNIQUE WILDLIFE REFUGE IN ST. FRANCISVILLE AREA
by Anne Butler

Slipping through the silent waters in a kayak or canoe, shaded by immense old-growth cypress trees draped with Spanish moss and wild vines, it’s hard to realize that this is in West Feliciana Parish, better known for its steep wooded hills than for the alligator- infested swamps of more coastal Louisiana. But then Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge near St. Francisville is a unique habitat area, and it certainly provides some unique recreational opportunities.

Established in 2000, Cat Island WR lies along the southernmost unleveed stretch of the lower Mississippi River. At 10,473 acres, it preserves one of the largest tracts of virgin wetland forest not protected by levees from cyclical flooding and is sometimes inundated by 15 to 20 feet of water in the springtime. From late December through June, there are times when the refuge is inaccessible except by boat, and the river can rise and fall several times during those months (check river levels at www.srh.noaa.gov/lmrfc).

This makes for a unique habitat of lakes, bayous, creeks and undisturbed forests, supporting huge populations of wintering waterfowl and migratory birds, as well as resident wildlife including white-tailed deer, black bear and many varieties of smaller game. Fishing and crawfishing, hiking, fall hunting, birdwatching, canoeing and other recreational opportunities abound.

There are four miles of hiking trails, including the 2½-mile Black Fork Trail maintained by the Louisiana Hiking Club, and the 1/4 -mile Big Cypress Trail to the National Champion bald cypress, largest tree of any species east of the Sierra Nevada mountains. This tree is thought to be between 800 to 1500 years old and is an astounding 85 feet tall.

The 526th refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System, Cat Island is currently unstaffed and is overseen by the St. Catherine’s Creek NWR Complex in Natchez, MS, under the direction of project leader Bob Strader (catisland@fws.gov or 601-442-6696). Strader stresses that the importance of Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge is its uniqueness. “Only 10% of the historic Mississippi River floodplain actually floods on an annual basis,” he explains, “and so the dynamics of the wetting and drying cycles make this refuge area exceptionally unique and ecologically significant.”

Acquisition of the refuge lands was made possible by an initial purchase of 9500 acres by The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana. A large part of the purpose in establishing the refuge---in addition to conserving and managing habitat areas, aquatic resources, endangered species of plants and animals, and the historic native bottomland community in this important alluvial plain---was to encourage participation of volunteers and facilitate partnerships between the US Fish and Wildlife Service, local communities and conservation organizations to promote public awareness of refuge resources.

Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge is open only during daylight hours, and vehicles are restricted to public roads and designated parking areas; ATV use is permitted on designated trails only. For hunting, fishing and ATV use, an annual Special Recreational Activity Permit is required. Maps for accessing the refuge are available at the West Feliciana Historical Society tourist information center/museum on Ferdinand St. in the heart of St. Francisville.

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 daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally.

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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from seafood to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, not to mention 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park and a Farmers’ Market every Thursday and Saturday morning) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Fabulous Historic Furnishings

2011-07-29T04:23:00.000-05:00

St. Francisville area’s fabulous historic furnishings being inventoried

by Anne Butler

The sofa did it.

It was the sofa that actually kicked off this unrelenting quest for historical truth. One single sofa from historic Wakefield Plantation near St. Francisville started the ball rolling and instigated a very exacting and detailed inventory of all of the significant material culture of the Lower South, an ambitious project expected to eventually encompass all of Louisiana as well as Mississippi and Alabama.

Adam Erby rehangs pre-Civil War portrait after measuring and examining it.

It is hardly surprising that the project started in the St. Francisville area, for the historic plantations in this section of the South, called English Louisiana for the origins of its earliest settlers, contained a wealth of fine furnishings, silver and china, books and musical instruments---all the accoutrements of the cultured and refined lifestyle of the wealthy cotton planters. The first settlers came down from the East Coast in the late 1700s with trunks and crates and wagonloads of belongings to furnish the simple early plantation houses---The Cottage, Butler Greenwood, The Myrtles, Oakley. As the planter-families prospered, the homes the second generations built in the 1830s—Rosedown Plantation, Greenwood Plantation--were grand Greek Revival ones requiring even more elaborate furnishings, and so the owners went on Grand Tours of Europe or lengthy purchasing excursions Up East. The fact that so much evidence of this early material culture still survives has astounded and delighted the experts cataloguing the individual pieces.

But to get back to the sofa. A decade ago, New Orleans attorney Paul Haygood, who from time to time took some of his leisure time to indulge his passion for historical research, was notified that a sofa was for sale by a New Orleans antiques dealer that might—or might not—have come from Wakefield Plantation just north of St. Francisville. Having family ties to the Stirlings of Wakefield, Haygood purchased the classical piece, probably made in the 1830s with lots of curves, and began trying to document its provenance.

He knew that Lewis Stirling and his wife Sarah Turnbull had taken a lengthy trip to New York in 1836 to conduct business, socialize, enjoy the cultural scene, and most especially to purchase furnishings suitable for the extravagant new house they were building, a grand columned Greek Revival. In the Stirling papers preserved at LSU, he found an invoice for a Grecian sofa purchased in 1836 from Edwards and Baldwin in New York; the firm had just come into prominence by furnishing mahogany seating for the fancy new Astor House hotel.

Further exploration led to photographs of other Wakefield furnishings being shown to experts in New York, where they generated great excitement. Delving into preserved family and factor receipts revealed that the Stirlings had not only purchased a number of chairs and sofas from chairmakers Oliver Edwards and Cyrus Baldwin, but had also commissioned a large number of four-poster beds and tables from eminent New York City cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe, 28 crates in all. The bill was a grand total of $1900, and the purchase is one of only three major documented sales of Phyfe’s late Grecian-style work. Quite a few of these pieces remain in the Wakefield Plantation house today.

Richie Garrison, head of the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, has come down from Delaware to check the progress of his students and explains to them the virtues of a rosewood piano stool.

With Matthew A. Thurlow, Installations Coordinator in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Haygood wrote a detailed article for The Magazine Antiques on his fabulous findings. Encouraged by museum experts to do something more, he arranged to hold a symposium on the classical period of the 1830s in this area. Still not satisfied, insatiable experts encouraged him to see that a professionally done inventory was taken, and that was the impetus for the founding of the Classical Institute of the South to take the lead in the project, an umbrella non-profit organization of important state museums and collections—the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Louisiana State Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the LSU Museum—plus a board of advisors made up of outstanding experts in the field.

Funds were raised for competitive fellowships to allow a summer of research in St. Francisville conducted by several scholars from the Winterthur Program in Decorative Arts at the University of Delaware. Winterthur, premier museum of American decorative arts and sponsor of a number of preeminent research programs, was the home of wealthy collector and horticulturist Henry Francis du Pont; its 175 rooms contain over 90,000 documented objects, plus exhibit galleries. The two interns began their work in New Orleans with several days of orientation with experts on Louisiana history and decorative arts.

With plans to expand the program next summer, the interns are concentrating this year on the furnishings of four historic sites in West Feliciana—Wakefield Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, Catalpa Plantation and Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site, plus historic items from Wakefield in a more contemporary family home called Woodhill Farm.

Says Haygood enthusiastically, “They have found wonderful things. This will make people all over the country aware of the material culture we have in Louisiana and the Deep South, which has not always been appreciated. The interns have been thrilled to find enormous collections that help to complete the picture of the classical environment in this area, from stunning original parlor furnishings to the Phyfe furniture, early Meeks pieces, wonderful portraits and magnificent silver. It’s amazing to see their excitement and especially to see it percolating up to the great classical experts at Winterthur, who are thrilled as well. The findings will be featured at the Winterthur Symposium next spring, and will be online for use by scholars (with locations and ownership confidential); perhaps there will even be a book, and almost certainly magazine articles. We are so in hopes that this will help promote cultural tourism in the St. Francisville area especially.”

The two interns working in St. Francisville this summer are Alice Carboni, originally from Rhode Island, and Adam Erby of Lunenburg County, Virginia. Called the “Lois F. McNeil Fellows,” the two bring a passion for historic culture to the project. Alice has spent the past 8 years in New Orleans, attending Tulane and working as the associate collections manager at the New Orleans Museum of Art, while Adam came straight from the University of Virginia with a major in American Studies with emphasis on architectural history.

Alice Carboni examines an antebellum armoir, cataloging primary and secondary woods.

Both say their findings have greatly exceeded their expectations. Says Adam, “There are phenomenal things for such a tight geographic area, bespeaking the amazing wealth here and the high quality of furnishings people were purchasing.” Alice adds that she had not previously studied or visited the southern plantations and was not sure what she would find, and has been “blown away by the survival of so much material culture, still in original families with so much knowledge of the provenance. The quality of the pieces, exceptional examples from all parts of the country, is just phenomenal and exciting.” The two have worked on material culture in the Upper South and have found that pieces there have not survived in such quantities as in the Lower South.

“The St. Francisville community has been so welcoming and gracious, and it has been fun to meet the locals as well as see the objects and houses,” says Alice. “This has enhanced our understanding of this area, these objects and these houses. It’s such a different sort of landscape, and it’s great to be able to study it in situ. We don’t always get to bring it all together in our scholarship requiring so much library research.”

Paul Haygood takes inventory of extensive library of rare books.

A number of years back when St. Francisville’s local historical society hosted a fundraiser like Antiques Roadshow and imported several appraisers from Sotheby’s, the New Yorkers placed advance disclaimers in the newspapers reminding residents that the South had been primarily an agrarian society and early settlers put their money into land rather than furniture, so participants should not be disappointed if items they brought for appraisal were not as valuable as they might hope. Of course the Lower Mississippi River corridor in antebellum days was inhabited by an enormous number of the country’s wealthiest and most cultured families, and their plantation mansions were furnished with some of the finest pieces money could buy. People who would have brought in insignificant little oddities instead brought their finest treasures and knocked the socks off the New York appraisers, who in future years were careful not to be so condescending.

This material culture inventory should do much the same for the entire under-appreciated Lower South. From the classical sofa at Wakefield that launched this whole project to the magnificent silver services, the original upholstery with trim detail and the exceedingly rare slave livery and other treasures found in all the historic houses, the fascinating material culture that remains extant in the St. Francisville area enriches our understanding and expands our picture of early life in the Lower South, and promises to knock the socks off antiques enthusiasts 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 daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site in St. Francisville, La.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park and a Farmers’ Market every Thursday and Saturday morning) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Unique Culinary History

2011-07-08T22:32:00.000-05:00

St. Francisville Noted For Its Unique Culinary History

by Anne Butler

Louisiana is famous around the globe for its food, and justifiably so. Visitors come from far and wide to enjoy culinary offerings prepared by our well-known professional chefs, and the locals, as the saying goes, don’t eat to live, they live to eat. The whole world salivates for our Creole and Cajun cooking.
The elaborate multi-coursed Creole meals with their aristocratic European antecedents spread from New Orleans up the Mississippi River through the fabulous antebellum plantation estates, their formal dining tables often graced by visiting royalty impressed that such rural kitchens could produce rich and elegant fare equal to anything found in the Old Country. But when the penniless Acadian exiles arrived in Louisiana later in 1700s, struggling to rebuild lives shattered when authorities expelled them from Nova Scotia farmlands, they had to learn a whole different way of cooking, of necessity making do with whatever they could harvest in the swamplands and prairies, the preparation involving lengthy slow-cooking and plenty of seasonings to make less-than-prime ingredients palatable, with providential rice added to many a dish to stretch a little meat or seafood to feed dozens of stair-step children.
But St. Francisville is not Creole. St. Francisville is not Cajun. Did the residents of St. Francisville, therefore, starve? Not by the looks of us. In English Louisiana, settled by mostly Anglos, there was a whole different type of food preparation, and it is only recently being recognized as at least comparable to, if not equal to, the Creole and Cajun cooking for which Louisiana is known.

Louisiana’s beloved Chef John Folse has always recognized that the history of our foodways is just as important as other aspects of our heritage, and in his Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University he makes sure the students understand the provenance of all the dishes they prepare. Each semester he invites guest lecturers to describe different types of cooking that make up Louisiana’s wonderful culinary and cultural gumbo---Creole, Cajun, Italian, German, Spanish, Native American, African and other ethnic influences.
The St. Francisville resident who is always summoned by Chef Folse to discuss the English cooking brought to the area by its earliest Anglo settlers used to joke with the culinary classes about crossing the river to eat French cooking. English cooking, she would tell the students, was basic and perhaps a bit bland, maybe even, dare we say, boring. But upon further thought, she realized that the English cooking for which St. Francisville was noted was really a perfectly wonderful heritage, building upon indigenous ingredients and a unique sense of place. Starting with prime meats and vegetables fresh from home gardens meant that the dishes did not need to be overly seasoned or stewed for hours or smothered in sauces to make them edible, and consequently basic was not necessarily a bad thing. And when she put out a plea on Facebook for locals to recall favorite foods most closely associated with the St. Francisville area, the mountains of responses were mouth-watering.
The early Anglo plantations were self-sufficient communities where most of the foodstuffs were grown or raised right on the place, with enormous vegetable gardens, fruit orchards, cold-frames for winter production, herds of cattle and sheep and pigs, flocks of poultry. The incredibly talented cooks in the outside kitchens, working over open hearths or later wood stoves, added a little spice from Africa, introducing such staples as okra and yams while greatly improving the basic English dishes.

Selling greens at Community Park Days

Its location right on the Mississippi River provided St. Francisville with access to fresh seafood from the coast and citrus crops from lower Louisiana; early merchants often had sacks of oysters and blood oranges shipped up the river as Christmas gifts for favored patrons, so that every Christmas dinner table was graced with oyster gumbo, and oyster stew for New Year’s, with a fat juicy orange in every child’s Christmas stocking.
The Feliciana woodlands were teeming with wild game. The English, don’t you know, have always considered themselves very sporting, with hunting dogs so plentiful it was hard to ascend entrance steps without stepping on some. Small game birds, venison, squirrel and wild turkey were popular foods, and some families even maintained river steamers for fishing excursions. There were prime roasts and pork loins and lamb chops, all such good cuts that they needed little seasoning.

Farm crops influenced the diet here as elsewhere. Bountiful crops of sweet corn provided corn pudding, roasting ears, macque choux learned from the Indians, and plenty of cornbread made from home-ground meal. During St. Francisville’s spring Audubon Pilgrimage, the re-created Rural Homestead demonstrates grinding cornmeal and cooking cornbread on a wood stove, and there’s even a working still used to produce moonshine (the corn likker was supplanted by muscadine wine, cherry bounce and all manner of other stimulants---those English, need we say, were rarely known to be teetotalers.
Sweet potatoes did exceptionally well in the Feliciana soils and a local canning plant provided the livelihood for many residents through the latter 1900s. It was said without exaggeration that St. Francisville ladies knew hundreds of ways to cook sweet potatoes, from pies to fries and puddings to the basic baked potato that provided many a child’s lunch on school days, besides warming pants pockets on brisk walks to school during chilly winter mornings. This being a small town, the ladies, especially the church ladies, were so skilled at whipping up sweet potato casseroles topped with marshmallows and praline crunches that hardly a catastrophe could befall a family in town before a squadron of neighbors and relatives were marching up the front steps loaded down with consoling casseroles.

So what delectable dishes do St. Francisville residents most closely associate with their area over the years? A Facebook request elicited dozens of mouth-watering responses.
“Fried chicken,” says one, “back when the recipe began with ‘get the axe!’” Homemade biscuits with pure cane syrup. That old southern staple dessert, chess pie, favorite of pilgrimage luncheons and church suppers both black and white. Tomato aspic, colorful staple of ladies’ luncheons back when ladies wore hats and white gloves and had manners; even better, fried green tomatoes. Bourbon pie, so much better the next day after it had aged overnight in the icebox; pecan pie; South of the Border milk punch, served, rumor had it, to whet the whistle during cut-throat hands of poker. Teacakes and little girl’s fancy-dress tea parties under the live oaks dripping with moss. Holiday plum pudding slathered in hard sauce made of real butter and sugar and plenty of bourbon, and eggnog at Christmas, especially at Catalpa Plantation where Miss Mamie used an egg shell as a jigger and made sure it was “the bigger half.” Homemade mayonnaise on tomato sandwiches, and sweet tea.

Dewberry jelly, back when every briar patch along the river hid plenty of berries (and plenty of snakes as well), and cobblers and jam cakes with six or seven thin layers. Field peas and butter beans, mustard greens and collards seasoned with slabs of salt meat, tender young snap beans with new potatoes. Cornbread sticks cooked in cast-iron molds greased with lots of lard. Watermelon rind pickles. Big ol’ striped crookneck cushaws, looking like overgrown squash and practically requiring a chainsaw to cut open, baked with butter and cinnamon or put in pies or bread.
Pralines, especially those made by Miss Emily who hawked them from a little red wagon to drivers waiting to cross the Mississippi on the ferry. Grits and grillades. Okra gumbo; stewed tomatoes. Fried catfish Fridays in Lent at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church. Fig wine; fig ice cream; fig anything. Barbecue, and not just pig or calf but goat as well, cooked on spits over pits in the yard.

Grinding corn at Rural Homestead

The old memories, fading but still fragrant, are augmented by more contemporary creations like the iconic Spinach Madeline, and sensation salad and shrimp/eggplant casserole at the Oxbow or shrimp po-boys at Magnolia Café done scampi-style with pepper jack cheese instead of breaded and fried. And then there are those gigantic Mag cookies, and the pita BLTs with sprouts and avocado…and the list could go on and on, with a nice variety of restaurants in St. Francisville carrying on the local culinary traditions with a little extra oomph and maybe, we might as well confess, a little dash of Creole and Cajun seasoning, too.
So yes, Virginia, just as there is life in Louisiana beyond New Orleans and Cajun Country, which comes as a big surprise to a lot of people, so there is food in Louisiana beyond Creole and Cajun cooking, and some of it is fabulous. Maybe it’s time to put St. Francisville and English Louisiana on Louisiana’s Culinary Trails map.

About West Feliciana Parish & St. Francisville, La.

Large Bald-cypress tree at Cat Island NWR

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 daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19^th-century plantation life and customs.
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park, a Farmers’ Market every Thursday and Saturday morning, and Hummingbird Festival the last weekend of July) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

A Civil War Event

2011-05-22T02:17:00.000-05:00

DAY THE WAR STOPPED IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

By Anne Butler
Up the steep hill they trudged, sweating in the sticky June heat, staggering under the weight of the coffin, the white flag of truce flying before them in the hot summer sun. The guns of their federal gunboat, the USS Albatross, anchored in the Mississippi off Bayou Sara, were silent behind them as a small party of officers struggled toward St. Francisville atop the hill.
The procession was not an impressive one, certainly not an unusual event in the midst of a bloody war, and it would no doubt have escaped all notice but for one fact--this was the day the war stopped, if only for a few mournful moments. This touching moment will be marked the weekend of June 10, 11 and 12, in St. Francisville, Louisiana, where it all took place.
In June 1863, the bloody Siege of Port Hudson was pitting 30,000 Union troops under Major General Nathaniel P. Banks against 6,800 weary Confederates under Major General Franklin Gardner, fighting over the all-important control of traffic on the Mississippi River. Port Hudson and Vicksburg were the only rebel strongholds left along the Mississippi, and if the Union forces could wrest from them control of the river traffic, they could cut off supplies from the west and completely surround the Confederacy. Admiral David Farragut had attempted to destroy Confederate cannons atop the bluffs from the river, but of his seven ships, four were turned back, one was completely destroyed, and only his flagship and the USS Albatross passed upriver safely, leaving ground troops to fight it out for nearly another month.
The commemorative events begin on Friday, June 10, at 7 p.m. in St. Francisville, with graveside histories in the peaceful oak-shaded cemetery at historic Grace Episcopal Church, where several participants in the original event lie buried---the grave of the Albatross’ commander John E. Hart, whose burial stopped the war and united fellow Masons in both blue and grey, is marked by a marble slab and monument “in loving tribute to the universality of Free Masonry,” while nearby lies W.W. Leake, local Masonic leader and Confederate cavalry officer who expedited Hart’s burial. An Open House and presentation of lodge history at the double-galleried Masonic Lodge just across Ferdinand St. from the graveyard follows at 8 p.m. Friday evening.
On Saturday, June 11, a lively parade travels along St. Francisville’s historic main street beginning at 11 a.m., followed by lunch at the Masonic Lodge from 11:30 to 12:30. Visitors will be pleasantly transported back in time during the afternoon at the nearby United Methodist Church hall by a graceful demonstration of vintage dancing from 12:30 to 1:30. At 1:30 commences the moving dramatic presentation showing Commander Hart’s young wife in New York as she reads his last letter to their small son and then receives the terrible news of his death. This is followed by the burial of Hart in Grace Church cemetery, with re-enactors in the dignified rites clad in Union and Confederate Civil War uniforms accurate down to the last button and worn brogan.
On Saturday evening from 6 to 8:30 PM, at Oakley Plantation (Audubon State Historic Site), brilliantly costumed vintage dancers will perform stylish dances popular during the Civil War period in the museum theater, encouraging participants to join in and learn the steps. Oakley House, which is never lovelier than by candlelight, opens for special evening tours from 6 to 8 p.m. This year all three floors of Oakley will be filled with costumed living historians demonstrating what life was like during the Civil War years for civilians and soldiers on both sides of the conflict. A picket will greet guests at the entrance in full military uniform. In the dining room the discussion will be about wartime shortages of foodstuffs as ladies converse over their ersatz coffee made from okra, and other ladies will be attending to their mending in the hallway as they make sure the solders’ uniforms have all the buttons sewed on. Convalescent soldiers are attended to in the office, and the little drummer boy waits anxiously in the bedroom to go off to war. In another bedroom, as his anxious wife looks on, a gentleman dons his uniform and packs his gear into a haversack. Confederate headquarters in the library will be the scene of discussions of the nearby bloody Siege of Port Hudson, while in Audubon’s room foraging soldiers confiscate civilian goods for the military, candles, for example, and much-needed food.
On Sunday, June 12, Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site from 1 to 3 presents a program on Civil War medical techniques and their all-too-often conclusion, period burial customs.
All of these activities are free and open to the public. Among sponsors are St. Francisville Overnight! (Bed & Breakfasts of the area), the Feliciana Lodge No. 31 F and AM, Grace Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, and St. Francisville Main 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 daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19^th-century plantation life and customs.
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

GREAT GARDENING TRADITION

2011-05-22T02:11:00.000-05:00

IMAHARA’S ST. FRANCISVILLE BOTANICAL CONTINUES GREAT GARDENING TRADITION

By Anne Butler

The rich soils and mild climate of the Feliciana Parishes combined to produce some glorious 19^th-century gardens, lush landscapings of live oaks towering over camellias, azaleas, sweet olive, magnolia fuscata, hip gardenias and all the other old-fashioned plants carefully chosen to complement the magnificent plantation homes and Victorian townhouses. Today those grand antebellum gardens are joined by a contemporary garden just as carefully planned and extensive in scope, a labor of love designed to bring a master gardener back to his roots.

Walter Imahara was one of ten children of a Japanese-American family uprooted by wartime hysteria, relocated from their prosperous California farmland and interned for several years during World War II. The family settled in postwar Louisiana, where they were hired to reclaim the sprawling gardens at historic Afton Villa Plantation just north of St. Francisville.

As a schoolboy, Walter labored there with his parents and siblings, struggling to clear the jungle-like growth obscuring the beauty of Afton Villa’s terraced plantings and magnificent century-old oak alley, and as a young man he first helped and then succeeded his father James running the Imahara Nursery and Landscaping Co. they developed from scratch into a million-dollar enterprise that beautified the entire Baton Rouge area.

As the oldest son, according to age-old Japanese tradition, of him more was expected, an extra sense of responsibility and stern discipline, and Walter Imahara did not disappoint, rising to the top of every endeavor he undertook…well, almost. As a weightlifter, he won dozens of national and world gold medals and was president of the International Weightlifting Federation when he put finally put down his competition barbells after half a century of involvement. It was probably his consuming passion for weightlifting that kept him from being tops in his college horticultural studies, but he certainly learned enough, for later as a professional nurseryman he earned the respect and admiration of his peers and was elected to the presidency of prestigious southern and national landscape associations.

After all the hard work and tough discipline for all those years, Walter Imahara certainly deserved a quiet and peaceful retirement. So did he settle with his elegant wife Sumi into a comfortable rocking chair on the front gallery of his St. Francisville country home? Not in a million years. First he labored to turn the unassuming cow pasture around his weekend retreat into a veritable arboretum of hundreds of crape myrtles, magnolias, hollies, camellias, weeping yaupons and yews, palm trees and the Japanese cherry trees his father had loved so much. Pristine white fences line the perimeter and an entrance gate opens onto a boulevard lined with stately Italian cypress trees.

So then did Walter Imahara rest on his laurels and rock on his porch? Not a chance. It wasn’t long before he set his sights on 55 acres of property on Mahoney Road at the riverside edge of St. Francisville, overgrown hills and steep hollows that had once been part of an experimental livestock farm where 1920’s Louisiana governor John Parker spent part of his retirement years. It had been ages since the property had been productive and it straddled a steep ridge 60 feet above the low-lying cypress swamp and hollows, but Walter Imahara looked at the tangles of briars and brush obscuring the eroding hillsides and he saw potential, the chance to create a legacy garden reminiscent of the grounds of Afton Villa where he spent his childhood. And then he worked miracles.

From the time he purchased this land along the backwash banks of the Mississippi River on Bayou Sara, Walter Imahara and his crew labored, selectively clearing and resculpting the terrain with trackhoes and bulldozers for drainage and erosion control, allowing the 30-acre cypress swamp to serve as the natural reservoir. Eroding soils were shaped from ravines into four ponds, with large rock and filter fabric used to control the overflow, and irrigation systems were installed. Mass plantings of azaleas top-dressed with pinestraw and spaced off-center helped control erosion, providing spectacular color and proving to be deer-resistant as well, important in this wooded region. Other groupings include dozens of different varieties of magnolias, topiaries of various hollies, over 25 varieties of crape myrtles, palms, and many, many more, thousands and thousands of plants.

Lovely as it is (and it will become even lovelier as the years pass and the plants mature), this garden is not just for show; the plantings include a huge variety of botanical specimens that should prove of great interest to avid gardeners, with hardy and specialized plantings that thrive in the natural setting of the alluvial Tunica soils. Tours extolling the virtues of each variety are conducted by Walter and often his niece Wanda Chase, who as the third generation has taken over Imahara’s in Baton Rouge and is also a licensed landscape architect and much-honored hardworking young nurserywoman. Walter’s sisters Lily and Irene help out as tour guides as well, often in the conference center that comfortably seats 50 and serves as a venue for gardening talks and refreshments. The conference center is also an art gallery displaying the priceless woodcarvings of Japanese calligraphy produced with mallet and chisel in his old age by Walter’s father James, to whom this garden, so exemplary of the family horticultural skills and passions, serves as a great tribute.

Imahara’s Botanical Garden, on Mahoney Road in St. Francisville, opened its gates for special events and scheduled groups in the spring of 2011. Every Saturday and Sunday from May 28-29 through July 2-3, the gardens will welcome visitors to enjoy the incredible crape myrtle bloom. It will also be open for the October Southern Garden Symposium and December’s popular Christmas in the Country celebration in St. Francisville, as well as for prearranged visits by gardening groups, senior adult and church groups, class reunions, club meetings and landscape association get-togethers, with Imahara family guides and catering available by reservation.

Walter Imahara admits his incredible garden will also make a spectacular setting for weddings, exercise walking and an enormous array of other possibilities for the future. So will Walter Imahara, with his never-ending supply of goals and dreams, ever really retire? Not in a million years!

To schedule events, activities or guided tours for groups in the garden, contact imaharasbotanicalgarden@gmail.com, and for information on upcoming garden events, log onto facebook.com/pages/Imaharas-Botanical-Garden or visit imaharasbotanicalgarden.blogspot.com.

For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

2011-04-07T21:11:00.000-05:00

St. Francisville's Temple Sinai

by Anne Butler

Early photograph of Temple Sinai

The little rivertowns all along the Mississippi River corridor saw an influx of Jewish immigrants in the mid-19th century. Escaping religious persecution in Germany, these early settlers followed the cotton culture westward and brought with them experience in mercantile operations and finance, filling a gap between planter and slave. As middlemen, they provided the underpinnings and practicalities to prop up a plantation economy that existed precariously on credit, and after the Civil War many Jewish proprietors of country stores found themselves in the land and cotton business when debts were settled through means others than cash. With profits from these transactions, Jews funded philanthropies benefitting their communities and became active in civic and political affairs. They had a significant impact on the areas in which they settled, and yet today there is no Louisiana museum or cultural center recognizing their contributions. At least there had not been one, until now. The first organized Jewish congregation in the St. Francisville area, meeting initially in a hotel and then an opera house, incorporated in 1901 and quickly set about building their Temple Sinai on a hill overlooking the Mississippi River. When the temple was dedicated in 1903, it was an event involving all members of the community at large. As the local newspaper described it, "The sacred building was filled by a large congregation composed of both Jews and Gentiles. It was an hour of rejoicing." Joining together with the congregation to celebrate the completion of the temple were rabbis from New Orleans, local judges, Protestant rectors, choir members from many different faiths, and processions of children bearing palms and candles.

Temple Sinai today.

The fine building, 35x50 feet, had a number of large stained glass windows and high ceilings contributing to perfect acoustics. The handsome circular pews, altar and raised choir gallery were of quarter-sawn oak. The exterior, painted dove grey trimmed in green, featured doorways topped with arched gothic windows and wide central steps flanked by tall twin towers.

Alas, the Temple Sinai would have a short lifespan. Within a few years of its dedication, many of its members had either died or moved to New Orleans for greater business opportunities. In 1921the building was purchased by a small Presbyterian church, which in its own time would suffer declining membership and would close when most of its members joined the local Methodists.

After years of decline, most recently under ownership of the parish police jury, Temple Sinai is being resurrected as part of a cultural complex in combination with the historic brick Freyhan School, first public school in the parish constructed with major funding provided in the will of prominent 19th-century Jewish entrepreneur Julius Freyhan. The Freyhan Foundation has big plans for both of these adjoining structures, with space for cultural and civic activities, plus exhibits on early Jewish contributions to community life as well as early education in the parish. One sizable donation toward restoration of the school building came from the elderly granddaughter of Julius Freyhan.

Future Plans

While some stabilization work has already been accomplished on the school building, the temple will be the first restoration project to be completed. The Freyhan Foundation, with a Save America's Treasures grant from the National Park Service combined with other contributions, has hired Holly and Smith Architects to rehabilitate the structure, repairing exterior wood trim and lap siding, painting, and replacing the towers that had been removed at some point from the front façade of the temple. A service wing added to the rear will provide practicalities like restrooms. Work is set to begin in late spring 2011. Upon completion of the restoration project, Temple Sinai will provide a non- denominational multi-purpose space envisioned as a much-needed venue for community events and cultural programs. This will be augmented by the Freyhan School part of the complex, where the major exhibits and events space will be a welcome addition to St. Francisville's cultural tourism scene, providing a gathering spot for local residents as well as offering enlightening historical insight so that visitors might gain appreciation for the contributions of the area's early Jewish immigrants.

Inside Temple Sinai

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 daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas-hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Doors & Arches

Temple's Entrance

Julius Freyhan High School
benches behind the Temple..

Side view of the synagogoue.

Spring brings paddling Cat Island NWR and Bayou Sara.

Tourism Information

Great Outdoor Photography

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas-hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

VOICES FROM THE PAST

2011-02-24T04:39:00.001-06:00

VOICES FROM THE PAST IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA
by Anne Butler

If only these walls could talk! How often have we lamented that the lessons of history might be lost without the voices of the past recounting their experiences. In the four decades that the West Feliciana Historical Society has hosted the Audubon Pilgrimage in St. Francisville, this popular spring fling has featured beautifully restored antebellum plantations and historic townhouses, brilliantly blooming azaleas, hostesses resplendent in replicated 1820s garb, old-time rural crafts and skills, and even glamorous nighttime entertainments. But initially something was missing, some intimate personalized voice resonating through time, and the ancestral oil portraits, the architectural treasures, the leather-bound literature…all gave only mute testament to past glories and sorrows.

One of the historic churches featured on the pilgrimage is Grace Episcopal, the oldest church in St. Francisville and second oldest Episcopal congregation in the state, established in 1827. Its first rector was the Reverend William R. Bowman, second husband of widowed Eliza Pirrie of Oakley Plantation whom the artist Audubon was hired to tutor in the early 1820s; their son would marry the beautiful belle Sarah Turnbull of Rosedown Plantation.

The present brick church, which replaced an early simple wooden building, is reminiscent of the Gothic country churches of rural England, from whence came many of the pioneering settlers of St. Francisville. Its cornerstone was laid by Leonidas Polk, the Fighting Bishop of the Confederacy, in June 1858, the same year an immense Pilcher organ was shipped downriver from St. Louis and fitted into the south transcept in memory of Judge George Mathews.

From Judge Mathews’ plantation came the oak saplings that now shade the cemetery where he rests in peace along with many of the early settlers. Among the earliest burials was that of baby Edward Baldwin, whose death in the 1840s was recorded as ‘flung from buggy.’ During the Civil War, as St. Francisville received heavy shelling from a Union gunboat on the nearby Mississippi River, old Aunt Sylvia Chew, a free woman of color, took refuge before the altar until a cannon ball crashed through the window over her head; she then fled to the cemetery and put her faith in the substantially built tomb of her old acquaintance Dr. Ira Smith.

With the serene cemetery so full of history and stories, it was no wonder that pilgrimage planners conceived the idea of raising the dead to tell their stories, and who better to direct this fascinating performance than local resident and Grace parishioner Shirley Pourciau, who had earned a Master’s degree in Theater from the University of Illinois and then spent 30 years as a public school teacher, enthusiastically directing plays and pageants and all manner of church shows until she retired from Lee High in 1983. Early performances of the Cemetery Tales utilized the talents of relatives and colleagues from Baton Rouge, but Mrs. Pourciau soon realized that the St. Francisville area abounded in homegrown talent.

Some of these frustrated thespians are real pros, like Dave and Valerie Barnes, who have had many years of professional radio and television experience, while others are simply blessed with a flair for the dramatic, but each gives a memorable performance bringing to life a carefully selected cross-section of St. Francisville residents beginning in the heady years just prior to the Civil War and continuing through the trying times afterward. And so, as dusk falls and the fireflies flit amid the moss-draped live oaks, costumed spirits rise among the tombstones to relate their poignant stories, and in doing so, relate the history of St. Francisville itself. An introduction to Grace’s history is given from the brick front steps of the church, and then young guides lead visitors through the cemetery lit by candles and torches, all to the strains of acoustic period music provided by talented David Porter.

Beside the sturdy tomb of Dr. Ira Smith, who died Christmas day 1850, stands his widow Mary Ann Gray, half-sister of Eliza Pirrie, relating how her husband named their plantation Troy after his boyhood New York home. Another 1850 burial was that of Grace church vestryman Levi Blount, who hanged himself from an oak tree after falling into debt over a costly sugar mill; Blount’s widow Lavinia, who with her New England bluestocking sisters came south to provide young ladies with sound classical educations, relates her story as well. William Dana Hatch was another early vestry member of Grace Church; a merchant in Bayou Sara, he died in 1866 at the age of 54, and over the years his tomb, surrounded by fancy iron fencing, has irreverently been dubbed Hatch’s Pen.

The Turnbulls of Rosedown are well represented in the cemetery and in the performance, with three different generations telling their tales, beginning with Martha Barrow Turnbull who with her husband Daniel built magnificent Rosedown Plantation in the 1830s and over six decades surrounded the home with glorious gardens based on landscapes seen on her European honeymoon. Her grandson Daniel Turnbull Bowman was slain in 1900 after volunteering with the army unit sent to quell the Moro insurrection in the Philippines. Lt. Bowman is portrayed graveside with such elan by Hamilton Willis, complete with the riding boots that are his customary attire, that during one performance, as he related how his devoted mother fretted over his perilous military service, the cell phone forgotten in his pocket rang, and without missing a beat Willis adlibbed, “That must be her now.” The third of the Turnbull-Bowman spirits is the most recent, the fifth generation, Mamie Fort Thompson, last of the area grande dames and noted for her wicked wit. Into her 90s “Miss Mamie” presided over Catalpa Plantation, sharing with each and every tourist who came calling a glass of the potent sherry referred to as “grandma’s daily dalliance with naughtiness,” and proving to the world that old southern belles never die, nor do they ever lose one iota of their charm.

A deceased rector of Grace Church tells his tale in this graveyard filled with fine statuary and Victorian monuments of marble and stone. But amidst such splendor sadly stand characters like Tullia Richardson whose plantation was aptly named Misery, and Hannah McDaniel who died in 1885 at age 90 so impoverished she had no tombstone at all. When her daughter’s attorney-husband was killed in the explosion of the steamboat Princess en route to the opening of the Supreme Court in New Orleans, the family sold their elegant townhouse on Royal St. in St. Francisville and opened a boarding house in New Orleans to make ends meet. Another distinguished barrister mortally wounded aboard the Princess in 1859 was Uriah Burr Phillips; when the steamboat’s boiler exploded rounding Conrad’s Point just below Baton Rouge, those passengers not killed instantly were laid out on the lawn of the Conrad’s Cottage Plantation. Burr was shipped home to linger a week before dying and was laid to rest beneath a hand-carved Italian marble monument.

Beside the enormous stone cross marking his family plot arises the spirit of Judge George Mathews, chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1812 until his death in 1836; his father was an early governor of Georgia, and several brothers-in-law served on the first vestry of Grace Church. His is the earliest burial included in the Cemetery Tales, while nearby is one of the most recent, the 27th Marine Corps Commandant, General Robert H. Barrow of Rosale Plantation, whose distinguished military career took him around the world but who returned to his boyhood home for retirement. Declining burial in Arlington National Cemetery, General Barrow opted to be laid to rest in 2008 beside his beloved wife Patty, the interment ceremony with its impressive military honor guard and booming gun salutes attended by everybody in town, including school children.

The voices of the past speak to us in many ways, sometimes harshly and sometimes gently, but rarely so movingly as when the spirits of the dead rise to tell their stories beside their tombstones. These Cemetery Tales take place on Friday evening, March 18, as part of the annual Audubon Pilgrimage, which celebrates a southern spring in St. Francisville, the glorious garden spot of Louisiana’s English Plantation Country. For 40 years the sponsoring West Feliciana Historical Society has thrown open the doors of significant historic structures to commemorate the tenure there of artist-naturalist John James Audubon as he painted a number of his famous bird folios.

Features of the 2011 Audubon Pilgrimage March 18, 19 and 20 include two historic townhouses: Avondale and White’s Cottage, and in the surrounding countryside two 19th-century plantations: Wakefield and Spring Grove, plus Afton Villa Gardens, Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, three 19th-century churches and the Rural Homestead with lively demonstrations of the rustic skills of daily pioneer life. Tour hostesses are clad in the exquisitely detailed costumes of the 1820’s, nationally recognized for their authenticity.

The National Register-listed 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. Besides the Graveyard Tours at Grace Episcopal cemetery, Friday evening also features old-time Hymn Singing at the United Methodist Church and a wine and cheese reception at the West Feliciana Historical Society museum headquarters. Light Up The Night Saturday evening features live music, dinner and drinks. For tickets and tour information, contact West Feliciana Historical Society, Box 338, St. Francisville, LA 70775;phone 225-635-6330; online www.audubonpilgrimage.info, email sf@audubonpilgrimage.info.

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, but visitors find it especially enjoyable this time of year when the glorious 19th-century gardens are still filled with winter-blooming camellias mixed with the earliest bloomers of spring, the flowering bulbs and fruit trees. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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.

A SOUTHERN SPRING

2011-02-23T06:15:00.001-06:00

ST. FRANCISVILLE’S AUDUBON PILGRIMAGE CELEBRATES A SOUTHERN SPRING
by Anne Butler

Afton Villa Gardens oak alley

The fortieth annual Audubon Pilgrimage March 18, 19 and 20, 2011, celebrates a southern spring in St. Francisville, the glorious garden spot of Louisiana’s English Plantation Country. For four decades the sponsoring West Feliciana Historical Society, its docents resplendent in authentic 1820’s costumes, has thrown open the doors of significant historic structures to commemorate the tenure there of artist-naturalist John James Audubon.

When Audubon arrived in the St. Francisville area in 1821, he recorded in his journal that the rich lushness of the landscape and flourishing birdlife “all excited my admiration.” Having set for himself the staggering task of painting all the birds of this immense fledgling country, Audubon would find the inspiration to paint dozens of his bird studies while residing at Oakley Plantation, one of the featured tour homes.

The Oakley house, a splendid West Indies-style three-story structure with jalousied galleries, was well established by the time Irish-born traveler Fortescue Cuming visited the area in 1809, recording in his travelogue a visit to Lucretia and James Pirrie’s plantation, reached via “a good road through a forest abounding with that beautiful and majestick evergreen, the magnolia or American laurel.” Cuming found Oakley already a fine plantation with a hundred slaves “and the best garden I had yet seen in this country.”

Wakefield Plantation

In 1821 the Pirries hired Audubon as tutor and drawing instructor for their young daughter Eliza, and he arrived by steamboat, penniless and with a string of failed business ventures behind him, but rich in talent and dreams. Born in 1785 in Santa Domingo to a French ship captain and his Creole mistress, Audubon was raised in France and sent as a young teen to learn English and a trade in America. In 1820 he set out for New Orleans with only his gun, flute, violin, bird books, portfolios of his drawings, chalks, watercolors, drawing papers in a tin box, and a dog-eared journal, and the meager living he earned painting portraits in the city made the Pirrie offer particularly appealing. The artist’s arrangement at Oakley called for him to be paid $60 a month plus room and board, with half of each day free to collect and paint bird specimens from the surrounding woods, where he cut a dashing figure in his long flowing locks, frilly shirts and satin breeches.
Immensely popular as the central focus of the Audubon State Historic Site since 1947, Oakley has been beautifully restored and carefully furnished in the late Federal style. Another historic feature of the pilgrimage with direct associations with Audubon is Wakefield Plantation, originally part of the property holdings of Alexander Stirling, who acquired roughly 10 square miles after arriving in America in the late 1770s. An 1806 visitor described Stirling as “an old Scotchman, plain and blunt in his manners, but possessed of an immense fortune.” His wife Ann Alston was the sister of Oakley Plantation mistress Lucretia Alston Pirrie, mother of young Eliza whom Audubon was hired to tutor.

Alexander’s son Lewis Stirling married Sarah Turnbull and hired railroad master carpenter Joseph Miller to build a commodious home on the property in 1834, just as Sarah’s brother Daniel was establishing Rosedown Plantation to the south. The house was a grand Greek Revival 2 ½-story structure of wood with Tuscan columns of pie-shaped brick. Fourteen-foot ceilings accommodated innovations like rare built-in mahogany cabinets, handsome sliding doors, and the fine furnishings purchased on an extended journey to the northeast and London. When widowed Sarah Stirling died in 1875, one of the strangest of all estate divisions was effected by four heirs, with the house roof raised to permit the removal of the second floor, then lowered onto the remaining first floor and the chimneys repaired. From the second story came lumber to build two smaller homes. After six generations of Stirlings, the home was purchased and restored by Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Berry, who raise registered longhorns on the property.

Plantation Tours

Sarah Stirling’s brother Daniel Turnbull and his wife Martha Barrow, daughter of William Barrow of Highland Plantation, were also constructing a fine house in 1834, and it would be called Rosedown. The Turnbulls’ daughter Sarah, beautiful “National Belle” of 1849, married the son of Eliza Pirrie of Oakley Plantation, further intermingling these early families.
Mississippi-born writer Stark Young said of Rosedown, “Of all the houses in the world it seemed to be the beloved of its own trees and gardens.” That charm and appeal continues unabated today, the house folded in the embrace of 27 surrounding acres of 19th-century gardens and live oaks grown to immense size, and indeed the beauty of the glorious gardens has saved the house itself more than once through the generations.

The detailed gardening diaries of Martha Turnbull, spanning nearly 60 years, proved that she was one of the first to introduce azaleas and camellias to the South. These records proved invaluable when the late Catherine Fondren Underwood purchased the property in 1956, her keen eye recognizing the lush beauty of the gardens and haunting dignity of the house even through the creeping undergrowth and peeling plaster. A meticulous 10-year restoration salvaged the house and its unique collection of plantings, and today Rosedown, like Oakley, is a much-visited state historic site.

Another Barrow descendent in 1895 built Spring Grove on a 500-acre tract carved from the extensive lands of Afton Villa Plantation. Wade Hampton Richardson IV’s mother Amanda was the daughter of Bennett H. Barrow of Highland Plantation; his father, Wade H. Richardson III, represented West Feliciana in the state legislature during the Civil War before dying a month prior to Wade IV’s birth in 1869. Young Wade would himself serve as a member of the parish police jury, but found farming more to his liking, branching out into the dairy business, with an immense 200x100-foot barn capable of holding 140 registered cows.

Young dancers at courthouse

The progressive Mr. Richardson was an early advocate of improved roadways, and a good seven years before anyone else had the courage to try such a newfangled invention, he was motoring about in the first automobile in the parish. To accommodate it in style, he even had a gingerbread-trimmed porte cochere attached to the side of the Spring Grove house. The home itself, with its large central gable, was glowingly described in turn-of-the-century publications as “an ideal country home supplied with modern conveniences to make rural life agreeable.” Now Spring Grove, at the southern boundary of the magnificent Afton Villa gardens, enfolds the fourth, fifth and sixth generations of direct descendants, the family of Anne and George Kurz.
In addition to the large country homes on tour this year, there are also a couple of historic townhouses in recognition of the fact that not everyone lived on an antebellum plantation; many of the important support services and supply houses were located in town, and many merchants lived, if not directly in their places of business, at least nearby.

Surrounded by a picket fence, White’s Cottage is described as a 1903 urban adaptation of that emblem of Upland Southern culture known as a pen-and-passage house, its flanking rooms or “pens” divided by an enclosed breezeway that, when left open by early settlers, gave rise to the more familiar appellation of “dog-trot” house. The front porch spans the full length of the two separate “pens” divided by the central hallway, unifying all under a single roof. Its precarious hilltop perch vividly illustrates St. Francisville’s traditional description as the town two miles long and two yards wide, the limited available space ensuring that commercial and residential spaces coexist as good neighbors in such close proximity.

The cottage was built by Robert Clifford Brasseaux in the opening years of the 19th century, one of a number of such cottages in the little town that served as commercial and cultural hub of the surrounding plantation country. Brasseaux brought the first gasoline distributorship to the area in 1910 and sold kerosene to the little isolated country stores that kept hand-cranked drums of it on their porches for customers in the days before electricity. The kerosene was sent up from the Esso refinery in Baton Rouge via the LR&N railway, and Brasseaux unloaded the tank cars into barrels hauled by a mule-drawn wagon.

Upon the advent of automobile traffic, the enterprising Mr. Brasseaux also opened the first service station in St. Francisville. It was located in close proximity to White’s Cottage, at the upper corner of Royal and Ferdinand Streets in the store/residence of his German immigrant father-in-law. The family gas distributorship is now owned by Brasseaux’s grandson J. Russell Daniel, and it was recently recognized for a full century of service to the community. Since 1978 White’s Cottage has been the comfortable home of Lynn LeSueur Leak, who has furnished it with fine pieces holding sentimental value.
At the opposite end of town is Avondale, and no house better illustrates the vicissitudes of life along Ol’ Man River than this one. Avondale began in 1904 as a fancy late Victorian Queen Anne mansion complete with round two-story tower and upstairs balcony surrounded by an elaborate balustrade, one of the most magnificent structures in all of low-lying Bayou Sara. That bustling port, once the busiest between New Orleans and Memphis, sat right on the Mississippi, its banks teeming in the 19th century with steamboat traffic. There it was persistently inundated by spring floods, the one in 1912 being particularly disastrous, its implications for commercial interests catastrophic and its floodwaters rushing all the way up into Avondale’s second story just as the young daughter of the house prepared for her wedding.

The wedding was moved up the hill into St. Francisville, and so was the house called Avondale, while the port city of Bayou Sara would eventually be completely obliterated by a series of disastrous fires and floods. As the resident family of Mayor John F. Irvine Jr. dismally contemplated the ruination of their financial empire in Bayou Sara, Avondale itself was dismantled, removed up the hill, and rebuilt high and dry on St. Francisville’s blufflands safe from the Mississippi’s meanderings, its architectural extravagances scaled down to suit the family’s straitened circumstances in 1919.

Its propitious location high atop Catholic Hill would in 1943 attract to Avondale new residents, Drs. Philip and Mary Niebergall; he was the well-loved small-town family physician. A restoration by New Orleans architect Richard Koch reconfigured and revitalized the home, and avid gardener Dr. Phil soon surrounded it with thriving groves of camellias, azaleas and other flowering trees and shrubs. Current owners Michelle and Craig Roth have continued the tradition. Michelle, a master gardener, cheerfully copes with some 5 acres of plantings and says she stopped counting camellia japonicas at 300.

Other features of the 2011 Audubon Pilgrimage include three 19th-century churches as well as the Rural Homestead with its lively demonstrations of the rustic skills of daily pioneer life. Tour hostesses are clad in the exquisitely detailed costumes of the 1820’s, nationally recognized for their authenticity. The National Register-listed Historic District around Royal Street is filled during the day with the happy sounds of costumed children playing nostalgic singing games 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, lingering stroll. Friday evening features old-time Hymn Signing at the United Methodist Church, Graveyard Tours raising the dead to tell their stories at Grace Episcopal Church cemetery, and a wine and cheese reception at the West Feliciana Historical Society museum/pilgrimage headquarters. Saturday evening, the Light Up The Night soiree features dancing to live music, dinner and drinks.

For tickets and tour information, contact the West Feliciana Historical Society, P.O. Box 338, St. Francisville, LA 70775; telephone 225-635-6330; online www.audubonpilgrimage.info, email sf@audubonpilgrimage.info.

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, but visitors find it especially enjoyable when the glorious 19th-century gardens are still filled with late-blooming camellias mixed with colorful spring azaleas. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Proud Main Street Community

2011-02-22T16:16:00.000-06:00

St. Francisville: Proud Main Street Community
by Anne Butler

Bayou Sara Flooded

St. Francisville’s location, high atop blufflands overlooking the Mississippi River in West Feliciana Parish, has been both its blessing and, by some accounts, its curse. Safe from the floodwaters that obliterated its sister city of Bayou Sara right on the river’s banks, St. Francisville was precariously perched on a narrow finger ridge that limited its growth potential, for the town lots fell off steeply into deep hollows on either side of the single main thoroughfare. In a way, this was a good thing, preventing inappropriate development and limiting modern incursions in a historic district where the cozy mix of residential and commercial structures from the 19th and early 20th centuries happily coexist to provide present-day viability. And they can still call it the town that’s 2 miles long and 2 yards wide, with not so much exaggeration.
Founded in the opening years of the 19th century by predominantly Anglo settlers, the little town was an important social, commercial and cultural center for the extensive cotton plantations surrounding it. Its early streets were rude dirt tracks along which herds of cattle and mule-drawn wagons piled high with crops were driven before descending the steep hill to the port at Bayou Sara for shipment on riverboats to New Orleans and thence the world.

Hotel in Bayou Sara

But improvements were soon effected. By 1809 a hotel had been erected, serving as legislative headquarters for the fledgling government of the independent Republic of West Florida when, in 1810, the Anglo settlers joined together to overthrow a weak and corrupt Spanish regime still trying to hold onto the Florida Parishes well after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Over St. Francisville have flown the flags of more governments than any other part of the state—France, England, Spain, the West Florida Republic, the State of Louisiana, the Confederacy, and the United States, some of them more than once.
There the Louisiana Territory’s third newspaper was established, the state’s second library was begun in 1812, a Masonic Lodge was chartered in 1817, and in 1819 an open-air brick market hall was built with arches through which produce wagons could be driven (this would later serve as the town hall). By 1828 the state’s first Episcopal congregation outside New Orleans joined to form Grace Church.

Right in town there were gristmills and cotton gins, livery stables and haberdasheries, drygoods emporiums and supply merchants capable of providing everything the plantations needed, from buggies and fine furnishings to coffins and farm tools, often supplying it all on credit against the next year’s crop. In 1853 the St. Francisville Chronicle reported that, according to the tax rolls, the parish of West Feliciana, with St. Francisville at its core, contained 2,231 free whites, 70 free blacks, and 10,298 slaves producing 2,873 hogheads of sugar, 4,318 barrels of molasses, 334,000 bushels of corn and 23,860 bales of cotton selling at about $70 a bale.

Jewish Synagogue

The prosperity of the antebellum Cotton Kingdom gave way after the Civil War to some lean years as the area struggled with a declining economy no longer supported by agriculture. Many of St. Francisville’s historic structures fell into disrepair; many of the merchants of the town, some of them Jewish immigrants who had provided the practicalities and financing for the plantation economy, moved to urban areas where the prospects for success seemed more promising. The little town remained, however, the parish seat of government and commerce, and by the 1970s a movement began, spearheaded by the West Feliciana Historical Society, to foster a renewed appreciation of its history and heritage. An annual Audubon Pilgrimage tour of historic homes encouraged the entire community to work together to spruce up and share its treasures with visitors, and a late 1970’s survey documented over 140 downtown buildings of sufficient architectural significance to be listed in 1980 on the National Register of Historic Places in an official Historic District that was expanded in 1982.
When the St. Francisville Main Street program was established in 1994, it was able to provide incentive grants for a great deal of refurbishing and refreshing of the downtown area, where the practical combination of business and residential use ensures continued vitality. There may still be only a few thousand residents in St. Francisville, but this little Mississippi River town has something many small towns across the country lack: a vital downtown that is very much alive. When the shops close for the evening, the oak-shaded brick sidewalks come alive with dog-walkers and skateboarders and strollers chatting over picket fences with porch-rockers and swing-sitters decompressing on gingerbread-trimmed galleries, before heading on down to the local café for food and fellowship as exuberant youngsters carouse and dance to the live local band.

Grace Episcopal Church

The admittedly slow pace allows for plenty of time to stop and smell the climbing roses and ancient camellias blooming in every yard, and residents wouldn’t have it any other way. When a new Mississippi River bridge was first proposed to connect St. Francisville on the east bank of the river with New Roads on the west, replacing the increasingly unreliable state-run car ferry, economic development proponents wanted the raised bridge approaches to go right through the center of the historic district. Determined (some called them “stubborn”) townsfolk banded together to push the country’s longest cable-stayed bridge farther south, thus saving fragile downtown structures and a quiet way of life from the stress of constant heavy traffic, harmful vibrations and noise pollution.

Old Bank in historic district

While some of the town’s historic structures had been fortunate enough to benefit from privately funded facelifts over the years, even more benefitted once St. Francisville became an official Main Street community, backed by grants and funding from both state and national Main Street programs designed to breathe new life into the nation’s deteriorating downtowns. The grants made to spruce up downtown commercial structures were matched by more than a million dollars in private investments.
From the grandly baroque 1905 bank building housing a nationally popular button jewelry company to the two-story double-galleried 1817 Masonic Lodge and the 1819 Market Hall, from the simple 19th-century structure used to store coffins to the tiny headquarters of the black benevolent/burial society founded in 1883, dozens of downtown buildings benefitted from these grants, turning the entire historic district into a popular and picturesque year-round tourist destination. Writing in “Preservation in Print,” Linda Rascoe of the Louisiana Main Street Program called St. Francisville’s downtown historic district a visual feast, saying “the closely packed, village-like streetscape contributes to the picturesque pastoral setting where the purity and integrity of the architecture provide a tangible sense of history and a major draw for its primary industry, tourism.”
The surrounding countryside has dozens of National Register-listed antebellum plantations and glorious 19th-century gardens, plus unsurpassed recreational opportunities in the rugged Tunica Hills, while right in downtown St. Francisville there are historic churches, Bed & Breakfasts, a bustling courthouse complex in daily use, plus an oak-shaded public park complete with bandstand that hosts a number of celebrations throughout the year---all on just two main streets. On-going restorations of the historic synagogue and first public school, on a site overlooking the Mississippi River, pay tribute to early Jewish contributions to the town, and indeed the wonderful brick Julius Freyhan School was one of the first recipients of a small façade grant the year St. Francisville was designated a Main Street Community. In a restored vintage hardware store, the historical society maintains a fascinating museum and tourist information center, space shared with the parish Tourist Commission and Main Street offices.
The enthusiastic Main Street directors in St. Francisville, following the program philosophy of ‘Promotion, Organization, Economic Revitalization and Design coupled with Preservation,’ have led the way in spearheading the movement to ensure that the downtown area retains its appeal, with great financial back-up from the town’s Economic Development Fund providing extras like public restrooms, bricked sidewalks and tourist information kiosks in central locations.

Home on Royal St.

Local festivals are carefully planned to complement the town’s history and heritage, bearing in mind the shift in tourism demographics toward more active ecotourism and hands-on living history, with many of the smaller festivals---the monthly community arts market in the park, the White Linen Night, the Trick-or-Treat Down Main Street---designed specifically to draw visitors to the downtown area to shop. The spring pilgrimage showcases area plantation homes and historic townhouses in a fun community frolic as the azaleas are at their peak, while the Audubon Country Birdfest and summer Hummingbird Festival are ideally suited for this area where artist John James Audubon painted dozens of his Birds of America studies in 1821. In June, The Day The War Stopped is a Civil War re-enactment like no other, commemorating not a booming battle but a brief moment of civility in the midst of a bloody struggle when Confederate and Union Masons joined peaceably in the burial of a Yankee gunboat commander in the Episcopal church cemetery downtown. Fall’s Garden Symposium and the Yellow Leaf Arts Festival highlight the glorious 19th-century gardens of the area and the generations of fine artists who have drawn inspiration from its scenic vistas and bountiful wildlife, while Christmas in the Country draws thousands downtown for a holiday parade, seasonal entertainment, great shopping, and spectacular decorations that transform the entire town into a veritable winter wonderland.
The five members of the St. Francisville Historic District Commission, supported wholeheartedly by an enthusiastic longtime mayor, oversee Main Street activities and preservation projects, with the Main Street director coordinating and combining efforts like co-op advertising and the publication of tour maps and guides, with the goal of promoting tourism and encouraging the development of new businesses in town while providing the means to preserve its historic character and charm. It’s never easy to find just the right balance between economic development and historic preservation, but St. Francisville seems to be doing just that.
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, but visitors find it especially enjoyable in the winter when the glorious 19th-century gardens are filled with blooming camellias. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

OLD BENEVOLENT SOCIETY

2011-01-10T00:38:00.001-06:00

ST. FRANCISVILLE’S OLD BENEVOLENT SOCIETY
by Anne Butler
The St. Francisville, LA, area is fortunate to retain a number of magnificently restored plantation homes that welcome visitors throughout the year with an impressive picture of life as it was for the upper echelon of antebellum society in the South. But other structures---smaller, simpler---speak in quieter tones to teach a history lesson no less significant.

Historic green marker in front of Benevolent Society building.

One such structure is the tiny Old Benevolent Society just across Ferdinand St. from the tourist information center/museum in the midst of St. Francisville’s National Register-listed Historic District. Its small green historic marker designates this unassuming wood-frame shotgun house as the oldest black burial lodge in the parish, founded in 1883 by a gentleman whose grandson would more than a century later become president of the parish police jury. The small sign gives just the merest hint of the importance of benevolent societies in the turbulent aftermath of the Civil War, when slaves freed from bondage found few resources to fill needs hitherto addressed by masters on the plantations where they labored.

Historic Old Benevolent Society Hall on Ferdinand St.
(main street) St. Francisville, La.

The most important institution for freedmen in those days, of course, was the church, which struggled to provide not just spiritual but temporal comfort as well in the absence of social service organizations or insurance companies open to persons of color. The church offered sanctuary and socialization in addition to salvation. From tiny black churches sprang the soulful gospel music spiced by the cadences of African chants, the bountiful church suppers and shouting with the spirit, the homecomings and all the other traditional rituals treasured by black congregants to set them apart from the staid Protestant practices of their former owners.
And nearly every church had its benevolent society, officially incorporated under the direction of respected elders of the congregation. Preserved documents reveal that, while some of these church leaders laboriously wrote their names on deeds in the fanciful flowing script of the times, others, unlearned, simply signed with an X. But they all took their responsibilities seriously, for the benevolent societies they formed filled dire and pressing needs.
With few other outside resources, these societies offered significant services to their members---sitting with the sick, caring for the infirm, feeding the weak, funding medical care, and finally covering the modest expenses of a decent burial as well. The charter for the Poor Peoples Benevolent Society, filed August 20, 1904, before West Feliciana’s deputy clerk Eugene S. Muse and certified by District Attorney Robert C. Wickliffe, specified its purpose as being “to help and care for the sick and infirm, and the poor members of the society, and to bury the dead.”

Afton Villa Baptist Church

By July 1911 when the Union Reform Society applied before the same Eugene S. Muse for a charter, the corporation purposes had been considerably embellished. Article III of the incorporation papers stated: “The purposes for which this corporation is established and its objects are declared to be: To better the condition of its members by shaping their manners, and framing their characters by the promotion of honesty, good morals and the diffusion of knowledge among them; and to care for the sick members of the organization; to aid them in distress, to bury their dead, and generally to promote and foster Friendship, Love and Good Fellowship…under such rules and regulations as they may prescribe, subject to the Constitution and Laws of the State of Louisiana.” When the Greenwood Young Benevolent Society was chartered in July of 1913, the same goals were stipulated in the standardized incorporation papers, with the society given the power for the ensuing 99 years to establish bylaws, elect directors and officers, and also to enter into contracts and purchase property.
In 1920, for example, the Royal Benevolent Society, “incorporated under the Laws of the State of Louisiana and filed in the Parish of West Feliciana, at St. Francisville,” purchased from Morris Burgas a parcel of land on the Woodville and Bayou Sara Public Road, bounded on the north by property of St. Andrew Baptist Church. Fronting 50 feet on the Woodville Road, the property was purchased for $350, with $100 payable in cash and the balance in five notes of $50 each spread over the next five years, the mortgage secured by society president Emanuel Williams and Secretary William Wilkerson.
According to an 1877 issue of the early newspaper called the West Feliciana Sentinel, benevolent societies’ annual meetings could be elaborate affairs, if the description of that hosted by the Union Benevolent Society was any indication, involving as it did a 75-foot table groaning under the weight of “turkey, chicken, sugar-cured hams, deliciously barbecued beef, mutton and pig, flanked with vegetables, fruits and an extensive variety of dessert and generous supply of wines. To sum up, it was the finest ‘spread’ we have seen in many a long day, and reflected great credit upon our friends of the ‘Benevolents.’ We have frequently had occasion to mark the perfect order and decorum of the society when paying the last sad tribute to the dead, and the spontaneous manner in which they turn out upon such occasions. The objects of the association as set forth in their constitution and bylaws, and indeed, as evinced in their practical working, is (sic) to foster Christian love, union and peace, to attend and alleviate the sick, to administer to the wants of the destitute in feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, and to bury the dead…We wish them a hearty Godspeed in their noble efforts to subserve the ends of charity. In all their legitimate and reasonable undertakings the colored people of West Feliciana will find no warmer friend and supporter than the W.F. Sentinel.”

Rosedown Baptist Church baptismal

While some benevolent societies met in their own small separate structures, others gathered in church halls. Some churches even had more than one society, as did Afton Villa Baptist Church, oldest black church in West Feliciana, founded in 1871 when Mrs. Susan Barrow of Afton Villa Plantation donated a small piece of land for the purpose of erecting a church and school. Mrs. Barrow had an abiding concern for providing formalized religious instruction and education to the black residents of the area, and they in turn had grown increasingly reluctant to be dominated by former masters in matters of religion, giving rise to the large number of black Baptist congregations in an area previously dominated by Anglican worship practices in this section called Louisiana’s English plantation country.
Violet Pate, octogenarian historian and lifelong congregant of Afton Villa Baptist Church, recounts some of the old-time practices there---the pond baptisms with white-clad candidates liberally immersed and cleansed of sin, the wake services as congregants sat up throughout the night with the deceased who’d been transported to church in a big black glass-windowed mule-drawn wagon, the “veiling” of the seat of deceased church officers. Mrs. Pate recalls the old folks walking barefoot along dirt roads, lanterns lighting their way at night, cleaning their feet with rags before putting on shoes to enter the church.
There were two benevolent societies in the church, the older Afton Villa Benevolent Society dating from 1905 and the Willing Workers society begun by some of the younger men around 1935. Violet Pate explains that these societies filled many needs such as sitting with the sick, plus covering a specified number of doctor visits, prescriptions and ambulance trips per year out of the dues paid by several hundred members; Willing Workers dues began at 25 cents a month, but have risen to $5.
While the Willing Workers society still has about a hundred members, the Afton Villa Benevolent Society has disbanded, and only a few other churches maintain their societies. Their services, after all, are no longer so vitally necessary, with today’s equal access to standard insurance coverage for medical and funeral costs.

West Feliciana Sentianel newspaper dated Aug. 11, 1877

The tiny Old Benevolent Society building, too, has seen better days, its horse-drawn black hearse no longer housed in a tin shelter behind it, the woeful wagon that transported the deceased to burial grounds, mourners walking behind, women in white, carrying candles. Over the years, several ideas have been floated for using the building, perhaps to house exhibits on black history and culture, but there has never been agreement on just what modern-day usage would be appropriate or viable. However, the structure deserves to be preserved as a reminder of the significant role benevolent societies played in southern black society of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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, but visitors find it especially enjoyable in the winter when the glorious 19th-century gardens are filled with blooming camellias. While the Old Benevolent Society can be seen only from the outside, a number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

EVERYBODY LOVES A PARADE

2010-11-12T03:58:00.002-06:00

EVERYBODY LOVES A PARADE -- CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

by Anne Butler

Nothing says Christmas to an excited child more than a parade, especially a safe small-town one like St. Francisville’s popular Christmas in the Country parade the first Saturday each December, complete with marching bands and decorated floats, Santa resplendent in his sleigh and important local officials in convertibles throwing lots and lots of candy. And right out there with all the excited children catching that candy, every year for the three decades this celebration has opened the holiday season in the Felicianas, is Ms. Fay Daniel, owner of one of St. Francisville’s iconic downtown shops.

It’s not that Ms. Fay is exactly a child, but she doesn’t know that, and no one has the heart to tell her. So she keeps anticipating Christmas and celebrating the season with that childlike exuberance and sense of wonder that make the holidays so magical, regardless of age. In her timeless shop, The Shanty Too, purveyor of “gifts and fancy goods” for those same three decades, she loves to share that excitement, with a holiday open house, spectacular decorations, and great shopping. She has also had a hand in planning and executing Christmas in the Country and its parade since the very beginning, many years as the overall chairperson and always the most enthusiastic supporter.

Of course, the parade has grown considerably in three decades (haven’t we all??). Highlight of a weekend designed to draw holiday shoppers into downtown St. Francisville, it started inauspiciously in the late 1970s with a few hay-filled flatbed trailers pulled by farm trucks or tractors, Scout groups trudging along on foot, a couple of costumed Historical Society stalwarts wobbling along on bicycles, and an earlier generation of politicians flinging tootsie rolls from pickups. Everybody who could beg, borrow or steal a horse rode in the parade, which turned out to be a bad idea and was halted in the interest of safety after a few hair-raising runaways. No one had any idea who would actually show up to participate, so the parade was always a surprise even to its organizers, at least until the Women’s Service League took over the project and set some tasteful guidelines.

But even in those early, simple years, St. Francisville’s holiday parade and its ever-expanding roster of wonderful little shops drew crowds. Because, you see, Christmas in St. Francisville, historically the commercial center of surrounding English Louisiana cotton plantations, has always been a magical time. In the 19th century, country folks from miles around would pile into wagons to do their weekly shopping in the little town’s dry-goods emporiums that offered everything from buggies to coffins, gents’ fine furnishings and ladies’ millinery. And at Christmas time, tiny tots would press their noses against frosted storefront windows like those at The Shanty Too to gaze with wistful longing at elegant china dolls and wooden rocking horses.

It’s still that way today, and the historic little rivertown’s Christmas in the Country celebration on December 3, 4, and 5, pays tribute to its heritage and showcases its continuing vitality as the center of culture and commerce for the entire surrounding region. As Fay Daniel says, “We have some really nice stores here, and the shop owners work hard to keep them fresh and up to date.”

Millions of tiny white lights trace soaring Victorian trimwork and grace gallery posts to transform the entire town into a veritable winter wonderland for Christmas in the Country, as special activities throughout the extensive National Register-listed downtown Historic District provide fun for the whole family at this celebration of the season, a joyful alternative to mall madness. The Saturday parade this year has the theme “SaintSational Christmas,” celebrating not only the championship WhoDat Nation but also the local West Feliciana High School teams, also called the Saints, and riding in the parade and reliving former glory will be several generations of sports heroes, cheerleaders, dancers and homecoming queens.

Beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, Santa Claus comes to town to kick off the Lighting Ceremony of the Town Christmas Tree, followed by a public reception and fireworks display at Town Hall hosted by jovial longtime St. Francisville Mayor Billy D'Aquilla and featuring performances by the First Baptist Church Children’s Choir and West Feliciana Middle School Choir. From 6 to 8, visitors have the rare opportunity to glimpse beautifully decorated interiors of participating houses along Ferdinand and Royal Streets’ Peep Into Our Holiday Homes. The Baton Rouge Symphony presents its annual concert of seasonal selections and dessert reception beginning at 7 p.m. at Hemingbough; tickets are available at the Bank of St. Francisville.

Saturday, Dec. 4, begins with a 7:30 a.m. Community Prayer Breakfast at United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall just off Royal St., followed by Breakfast with St. Nick for children at Jackson Hall next to Grace Church at 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m., sponsored by the Women’s Service League (reservations recommended; call 225-721-3563). The Women’s Service League also sells fresh wreaths and pre-wrapped Plantation Country Cookbooks all weekend on Ferdinand St. next to the library, with proceeds benefiting local civic and charitable activities.

Throughout the day Saturday there will be children’s activities--spacewalk and obstacle course, pictures with Santa—plus the Main Street Band (noon to 2), handmade crafts and food vendors in oak-shaded Parker Park. There will also be entertainment in various locations throughout the downtown historic district, featuring choirs, dancers, musicians, and other performers.

The angelic voices of the Bains Lower Elementary children's choir—Voices in Motion-- are raised at the West Feliciana Historical Society Museum on Ferdinand St. at 9:30. The Bain Elementary Chorus sings at the Methodist Church Fellowship Hall at 9:15, followed by West Feliciana High School's very popular Latin and Spanish Clubs (10:30 a.m.) and the high school choir (11). At 11:30 on Ferdinand St. the Junior Jazzercise group puts on a lively show, followed by a Shin Sun Korean Martial Arts demonstration. From 10 to 2 the Sweet Adelines’ Lyrical Quartet strolls and sings along Ferdinand and Royal Sts., while the Angola Inmate Traveling Band from Louisiana State Penitentiary performs across from Garden Symposium Park from noon to 4. The children’s musical program called A Joyful Noise performs at 12:15 at Town Hall.

Saturday’s highlight, of course, is the colorful 2 p.m. Christmas parade sponsored by the Women’s Service League. The parade features several grand marshalls, including Jimmy Heidel of the original 1967 New Orleans Saints team, and Darren Coates, local high school grad who went on to be named MVP of the infamous Bayou Classic as a member of the Southern University football team. Dozens of gaily decorated parade floats vie for coveted prizes, accompanied by cheerleaders, bands, bagpipes, vintage cars, marching ROTC units and dancers. Santa rides resplendent in a magnificent sleigh pulled by Louisiana State Penitentiary's immense prized Percheron draft horses, groomed and gleaming in the sunlight with their sleigh bells jingling.

The parade lines up on Royal St. and traverses Ferdinand and Commerce Streets, so don’t plan on driving through downtown St. Francisville mid-afternoon. At 6 p.m. on Saturday, the United Methodist Church on Royal St. hosts a Community Sing-a-long, while the First Baptist Church on US 61 at LA 10 sponsors its very popular Live Nativity from 6 to 8 p.m., reminding of the reason for the season.

In addition, Saturday evening from 6 to 8, visitors are welcomed for candlelight tours, period music and wassail at Audubon State Historic Site on LA Hwy. 965, where artist-naturalist John James Audubon tutored the daughter of plantation owners and painted many of his famous bird studies in the early 1820's. This historic home never looks lovelier than in the soft romantic glow of the candles that were its only illumination for its early years. During the day from 10 to 4, the historic site observes its annual holiday festival.

Christmas in the Country activities continue on Sunday, December 5, with in-town activities augmented by a Christmas Tour of Homes presented from noon to 5 by the Friends of the Library, showcasing carefully selected contemporary homes; tickets are available at the West Feliciana Historical Society museum and at the library both before and on the day of the tour.

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 little shops, which go all out, hosting Open Houses with refreshments and entertainment for shoppers while offering spectacular seasonal decorations and great gift items. A variety of quaint little shops occupy historic structures throughout the downtown area and spread into the outlying district, each unique in its own way, and visitors should not miss a single one.

From the rich Victoriana of The Shanty Too, for thirty years the anchor of the downtown business community and always noted for eyecatching Christmas decorations, to the jewelry beautifully crafted from vintage buttons at Grandmother's Buttons, and the incredibly extensive selections of carefully chosen gift and decorative items at Hillcrest Gardens and Sage Hill Gifts, downtown St. Francisville is filled with fine shopping opportunities. Potter Michael Miller, photographer Toni Ladnier and artists Herschel Harrington and Joe Savell (Backwoods Gallery) have studios displaying their own works, while the St. Francisville Art & Antiques, Avondale Antiques, Bohemianville Antiques, and the newly opened A Few of My Favorite Things shop feature vintage collectibles and fine furnishings. The Wine Parlor in the St. Francisville Inn has a sale on gift bottles of fine wines, Birdman Books & Coffee has an eclectic selection of books, and Belle Glen Traditions stocks children’s toys plus sports memorabilia and gift items. Ins-N-Outs and Coyote Creek nurseries carry live seasonal plants to complement any decorating scheme. The tourist information center/museum in the West Feliciana Historical Society headquarters on Ferdinand St. has a great selection of books, notecards and prints, plus free maps showing locations of all of the other retail outlets, local plantations, restaurants and accommodations.

On the outskirts of town, intrepid shoppers won't want to miss the exquisite creations at Patrick’s Fine Jewelry, the fleur-de-lis decorative pieces at Elliott’s Pharmacy and an extensive collection of the latest in electronics at Radio Shack in Spring Creek Shopping Center, as well as Border Imports with huge selections of Mexican pottery, ironwork and concrete statuary on US 61 north. Most of the plantations in the St. Francisville area have gift shops, and a visit to those would permit enjoyment of spectacular seasonal decorations as well. Restaurants and B&Bs in the area offer gift certificates to extend the giving throughout the year.

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, but visitors find it especially enjoyable in the winter when the glorious 19th-century gardens are filled with blooming camellias. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours daily: the Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 at225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Fall - St. Francisville, 200yrs.

2010-10-14T04:03:00.000-05:00

YELLOW LEAF FESTIVAL HERALDS FALL IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

by Anne Butler

Fall in the Feliciana hills has traditionally been heralded by cooling temperatures, yellowing leaves, and the rumble of big ol’ farm trucks hauling the sweet potato harvest to the cannery near the banks of the Mississippi River below St. Francisville. For decades in the mid- to late-20th century, potatoes were the main cash crop supporting many a small farmer, whose wife often found seasonal employment on the assembly lines of the canning plant. Today there are only a few tenacious potato farmers left, so the 8th annual Yellow Leaf Arts Festival on Saturday and Sunday, October 30 and 31, from 10 to 5 in historic downtown St. Francisville’s Parker Park, pays tribute to the past significance of this staple crop in a region whose economics and way of life were once completely dependent on agriculture.

It was in the early 1940s that Harry Daniel teamed with the LSU Horticulture Department to initiate commercial sweet potato production in the St. Francisville area, where the rich soil proved perfect for the cultivation of yams that were sold locally to Princeville Canning Company, which was replaced by Joan of Arc. Big farm operations like the Daniel family planted over a thousand acres and employed a hundred workers, and small farmers contracted with the cannery for the yield on smaller plots which were often worked with mules. When the local packing houses and cannery were in full operation, at least 2500 acres in the St. Francisville area were planted in sweet potatoes, with seed potatoes set out in early spring to produce the slips planted in early summer and harvested in early fall.

Yes, the Yellow Leaf Arts Festival will feature artists, more than 50 of them, but a special adjunct this year will be the mini-Sweet Potato Festival, with 40-pound crates of freshly harvested potatoes, a bake sale offering a nostalgic taste of sweet potato dishes like fries and muffins and casseroles and the pies without which no holiday dinner would be complete, even a couple of real live oldtimers reminiscing about growing this crop back in the fifties. There will also be a booth featuring sweet potato creations---culinary or craft---with everyone encouraged to bring anything made with a sweet potato, and there might even be a giant sweet potato strolling the grounds. This mini-fest is the brainchild of hardworking Jerry Landrum, who still grows Beauregard, Evangeline and Puerto Rican sweet potatoes as well as tomatoes and all the other row crops that make him a popular fixture at the local farmers’ market.

But just as the fertile fields nourished the potato crop, so the scenic landscapes of the St. Francisville area have nurtured artists of all stripes, beginning in the 1820s when artist-natural John James Audubon was so inspired by the natural beauties of the region that he painted a number of his Birds of America studies while tutoring the daughter of the plantation family at Oakley. This year’s Yellow Leaf Arts Festival brings together more than 50 artists and craftsmen showcasing their artworks.

Demonstrating in the Gazebo will be this year’s featured artist Murrell Butler, nationally recognized wildlife and landscape painter whose exacting detail and keen eye, natural talent and long years of naturalist studies give rise to comparisons of his wonderful works with those of Audubon. Of course scenes from his native Louisiana have long inspired this homegrown artist, but lately travels through the southwest and down into South and Central America have broadened his interests and have led to large landscapes featuring such scenes as an Ecuadoran volcano and the brilliantly colored toucans and other birds of the Rainforest. Butler will have prints and originals on display for the festival, which this year has the theme “Louisiana Wildlife.”

Other artists displaying their works at this festival sponsored by the local Arts For All organization, with support from the Bank of St. Francisville and St. Francisville Main Street, include painters Lyn Lokey and Martha Singer, Lisa Horn, Jane Dedon, Dody Sandifer, A.J. Spinks, Julie Kraft, Jo Busse, Kathy Chasee, and folk artist Deborah McNeal; potters Dee Lewis, Rocky Broome, Susan Rodrigue, Craig Roth, Barry and Terry Galloway; jewelry designers Catherine Rouchon, Lynette Costanza, Vero Orsinger, Lisa Lapeyrouse, Teresa Bass Lambert, Karuna Spoon, Becky Baker, Judy Tanner; candlemakers Camp Topisaw and Connie Dubois; furniture maker Wendell Dietz. There will also be wooden bowls from Dunbar McCurley and Lambert Louviere; birdhouses made by Tommy Myers and Joe and Doris Arabie; clothing and fabric art by Suzanne Holland, Debbie Ardoin, Ze and Courtney Huff; crafts by Henrietta Addison; owls by Chris Roldan; mobiles by Carolyn Weir; Margie Blake’s art glass; and Salongo Lee’s photographs. Also participating will be Holly Shoemake’s girl scout troop, the youth group from Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Voices in Motion singing at 11 and an impromptu acoustic song circle at 3.

As if this were not enough, new this year will be another adjunct to the Yellow Leaf Arts Festival, just across the intersection, where the first Magnolia Faux Blood Music Festival at the picturesque 3-V Tourist Court will feature such popular performers as internationally known roots-rock artist Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express at Magnolia Café Saturday evening, with Jace Everett sitting in with the band and Lee Barber opening. On Sunday Darryl Hance’s three-piece blues rock band opens at 11 a.m., followed by the Texas old-school country swing band of Mike Stinson, then the roots-rock country sounds of Bill Davis and another performance by Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express. Jace Everett closes the evening with country songs. While the Yellow Leaf Arts Festival and Sweet Potato Celebration are both open free of charge, the Mag Music Festival charges admission, $20 single day, $30 two-day pass.

The month of October is filled with a huge variety of other activities and events as well. On Friday, October 15, and Saturday, October 16, the twenty-second annual Southern Garden Symposium presents a series of workshops bringing in gardening enthusiasts from across the South to bask in the beauties of the glorious antebellum gardens for which the St. Francisville area is justly famous. Programs feature hands-on demonstrations and talks on such widely divergent subjects as the preservation of the Rosedown Gardens and the botanical secrets of the Amazon Rainforest, plus lunch at Afton Villa Gardens, tea at The Cabildo, and Friday evening Speaker’s Gala at The Oaks. For information see www.SouthernGardenSymposium.or or call 225-635-3738.

The active St. Francisville Main Street program gets everyone into the Halloween spirit on Friday, October 22, in oak-shaded Parker Park, beginning at 5:30 p.m. with fun children’s pumpkin decorating followed at dark by the Movie Under the Stars called Monsters vs. Aliens; bring lawnchairs and blankets. Pumpkins will be provided, but you can get more at the Farmer’s Market on Thursday and Saturday mornings all month, as well as at the Klein Farms Pumpkin Patch on LA 965. This is fitting prelude to Friday, October 29, Saturday, October 30, and Sunday, October 31, when the Myrtles Plantation hosts its chilling Halloween extravaganza through a spooky historic house called one of America’s most haunted. The Audubon State Historic Site also observes the holiday on October 29 with an All Hallows Eve interactive program on Halloween superstitions and traditions of the 1800s, while the Rosedown Plantation State Historic site dons mourning garb to recreate a family funeral of the early 19th century.

And there’s more! Every Sunday in October the Louisiana State Penitentiary on LA 66 at Angola puts on “The Wildest Show in the South,” with prisoner hobbycraft sales, tons of food, and hair-raising rodeo events guaranteed to be unlike any you’ve ever seen at any other rodeo. Other than the ladies’ barrel racing, all rodeo participants are inmates in this enormous maximum-security prison. The covered arena seats over 10,000 and fills up every Sunday; with road construction along US Highway 61, visitors should pack plenty of patience to cope with traffic congestion. Grounds open at 9 for the arts and crafts, and the fascinating state museum at the entrance gate will also be open. 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 prison property.

While October generally offers the most pleasant weather, St. Francisville is a year-round tourist destination area featuring a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

ANIMALS Remind of St. Francisville’s History

2010-09-24T02:04:00.000-05:00

ANIMALS Remind of St. Francisville’s History
By Anne Butler
Since the dawn of history, animals have played vital roles in the development of civilization, as food and furs, as beasts of burden, as comrades and pets. Imagine the early colonists, if you will, enduring months-long ocean voyages in cramped quarters with the fowl and pigs and goats they needed to start a new life in a new world (remind anyone of their last cruise??), or the conquistadors with their warhorses and cattle that became the ancestors of many of our wild mustangs and longhorns. Not only in peacetime did animals contribute; the National World War II Museum in New Orleans currently has an exhibit saluting the four-legged and feathered friends’ significant security roles in campaigns on the Home Front and across the European Theater as well.

A turkey named Gus welcomes visitors to the museum at Audubon State Historic Site.

Today animals continue to contribute in unique ways as visitors are welcomed to the St. Francisville, LA, area, especially on the historic plantations open for daily tours, where costumed human hosts often find themselves upstaged. This is especially so at the Oakley house, center of the Audubon State Historic Site. In a beautifully preserved pastoral setting where artist-naturalist John James Audubon painted many of his Birds of America studies in 1821, it is particularly fitting that the Wal-Mart greeter is a gregarious gobbler named Gus. Discovered as a feathered foundling abandoned at the front gate, Gus is a gorgeous broadbreasted bronze turkey who serves as the unofficial mascot of the historic site, welcoming guests in front of the museum in friendly fashion. Visitors, say site managers, “either love him or freak out,” but Gus is the most photographed icon at Oakley. Other animals on-site include a couple of cows named Daisy and Buttercup, some old-fashioned geese and chickens, a peacock and a few cats, giving guests a feel for the farm animals so important in the 19th century; Prissy the pig has unfortunately passed on.

The St. Francisville area’s other major state historic site is gorgeous 1830s Greek Revival Rosedown Plantation, where the emphasis is on the glorious gardens and the only present-day animals are a dozen or so chickens, while the lovely landscaped grounds of nearby Hemingbough are graced by a flock of peacocks, the most popular being an albino one the owner calls, naturally, Whitey.

Farm Animal at Oakley House

Butler Greenwood Plantation, established in the late 1700s by members of the same family in residence today, also boasts a friendly roving peacock called Humphrey, whose colorful tail feathers are much in demand during molting season. Humphrey, typically vain, likes to admire himself in shiny surfaces---car bumpers, French doors, and even the bubble skylights above some of the B&B cottage Jacuzzis, giving bathers a thrill until they realize the preening peacock atop their roof is looking at his own reflection rather than at them. As the only resident peacock, Humphrey is relatively quiet, but on occasion lets out a screech shrill enough that one New Orleans visitor exclaimed, “Oh my God! Is that a gorilla??” Butler Greenwood also has ducks, a friendly dog, and an assortment of outside cats including one whose initial homeliness was compensated for with the elegant name of Eudora Rose and another that is half bobcat.

At historic 1790s Cottage Plantation, guests are greeted by a little yellow Labrador retriever named Tara, unfailingly eager to escort visitors on excursions across the extensive grounds and across the creek into the surrounding unspoiled woodlands. While Tara jumps into the pond to gobble the food thrown to the pet mallard, a previous lab had the strange habit of actually fetching the duck itself out of the water and burying it in the ground with only its head sticking out, quacking for dear life! Just up US 61 above The Cottage, Wakefield Plantation, now a private residence, is surrounded by a picturesque herd of registered longhorn cattle whose lean meat is recommended by the cardiologist-owner as far healthier than other fat-laden beef beloved by less health-conscious consumers today.

Longhorns at Wakefield Plantation

Early Louisiana author Lyle Saxon included in his 1929 book Old Louisiana a description of the hallways at Acadia Plantation where 9 pointers and setters slept until summoned to go hunting. Said Saxon, “All day long there would be growls and yelps as their tails were stepped upon, for it was nearly impossible to go from room to room without stepping on some sleeping animal. But the dogs must have been strangely good-natured, for no one was ever bitten.” Sounds like Catalpa Plantation, where instead of herds of cattle, the soft-hearted owner today has a milling herd of dogs, many of them friendly drop-offs or salvaged strays.

Greenwood Plantation tourists and overnight guests enjoy gazing at the horses and the Beefmaster-mix cattle in the adjacent pastures, and there’s a popular green-eyed black cat named Sam. Nearby, the former Angola Plantation now is the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where there are large herds of beef cattle and horses, some used as mounts for the correctional officers patrolling farm fields as inmates work the crops and others bred to pull the heavy farm wagons and equipment. Among the most popular features of St. Francisville’s annual Christmas parade are Angola’s immense Percherons pulling Santa’s sleigh, coats gleaming and harness bells jingling. Angola’s canine population works, too, with bloodhounds bred to track escapees and also often used to locate lost or missing persons in nearby rural areas; there’s also one very scary-looking wolf-dog.

Mary Thompson of Catalpa Plantation
and one of her several dogs.

Of course at The Myrtles, which bills itself as “America’s most haunted house,” there have been sightings of spirit animals. The longtime tour director recounts stories of a smokey grey cat called Myrt with a disfigured face, who returned after death to haunt the grounds, never showing up in photographs but immediately recognized by return visitors because of the unusual facial characteristics. And then there was the big white dog, remarkably similar to one said to have been owned by a turn-of-the-century resident, spotted by contemporary visitors. Said the tour director, “If the dog had been seen on the grounds, it might have been passed off as one from the neighborhood. But to see it inside in the hallway??? And then it would disappear…”

These resident domestic creatures serve as reminders of the important roles animals played in the early years---the hunting dogs and barn cats and mousers, the sleek coach horses and walking horses carrying plantation owners across their fields, the sturdy stubborn mules pulling plows and farm wagons loaded with cotton or cane, the strong oxen hauling huge trees felled in the forests for building, the dairy and beef cattle providing milk and meat and hides, the practical poultry and more decorative fowl adding beauty to 19th-century landscapes and plumage to decorate ladies’ bonnets, the pigs and goats and sheep and all the other reminders of the days when plantations were self-sufficient entities raising all the necessities of life right on the place.
They serve as perfect introductions to the St. Francisville area, which features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

Peacok at Hemingbough.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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. The month of September features some fun special events in the St. Francisville area, including the popular Vibes in the ‘Ville on Saturday, September 25, filling oak-shaded Parker Park with an afternoon music festival featuring everything from blues to bluegrass, plus a kids’ kazoo parade. That same weekend, the Audubon State Historic Site celebrates the bicentennial of the West Florida Rebellion with military encampments, period crafts, live music, vintage dancing, and lectures by noted scholars. For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com

ST. FRANCISVILLE’S QUIRKY LITTLE BIRDMAN

2010-08-22T05:38:00.001-05:00

by Anne Butler
There’s one in every town, that favored gathering spot where townsfolk come together to hear the news, share joys and sorrows, castigate crooked politicians and, particularly for the lonely, enjoy a therapeutic touch of socialization. These gatherings used to take place around potbellied stoves in old general stores, where whiskered whittlers sat on three-legged stools and told tall tales while the womenfolk crossed creaking wood floors to gossip over bolts of calico or barrels of flour. Today in urban areas, these gathering spots seem to be the ubiquitous but far less atmospheric Starbucks or CC’s.

But in the quaint little 19th-century rivertown of St. Francisville, Louisiana, there’s no question that this significant central role is filled by the colorfully quirky Birdman Books and Coffee, right in the middle of historic uptown and entrenched in the hearts of visitors and residents both young and old.

During the dog days of summer, patrons of the Birdman follow the advice of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.” And indeed this is an unhurried place, a place to ease into the day, a place to give the gift of time and a sympathetic ear to those with burdens or triumphs or special news or knowledge to share. Sit down. Take it easy. Sip your cappuccino or your healing chamomile tea. Savor the experience, savor the repast, savor the conversation. That’s what it’s really all about at Birdman--the conversation, the communion, the coming together of longtime friends and complete strangers. This is the spot to see into the soul of St. Francisville, the heart of the community.

This isn’t a fancy place. It’s cozy, comfortable, welcoming. Owner Lynn Wood is a creative soul, an artist around whom the local creative community coalesces. The walls are hung with original artworks, often her own, and an eclectic collection of books spills from the shelves along with fanciful wooden birdhouses and Lynn’s father’s artfully carved birds. The atmosphere is stimulating. encouraging of intelligent conversation, with tables close enough in proximity so that everyone can join in. Although she is mostly confined behind the counter presiding over the preparations, Lynn Wood calmly watches as the world instead comes to her.

There are regulars like the silver-haired retired banker who consistently holds court at a center table and who once knew everyone worth knowing in state government and high finance, making for interesting chatter as he consumes his customary big breakfast of Birdman’s specialty omelets or sweet potato waffles. Another regular, a retired cattleman and landowner who listens to the BBC on still nights, contributes a wealth of historic detail, for as a child he was unusually attentive to the conversations of surrounding elders now long dead, making him the local expert on off-the-wall genealogy and minutiae.

Twirling on the stools at the counter, by glass display cases filled with scones and baked goods, may be found the town surveyor chatting with a local minister in his favorite porkpie hat, while the elementary school principal sits nearby treating grandchildren to breakfast as a last fling before school starts. Conversations wax and wane as patrons come and go, newcomers joining in as departing customers hand off the responsibility for keeping things going. The town’s most faithful employee, who rain or shine walks a million miles a day keeping the roadsides free of litter, stops in for refreshment, and Lynn often kindly provides a nourishing comp meal to a down-on-his-luck patron in exchange for a quick sweeping of the outside patio where guests are welcome to dine with well-behaved dogs.

From the big fancy financial institution across the street comes the bank VP, who is greeted with kisses by the late longtime ministers’ elderly daughters who get together regularly at Birdman. Tables fill with realtors and lawyers with their laptops jumpstarting busy workdays with a jolt of caffeine and maybe some muffins made with blueberries straight from the local farmers’ market. Power walkers and sweating joggers breeze in for a quick pick-me-up before powering on. Foreign tourists and out-of-state visitors stop in to check the pulse of the town; even strangers can tell at a glance that Birdman is the ideal place to find out what’s happening locally, what’s really happening.

The conversations quiet as the day wears on, with shoppers stopping in for a brief refreshing respite, laden with packages from St. Francisville’s wonderful antiques and gift shops—The Shanty Too, Grandmother’s Buttons, Sage Hill, Hillcrest, Bohemianville Antiques—or art galleries like Backwoods and Harrington’s and the artist’s co-op. Midafternoon the Birdman hosts quiet meetings of movers-and-shakers, perhaps planning tourism events and the many special activities designed to keep St. Francisville one of the state’s top tourist destinations with its historic plantation homes and glorious antebellum gardens open to visitors, plus its unspoiled wilderness recreation areas. After school, kids pop in to chill out with root beer or coke floats and ice cream.

On most Monday evenings Lynn schedules live music with simple suppers, and she’s deeply involved with children’s art projects, community arts market days, and the inclusive Arts For All group. She has a finger in just about every pie, literally, as the sponsor of the much-anticipated Fourth of July Pie Baking Contest, in the spirit of the old-fashioned county fair cook-offs of yesteryear; the most recent event even had an organic category, and proceeds benefit the ongoing restoration of the town’s first public school building.

This warm and welcoming gathering spot provides the perfect introduction to the St. Francisville area, which features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from soul food to Chinese and Mexican cuisine, 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

JULY HOT AS A FIRECRACKER IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

2010-06-16T00:08:00.003-05:00

by Anne Butler

An eloquent document formally severing the colonies’ ties with Great Britain, the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Thomas Jefferson, the architect of much of the document, declared, “May it be to the world…the signal of arousing men to burst the chains…and to assume the blessings and security of self-government…the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion...All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man.”

Thomas Jefferson would die some years later on July 4, a date he hoped would annually “forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.” Also on the committee charged with drafting the document along with Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin was John Adams, who wrote his wife Abigail that he felt that momentous day in July should be “celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival…commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God…pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfire, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

Philadelphia first marked the anniversary on July 4, 1777, with bonfires, bells and fireworks, plus the adjourning of Congress, and this custom soon spread to other towns and cities, especially after the War of 1812. By 1870 Congress had established Independence Day as a national holiday, and over the years it has traditionally been observed with patriotic oratory, political speeches, fireworks, parades, symphonic spectaculars, and lots of baseball games and barbecue.

But imagine, if you can, the fervor with which the day was celebrated by the early residents of the St. Francisville area, center of cotton plantation country settled by Anglos who began descending from the East Coast shortly after the Revolutionary War, a desperate conflict many of them either witnessed or participated in. The early owner of The Cottage Plantation, for example, was the son and nephew of five brothers who served with honor on George Washington’s staff. The son-in-law of the builder of Butler Greenwood Plantation was the son of a valiant young soldier who survived being bayoneted nine times by the British during the revolution, nearly froze during the harsh winter at Valley Forge, and lived to become governor of Georgia. And as for “taxation without representation,” that battlecry of the 13 colonies objecting to King George III’s taxes, it was still resonating with the builder of The Myrtles Plantation when he led the so-called Whiskey Rebellion against new president George Washington’s excise taxes on spirits, the first test of the new nation’s federal powers, and had to escape from Pennsylvania to Spanish territory.

For a number of years the St. Francisville area has celebrated the Fourth of July with fireworks and free hot dogs and cold drinks provided by the Town of St. Francisville and its active Main Street Program (www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisville.net) at the ball fields behind Sonic. In addition to this family-oriented event, gorgeous Greek Revival Greenwood Plantation, off LA 66 north of St. Francisville, hosts its first old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration with free open house from 1 to 4, plus food, games, rides and other activities (www.greenwoodplantation.com) . The Myrtles, on the outskirts of St. Francisville, salutes the members of our armed services on the Fourth (225-245-1525) with Freedom Appreciation Day on the grounds, with children’s activities, free hot dogs, soft drinks, chips, and great live music from local favorites Emily Branton, Nancy Ropollo and the Angola Prison Band. Participants are requested to wear red, white or blue, and to bring lawn chairs or blankets and photos of servicemen for a Tribute Table.

Another favorite event in the St. Francisville area in July is the annual Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration, held Friday and Saturday, the 30 and 31st. Birding celebrations are particularly appropriate in this area that harbors such a huge population of both resident and migratory birdlife, just as it has since the 1820s when artist-naturalist John James Audubon was so spellbound by the abundant flora and fauna that he painted some 80 of his Birds of America around St. Francisville. The event, sponsored by the Feliciana Nature Society, highlights the unique hummingbird breeding habitat that entices ruby-throats to linger awhile in the months between late March and early September as they migrate from South and Central America up to Canada. Friday evening’s entertainment begins with a 6 p.m. wine and cheese reception in the 27-acre spectacular gardens of Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site. The evening’s featured speaker is Andre Brock, whose degrees are from LSU in Animal, Dairy and Poultry Science (BS) and in Horticulture (MS). Now serving the St. Francisville area as 4-H Agent and Assistant County Agent, he will present a program on gardening to attract hummingbirds.

On Saturday, July 31, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., the festival continues at two private gardens, where vendors will offer hummingbird-attractive plants and where hummingbird biologists Linda Beall and Nancy Newfield will capture and band birds, giving visitors the rare opportunity to observe the tiny creatures up close as they are being weighed and measured. The banding sites are the homes of Carlisle Rogillio on Tunica Trace and artist Murrell Butler on Oak Hill Road, both of which usually attract dozens of hummingbirds. A small fee is charged for both events. For more information, visit www.audubonbirdfest.com or call 800-488-6502.

The St. Francisville area features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

THE DAY THE WAR STOPPED — IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

2010-05-14T15:01:00.006-05:00

by Anne Butler
Up the steep hill they trudged, sweating in the sticky June heat, staggering under the weight of the simple wooden coffin, the white flag of truce flying before them in the hot summer sun. The guns of their federal gunboat, the USS Albatross, anchored in the Mississippi off Bayou Sara, were silent behind them as a small party of officers struggled toward St. Francisville atop the hill.

The procession was not an impressive one, certainly not an unusual event in the midst of a bloody war, and it would no doubt have escaped all notice but for one fact--this was the day the war stopped, if only for a few mournful moments, and the lovely little rivertown of St. Francisville invites the public to join in commemorating the events 147 years ago on the weekend of June 11-13.

In June 1863, the Siege of Port Hudson was pitting 30,000 Union troops under Major General Nathaniel P. Banks against 6,800 weary Confederates under Major General Franklin Gardner, fighting over the all-important control of traffic on the Mississippi River. Port Hudson and Vicksburg were the only rebel strongholds left along the Mississippi, and if the Union forces could wrest from them control of the river traffic, they could cut off supplies from the west and completely surround the Confederacy. Admiral David Farragut had attempted to destroy Confederate cannons atop the bluffs from the river, but of his seven ships, four were turned back, one was completely destroyed, and only his flagship and the USS Albatross passed upriver safely, leaving ground troops to fight it out for nearly another month.
Lt. Commander John E. Hart, the federal commander of the Albatross, had just the week before posted a touching letter to his wife, left behind with their young son Elliott in Schenectady, New York. Praising his little boat for getting through the fearsome firing from the batteries atop the bluffs at Port Hudson, Commander Hart promises after the war to take his wife on a trip down the river to see the famous battlefields. As he writes he can hear the cannons booming to the south, but his attentions are on more immediate matters…how many blackberries his crew have had to eat lately, and how when a “jolly good cow” is spotted, he sends a sailor ashore with a pail, chuckling how some rebel farm folk will be surprised when “old Brindle comes home at night and ain’t got no milk for them”…how hot it is, and how long since he has seen ice, and how he would love a glass of cool claret and water.
Even in the midst of war, there are mundane little touches of life scattered through the letter from Hart to his beloved wife…the mockingbirds singing around the boat, the little puppy he’d put ashore at Plaquemine to be raised, the shipboard litter of kittens. After perilously running through the Grand Gulf batteries on the river to the north, Hart writes that the Admiral signalled, “How many killed?” And he answered none. The Admiral signalled, “How many wounded?” And he answered none. And just then Kitty, ship’s mouser, produced kittens which Hart insisted become part of the official report…important to note the wartime births as well as the all-too-frequent deaths.
A respected naval officer and graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Commander Hart would have even more lasting impact through his death, which occurred at 4:15 p.m. on June 11, 1863, in the captain’s stateroom as the Albatross patrolled the waters of the Mississippi River near Bayou Sara, just below St. Francisville. Masonic and naval records list Hart as having “suicided,” died by his own hand “in a fit of delirium.” It had been surmised that perhaps he suffered from dementia induced by yellow fever, for a mere four days earlier his cheerful letter home hardly seemed to exhibit despair, but the surgeon’s log implicates debilitating dyspepsia, perhaps combined with depression. The note left behind by the commander, in those days before antacids and little purple pills to ease the pain of gastric reflux disease, lamented, “God knows my suffering.”
Hart was a Mason, and aboard his ship were other officers also “members of the Craft,” desirous of burying their commander ashore rather than consigning the remains to the river waters, especially since a metallic coffin which might have contained the body for safe shipment home to New York could not be found. A boat was sent from the Albatross under flag of truce to ascertain if there were any Masons in the town of St. Francisville. It just so happened that the two White brothers, Samuel and Benjamin, living near the river were Masons from Indiana. They informed the little delegation that there was indeed a Masonic lodge in the town, in fact one of the oldest in the state, Feliciana Lodge No. 31 F and AM. Its Grand Master was absent serving in the Confederate Army, but its Senior Warden, W. W. Leake, whose “headquarters were in the saddle,” was home on furlough and was soon persuaded to honor the request. As a soldier, Leake reportedly said, he considered it his duty to permit burial of a deceased member of the armed forces of any government, even one presently at war with his own, and as a Mason, he knew it to be his duty to accord Masonic burial to the remains of a brother Mason without taking into account the nature of their relations in the outer world
The surgeon and officers of the USS Albatross, struggling up from the river with Hart’s body followed by a squad of Marines at trail arms, were met by W. W. Leake, the White brothers, and a few other members of the Masonic lodge. They were greeted at Grace Episcopal Church by the Reverend Mr. Daniel S. Lewis, rector, and with full Episcopal and Masonic services, Commander John E. Hart was laid to rest on June 12, 1863, in the Masonic burial plot in Grace’s peaceful cemetery, respect being paid by Union and Confederate soldiers alike. And soon the war resumed, Lee’s northern invasion turned back at Gettysburg July 3, Vicksburg falling July 4, and Port Hudson finally surrendering July 9, all in one catastrophic week.
But for one brief touching moment, the war had stopped at St. Francisville, and this moment will be marked the weekend of June 11, 12 and 13. The commemorative events begin on Friday, June 11, at 7 p.m., with graveside histories in the peaceful oak-shaded cemetery at Grace Church, where Commander Hart’s grave is marked by a marble slab and monument “in loving tribute to the universality of Free Masonry.” Over the years it was decorated with flowers by members of the Daughters of the Confederacy. W.W. Leake in 1912 was buried nearby after a long and honorable career as state senator, parish judge and bank president. An Open House and presentation of lodge history at the double-galleried Masonic Lodge just across Ferdinand St. from the graveyard follows at 8 p.m. Friday evening.
On Saturday, June 12, a lively parade travels along St. Francisville’s historic main street beginning at 11 a.m., followed by lunch at the Masonic Lodge from 11 to 12:30. Visitors will be pleasantly transported back in time during the afternoon, as Grace Church’s parish hall is the setting for a concert of antebellum period music and graceful vintage dancing from 11:30 to 1:30.
At 1:30 commences the very moving dramatic presentation showing Commander Hart’s young wife in New York as she reads his last letter to their small son and then receives the terrible news of his death. This is followed by the re-enactment of the burial of Hart, with re-enactors in the dignified rites clad in Civil War uniforms accurate down to the last button and worn brogan. Taking leading roles in this ritual, amazingly, are W.W.Leake’s great-great-grandson Robert S. Leake, as well as Frank Karwowski, member of Commander Hart’s Masonic lodge, St. George’s in Schnectady, New York, and Shirley Ditloff who now operates a popular B&B in W.W. Leake’s Royal St. townhouse.
During the afternoon on Saturday, Oakley Plantation in the Audubon State Historic Site offers special related programs, including a Civil War encampment, complete with tents and authentically clad re-enactors, plus black powder and musket demonstrations from 2:30 to 5. From 6 to 8 p.m. costumed dancers perform stylish dances popular during the Civil War period, and Oakley House, which is never lovelier than by candlelight, opens for special evening tours.
On Sunday, June 13, Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site from 1 to 3 presents a program on Civil War medical techniques and their all-too-often conclusion, period burial customs. At Oakley, a 1 p.m. talk focuses on Jefferson Davis’ young bride, Sarah Knox Taylor Davis, daughter of President Zachary Taylor, who succumbed to yellow fever on their honeymoon visit to his sister’s plantation in West Feliciana. This will be followed by a Civil War demonstration from 2 to 4 p.m.
All of these activities are free and open to the public. Among sponsors are St. Francisville Overnight! (Bed & Breakfasts of the area), the Feliciana Lodge No. 31 F and AM, Grace Episcopal Church, and St. Francisville Main Street.
The St. Francisville area features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs. The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are unique specialty shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed and 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 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar for June gives dates and information on special activities, including the monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com. For additional information and a complete, updated schedule for The Day The War Stopped, see www.daythewarstopped.net.

PHOENIX GREENWOOD PLANTATION—ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA,

2010-04-29T22:20:00.022-05:00

by Anne Butler

Greenwood Burning

It was a dark and stormy night. Really, it was. When lightning struck the uppermost corner of glorious Greek Revival Greenwood Plantation near St. Francisville on the night of August 1, 1960, the first awareness of the impending tragedy came from a glimpse of the glow of flames in the reflecting pond. And by the time help arrived, the fire had lit up the night so brilliantly, according to one eyewitness, that it was possible to read a book in the glare.

Laurie Fisher, 15 at the time, lived just across the road from Greenwood. He vividly remembers that a rare and violent cool front passed through that evening, with the worst lightning he’d ever seen in his life. “Lightning struck all over that Greenwood hill,” he recalls. He had been clipping pastures, but hurriedly drove in from the field, turned on a heater and pulled his big 12-pound cat onto his lap to warm up.

Laurie Fisher 50yrs later.

Laurie’s aunt and uncle, Naomi F. and Frank Percy, had purchased Greenwood in the early 1900s from the Reed family, restoring the magnificent home and sharing it with the public for tours, magazine features, even as a setting for movies like Drango. The house was called the finest example of Greek Revival architecture in the South, nearly 100 feet square and completely surrounded by 28 Doric columns of slave-made brick supporting a solid copper roof topped by a belvedere from which the Mississippi River was visible.

The evening of August 1, the elderly Percys were enjoying a visit from a young grandson, Jimmy Lathrop. He would be the first to spot the reflection of the flames in the pond and sound the alarm.

Headlines Local Newspaper

Greenwood Today

Word spread quickly. By the time the old two-ton 1953 Chevy firetruck lumbered out from St. Francisville, neighbors and relatives had rushed over to help salvage what furnishings they could. Crowds of spectators clogged the narrow country lanes, and the ground was so rain-soaked that the heavy firetruck quickly got stuck. Laurie was sent home to unhook the cutter from his tractor so he could pull the firetruck out of the pond. The heat from the flames, he recalls, was so intense that the firefighters faced an impossible task, with the hollow cypress walls acting like flues to accelerate the destruction.

By morning, there was nothing left of Greenwood but the brick columns and several forlorn chimneys stark against the sky. Laurie says the embers from the fire stayed hot for 10 whole days. “We never felt the world was the same after such an enormous tragedy,” he says today, his voice still tinged with sadness.

Only the Columns Remained after the 1960 Fire

Little did he know that Greenwood would rise from the ashes like the phoenix to become one of the St. Francisville area’s most appealing tourist destinations once again. After languishing untouched (but never unloved) for nearly a decade, the romantic beauty of the ruins resonated with the late Baton Rouge attorney Walton Barnes and his son, Richard. They purchased the house site and 300 surrounding acres in 1968, determined to return Greenwood to its antebellum glory days, when builder William Ruffin Barrow engaged prominent architect James Coulter to build a fine home on family property that would eventually grow to 12,000 acres for the cultivation of first cotton and then sugarcane.

Guided by vintage films and photographs, tattered magazine features and fading family recollections, the Barnes spent some 20 years reconstructing the home as close as possible to the original. Today it once again welcomes visitors for tours, overnight stays in a detached B&B structure across the reflecting pond, corporate workshops and functions, beautiful weddings and social events. Hollywood has returned as well, with such films as Louisiana, both parts of North and South, and Sister, Sister using Greenwood as a setting for memorable scenes.

Costumed Hostesses

Greenwood is but one of six plantations making the St. Francisville area (on US Highway 61 between Baton Rouge and Natchez) a year-round tourist destination. Besides Greenwood, Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, Butler Greenwood, The Cottage and The Myrtles—are open for daily tours, and Afton Villa Gardens opens seasonally. There are unique little shops in restored historic structures, and reasonably priced meals are available in a nice array of restaurants in St. Francisville. Some of the state's most unique Bed and Breakfasts offer overnight accommodations ranging from golf clubs and lakeside resorts to historic townhouses and country plantations; modern motel facilities can accommodate busloads. The scenic unspoiled Tunica Hills region surrounding St. Francisville offers excellent biking, hiking, birding, horseback riding and other recreational activities. The month of May is filled with special events, from a Memorial Day weekend cycling classic to a simple garden stroll, from community market day in the park to nature walks and living history demonstrations at state historic sites, and even a performance by the Baton Rouge Symphony (check the events calendar on the West Feliciana Tourist Commission website at www.stfrancisville.us). This is also the site for online coverage of tourist facilities and attractions in the St. Francisville area; see www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvilleovernight.com, or telephone (225) 635-3873 or 635-4224.

The Cottage Plantation one of Feliciana’s earliest

2010-03-30T02:41:00.004-05:00

The Cottage Plantation one of Feliciana’s earliest

By Anne Butler

Its name hints at a rustic simplicity, and indeed this early plantation house was constructed long before the popularity of southern Greek Revival grandeur or Victorian flamboyance. Today one of six historic plantations that draw tourists to the St. Francisville area, The Cottage exhibits instead a sensible sturdiness, and for nearly 150 years it housed the sensible sturdy members of a single family.

In late 1810 or early 1811, shortly after the West Florida Rebellion ousted the Spanish in the area, Judge Thomas Butler purchased lands along Alexander’s Creek granted in the mid-1790s by Baron de Carondelet to John Allen and Patrick Holland. Named by Governor William C.C. Claiborne the first judge of the Feliciana parishes in 1812 after Louisiana became a state, Judge Butler was elected in 1818 to represent the area in the United State Congress, though he found in Washington “nothing like the agreeable social society we have in Louisiana.”

He came from a long line of distinguished military heroes descended from the Irish Dukes of Ormond. His father and four uncles, several under age 17 at war’s onset, fought valiantly on the American side in the Revolutionary War, gaining high rank and a toast from George Washington, with whom they endured the harsh winter of 1777-8 at Valley Forge. General Lafayette also commended the brothers’ bravery, saying, “When I wish a thing well done, I have a Butler do it.”

These brothers also fought in the subsequent Indian Wars, during which Major General Richard Butler, second in command of the US Army, was mortally wounded, tomahawked, scalped, and his heart was eaten by the redskins, while Col. Thomas Butler, father of the judge, was shot through both legs but was saved by a third brother. This same Col. Butler later gained notoriety for stubbornly resisting the famous “roundhead order” issued by General Wilkinson forbidding the wearing of a “queue,” the long pigtail favored by Anglo aristocracy and colonial army officers. After much anguished correspondence with his dear friend Andrew Jackson, the colonel was still under order of courtmartial for resisting what he considered an “arbitrary infraction of his natural rights” when he perished of yellow fever in 1805 in New Orleans, and it was said a hole was cut in the bottom of his coffin so that his queue might hang out in defiance.

Col. Thomas Butler had six children, the oldest being his namesake, born in 1785. Judge Thomas Butler, descending south from Pennsylvania, in 1810 was commissioned a captain in the cavalry of the Militia of the Mississippi Territory, purchased The Cottage soon afterward, and married Ann Madeline Ellis of Natchez in 1813. Together they had a dozen children, expanding the simple early cottage structure to accommodate them, and the judge’s letters to his beloved wife during absences on court duties or in Congress often begged her to “kiss my dear sweet children for me and make them often think of me.” Well educated and well travelled, the family maintained a cultured lifestyle as Judge Butler increased his landholdings to include several sugar plantations in Terrebonne Parish.
The children married into other distinguished plantations families---the Stirlings, the Minors, the Forts, even the family of Andrew and Rachel Jackson. The sons and cousins fought at the Battle of New Orleans with General Jackson, who made an extended visit to The Cottage on his way back to Tennessee, for Judge Butler’s brother was the general’s chief of staff.

The family military prowess continued during the Civil War. Judge Butler’s son Robert Ormond Butler, a Yale-educated physician born in 1832 who studied medicine in Paris, served as Surgeon in Chief under Confederate Brig. Gen. Pratt. He referred in correspondence to the Union troops as “villainous vandals,” describing a heartbreaking midnight march down the Mississippi River below Baton Rouge as “one continued scene of desolation and sadness, nearly every place plundered even to the huts of the poorest creoles, large plantations deserted not a living thing to be seen, the river once so teeming with life and gladness flowing by us as swiftly and silently as that stream said to flow to eternity.”

Dr. Butler’s children and grandchildren were the last generations of Butlers to occupy The Cottage. His daughter Louise, who never married, was a writer and historian of some note, whose published pieces in early Louisiana Historical Quarterlies captured the very soul of southern plantation life in the nineteenth century. When The Cottage was sold by the Butler family in the 1950s, an effort was made to preserve other vivid images of life in the early days through the donation of priceless vintage books to the LSU Library, significant correspondence and records to the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection at LSU, and an incredible collection of early 19th-c. garments to the university’s Textile & Costume Museum. Even portions of the once-extensive gardens surrounding The Cottage were shared, with one enormous white azalea more than 100 feet in circumference shipped by railroad flatcar to Houston.

Today The Cottage, long and rambling, peacefully presides with unpretentious charm atop a bluff overlooking Alexander’s Creek, the multitude of French doors opening from the long front gallery admitting cooling breezes and the huge live oaks providing plenty of shade. To the rear, one of the state’s most extensive and fascinating groupings of original plantation dependencies--the judge’s office/schoolroom, smokehouse, saddle room, commissary, kitchen/laundry, dairy and well house, greenhouses, carriage house with Judge Butler’s Philadelphia-made 1820 carriage, slave quarters used in filming The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, brick-walled family cemetery--collectively provide a clear picture of life on functioning plantation communities of the early 19th century.
Now occupied by Harvey and Mary Brown, its present-day economic viability stems from tourism, and visiting writers wax eloquent about The Cottage as a state of mind, its antebellum ambience evoking the serenity of a bygone era. When The Cottage was purchased in the fifties by Harvey’s uncle J.E. and Eudora Brown of Chicago, a number of improvements were effected, including an inside kitchen, swimming pool, and raised automobile bridge over the creek to replace a scary hanging footbridge and low-water ford. Mr. Brown was an innovative inventor and pioneer in the television industry, but both he and his wife threw themselves wholeheartedly into community preservation efforts by opening The Cottage for tours and Bed & Breakfast in rooms with fine four-poster beds and morning demitasse served on a silver tray before guests are called to a hearty plantation breakfast in the antique-filled dining room. The Cottage was the first B&B to open in the St. Francisville area, and remains one of the most popular.

With six plantations—Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, Butler Greenwood, The Cottage, The Myrtles and Greenwood--open for daily tours, and Afton Villa Gardens open seasonally, the St. Francisville area (located on US Highway 61 between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS) is a year-round tourist destination. There are unique little shops in restored historic structures, and reasonably priced meals are available in a nice array of restaurants in St. Francisville. Some of the state's most unique Bed and Breakfasts offer overnight accommodations ranging from golf clubs and lakeside resorts to historic townhouses and country plantations; modern motel facilities can accommodate busloads. The scenic unspoiled Tunica Hills region surrounding St. Francisville offers excellent biking, hiking, birding, horseback riding and other recreational activities. For online coverage of tourist facilities, attractions and events in the St. Francisville area, see www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvilleovernight.com, or telephone (225) 635-3873 or 635-4224.

Butler Greenwood - Audubon Pilgrimage

2010-02-13T02:39:00.000-06:00

BUTLER GREENWOOD PLANTATION ONE OF FEATURES ON ANNUAL AUDUBON PILGRIMAGE IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

By Anne Butler

Samuel Flower was one of the earliest English settlers in the St. Francisville area, a Quaker physician who emigrated from Pennsylvania in the 1770’s when the area was British territory; later, when Spain gained control, he treated Governor Manuel Gayoso. When Dr. Flower died in 1813, his eight heirs would divide thousands of arpents of land in the Felicianas, Rapides Parish, along Bayou Manchac, and in the Mississippi Territory. The family residence bordering Bayou Sara, appraised in the estate division at $12,300, was left to Dr. Flower’s 20-year-old married daughter Harriett. Now known as Butler Greenwood Plantation, the property is still owned and occupied by direct descendants of the original family and will be one of the featured tour homes on the Audubon Pilgrimage March 19, 20 and 21, 2010, as the West Feliciana Historical Society opens the doors to antebellum mansions and glorious gardens in celebration of artist John James Audubon’s stay in the parish in 1821.

This 39th annual pilgrimage, the major fundraiser supporting society preservation projects, also marks the bicentennial celebration of the West Florida Republic, whereby the Anglo-American settlers wrested the area from Spanish control to belatedly join the United States in the winter of 1810. Harriett Flower’s husband, Judge George Mathews, was a superior court judge in the Mississippi Territory and then the Territory of Orleans, appointed by President Jefferson, and would become the chief justice of the Louisiana State Supreme Court once Louisiana became a state in 1812. His father, General George Mathews, was a Revolutionary War hero who survived being bayoneted nine times to become a US Congressman and governor of Georgia, and during the international political wrangling over just where the eastern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase might be, he was sent by President Madison to Mobile and St. Augustine to keep an eye on the situation and maybe even foment a rebellion there in hopes of annexing to the United States all of East Florida as well as West.

Harriett and George Mathews lived at Butler Greenwood and raised indigo, cotton, sugarcane and corn, shipping the crops from their own dock on Bayou Sara and extending their landholdings to include a productive sugar plantation in Lafourche Parish that, according to Lewis Gray’s figures, placed them among the top 9% of sugar planters in the state in the 1850’s. After the death of Judge Mathews in 1836, his widow continued to run the plantations with help from her son Charles.

In the census of 1860, both Harriett and her son list their occupations as “planter,” their household including Charles’ wife Penelope Stewart, their children, an Austrian music teacher and an Irish gardener, with 96 slaves living in 18 dwellings and their personal estate valued at $260,000. In that year the 1400 acres of Butler Greenwood Plantation produced 130 bales of cotton, 2000 bushels of corn, 175 hogsheads of sugar and more than 10,000 gallons of molasses. Their other plantations covered nearly 10,000 acres worked by some 400 slaves and were equally productive in 1860, although after the Civil War the labor force had fallen to a field gang of only 27 freedmen working for monthly wages on the home place.

Now the home of the seventh and eighth generation of the family, Butler Greenwood is a simple, raised cottage-style plantation home filled with family treasures—oil portraits, Brussels carpet, gilded pier mirrors, Mallard poster beds, fine china and silverware, a French Pleyel grand piano, and the area’s finest original Victorian formal parlor, its twelve matching pieces still in the original upholstery. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979, the house is surrounded by extensive groves of live oaks and formal gardens filled with ancient camellias and sasanquas, sweet olive and magnolia fuscata grown to immense size. The original detached brick kitchen dates from the 1790’s, the finely trimmed garden gazebo from the 1850’s.

Other features of the 2010 Audubon Pilgrimage include historic townhouses (the recently beautifully reclaimed Cabildo and the Barrow House), Laurel Hill Plantation which has also been recently restored, glorious Afton Villa Gardens, Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, three 19th-century churches as well as the Rural Homestead with its lively demonstrations of the rustic skills of daily pioneer life. Tour hostesses are clad in the exquisitely detailed costumes of the 1820’s, nationally recognized for their authenticity.

The National Register-listed historic district around Royal Street is filled during the day with costumed children playing nostalgic games 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, lingering stroll. Friday evening features old-time Hymn Signing at the United Methodist Church, Graveyard Tours raising the dead to tell their stories at Grace Episcopal Church cemetery, and a wine and cheese reception at the West Feliciana Historical Society museum/pilgrimage headquarters. Saturday evening features dinner al fresco and dancing to live music. For tickets and tour information, contact the West Feliciana Historical Society, P.O. Box 338, St. Francisville, LA 70775; telephone 225-635-6330; online www.audubonpilgrimage.info, email sf@audubonpilgrimage.info.

With six plantations—Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, Butler Greenwood, The Cottage, The Myrtles and Greenwood--open for daily tours, and Afton Villa Gardens open seasonally, the St. Francisville area (located on US Highway 61 between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS) is a year-round tourist destination, but visitors find it especially enjoyable in the early spring when the glorious 19th-century gardens are filled with both camellias and azaleas. There are unique little shops in restored historic structures, and reasonably priced meals are available in a nice array of restaurants in St. Francisville. Some of the state's most unique Bed and Breakfasts offer overnight accommodations ranging from golf clubs and lakeside resorts to historic townhouses and country plantations; modern motel facilities can accommodate busloads. The scenic unspoiled Tunica Hills region surrounding St. Francisville offers excellent biking, hiking, birding, horseback riding and other recreational activities. For online coverage of tourist facilities, attractions and events in the St. Francisville area, see www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvilleovernight.com, or telephone (225) 635-3873 or 635-4224.

Living History - St. Francisville

2010-02-12T18:36:00.000-06:00

LIVING HISTORY REALLY LIVES AT OAKLEY PLANTATION NEAR ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

by Anne Butler
Many restored historic sites glibly promise to make history come alive for visitors, but that feat is easier said than done. One property that does indeed fulfill its promise, with both style and accuracy, is Oakley Plantation in the Audubon State Historic Site just south of St. Francisville, LA. That it can do so, and do it so well, is a testament to the stubborn endurance of the site itself as well as to the present-day stewards’ acute awareness of history.

For one thing, Oakley remained in the multiple generations of the same family for nearly 150 years, its residents wise enough not to embellish its simple elegance with inappropriate modern intrusions, so that this wonderful early home with its sensible West Indies architecture was not turned into a velvet-upholstered chandelier-lit McMansion. The Oakley house thus retained its original character and ambience into the mid-twentieth century, unadulterated by such modern conveniences as electricity or indoor plumbing. The post-Civil War impoverishment of the surrounding rural countryside, its cotton plantations no longer profitable, was another factor that helped protect Oakley’s woodlands from the creeping concrete of industrial development that too often encroaches upon historic sites elsewhere in the name of progress.

After the last descendant with connections to the original family, elderly spinster Lucy Matthews, left Oakley for a nursing home, the house (unpainted and covered with vines following a period of emptiness) and 100 surrounding acres were acquired by the state. This acquisition, for $10,000 in 1947, was thanks to the efforts of the area’s longtime gentleman-statesman, white-maned Representative Davis Folkes, with encouragement from local preservationists—foremost among them the Misses Mamie and Sarah Butler, Mrs. Josie Stirling, Mrs. Rita Poche and her sister Hilda Moss--and the determined ladies of the DAR, who saw to it that the property was properly inventoried, restored and appropriately furnished with fine Federal period pieces.

Another dedicated local state legislator, Rep. Tom McVea, struggled to save Oakley once again during the 2009 legislative session, when funding for historic sites was slashed to the bone; unfortunately, the budget struggle continues this year, with little recognition of the importance of tourism to the region’s faltering economy. Oakley, in fact, for the half-century it has been open to the public, has attracted an international crowd of visitors to the St. Francisville area, primarily due to its 1820s associations with artist-naturalist John James Audubon, whose imagination and admiration were excited by the lush landscape and flourishing birdlife. Though his stay at Oakley was short, Audubon would draw dozens of his ornithological studies there as he undertook the staggering task of painting from life all the birds of America. The artist would draw more birds in Louisiana than in any other place, and even today the birding checklist for the area still includes more than 150 species.

Oakley is always one of the most popular features of the Audubon Pilgrimage, sponsored every spring by the West Feliciana Historical Society as its major fundraiser supporting preservation projects. This year’s tour, March 19, 20 and 21, also marks the bicentennial celebration of the West Florida Republic, culmination of the rebellion whereby the Anglo-American settlers of the Florida Parishes wrested the area from Spanish control to belatedly join Louisiana as part of the United States in the winter of 1810. The first mistress of Oakley Plantation, Lucretia Alston Gray Pirrie, was the sister-in-law of Alexander Stirling, at whose plantation the first organizational meeting of dissidents took place.

The Oakley house, a splendid towering three-story structure with the jalousied galleries that made 19th-century Louisiana summers bearable, was well established by the time Irish-born traveler Fortescue Cuming visited the area in 1809, recording in his travelogue “Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country” a visit to Lucretia and James Pirrie’s plantation, reached via “a good road through a forest abounding with that beautiful and majestick evergreen, the magnolia or American laurel,” the same verdant landscape that would enthrall the artist Audubon a decade later.

Cuming described the countryside as “esteemed as the finest soil, the best cultivated, and inhabited by the most wealthy settlers, of any part of the Mississippi Territory or West Florida…on the whole a charming country,” and Oakley already a fine plantation with a hundred slaves “and the best garden I had yet seen in this country.” Cuming was somewhat less enthralled by local culinary practices, finding gumbo “a most awkward dish for a stranger,” the okra making it “so ropy and slimy as to make it difficult with either knife, spoon or fork, to carry it to the mouth, without the plate and mouth being connected by a long string.”

In 1821 the Pirries hired John James Audubon as tutor and drawing instructor for their young daughter Eliza, and he arrived by steamboat, penniless and with a string of failed business ventures behind him, but rich in talent and dreams. Born in 1785 in Santa Domingo to a French ship captain and his Creole mistress, Audubon was raised in France and sent as a young teen to learn English and a trade in America, arriving in 1803 just as the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country. In 1820 he set out for New Orleans with only his gun, flute, violin, bird books, portfolios of his drawings, chalks, watercolors, drawing papers in a tin box, and a dog-eared journal. The meager living he earned painting portraits in the city made the Pirrie offer particularly appealing.

The artist’s arrangement at Oakley called for him to be paid $60 a month plus room and board, with half of each day free to collect and paint bird specimens from the surrounding woods, where he cut a dashing figure in his long flowing locks and fanciful garb. Audubon viewed his employers with as sharp an eye as he did the subjects of his bird drawings. His 15-year-old pupil Eliza he described in his journals as “of a good form of body, not handsome of face, proud of her wealth and of herself” with “no particular admirers of her beauties, but several very anxious of her fortunes.” Audubon referred to Eliza’s volatile mother Lucretia as “generous…but giving way for want of understanding at times to the force of her violent passions” and her second husband James Pirrie as “when sober, truly a good man.”

Immensely popular as the central focus of the Audubon State Historic Site since it was opened to the public in 1954, Oakley has been beautifully restored and carefully furnished in the sublime understatement of late Federal style, and it is open for tours every day except major holidays. Within its hundred wooded acres are a detached plantation kitchen/weaving room/washroom reconstructed on original foundations, barn full of horse-drawn vehicles and farm implements, and several rustic slave cabins. These dependencies are frequently utilized on weekends to augment the house tour with demonstrations of old-time practical skills: cooking over the coals at the enormous hearth of the outside kitchen, blacksmithing, spinning and weaving, animal husbandry, 19th-century horticultural techniques as demonstrated in the plantation’s formal and kitchen gardens; some of the open-hearth cooking focuses on the slave diet and other programs illustrate what life was like for enslaved laborers on the plantation. Throughout 2010, these special programs and re-enactments will emphasize the period of the West Florida Rebellion and area transition from Spanish colonial rule to statehood two centuries ago.

Oakley has a picnic pavilion and child-friendly hiking trail, a splendid visitor center/museum full of fascinating exhibits, and a gregarious gobbler named Gus who serves the site as Wal-Mart greeter. This state historic site is also blessed with a dedicated staff led by site director John R. House III, whose insistence on absolute accuracy and appropriateness has allowed the historic structure to maintain the simple elegance of its Federal period origins without intrusions by the frills and fancies of subsequent styles.

At Oakley it really IS possible to envision life on the plantation from its earliest days to the tenure of its most famous resident and through subsequent generations of occupancy by Pirrie descendants. The poetic little gem of a book by Danny Heitman, A Summer of Birds, pays tribute to the significant impact Audubon’s stay at Oakley had on his art and subsequent success, quoting ornithologist John O’Neill’s assertions that Oakley is not merely a piece of geography but rather a state of mind, capable of enduring the trials and tribulations of budget cuts and commercial exploitation. Visitors won’t find much sense of Audubon at the local Audubon Library or crossing the new Audubon Bridge or even at the Audubon Liquor Store, but they WILL be able to find his spirit at the state historic site named for him. Says author Heitman, “Audubon’s durable hold on Oakley seems to transcend tourism’s customary promise of history brought to life. His continuing resonance here also issues, one gathers, from the special culture of the Felicianas, an area of Louisiana where the distance between present and past can collapse as casually as the hand fans fluttered by tour guides in plantation homes.” As Heitman says, “Though Audubon left Oakley nearly two centuries ago, it can seem to the visitor as if the renowned artist has just slipped out the door.”

With six plantations—Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, Butler Greenwood, The Cottage, The Myrtles and Greenwood--open for daily tours, and Afton Villa Gardens open seasonally, the St. Francisville area (located on US Highway 61 between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS) is a year-round tourist destination, but visitors find it especially enjoyable in the late winter when the glorious 19th-century gardens are filled with blooming camellias. There are unique little shops in restored historic structures, and reasonably priced meals are available in a nice array of restaurants in St. Francisville. For romantic Valentine’s getaways, some of the state's most unique Bed and Breakfasts offer overnight accommodations ranging from golf clubs and lakeside resorts to historic townhouses and country plantations; a modern motel has facilities to accommodate busloads. The scenic unspoiled Tunica Hills region surrounding St. Francisville offers excellent biking, hiking, birding, horseback riding and other recreational activities. For online coverage of tourist facilities, attractions and events in the St. Francisville area, see www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvilleovernight.com, or telephone (225) 635-3873 or 635-4224.

Jan. 2010 Travel Article

2009-12-30T19:56:00.000-06:00

MURDER MOST FOUL IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LOUISIANA

by Anne Butler

Mayhem, mystery, murder---what is it about misfortune we find so intriguing? Whatever it is, Louisiana’s historic plantations, with morning mists swirling through the live oaks and breezes stirring the Spanish moss, provide the perfect setting for such scenarios. Think of River Road’s Ormond Plantation whose 1790s owner was summoned from the dinner table by a caller dressed as a Spanish official, never to be seen again, and whose subsequent owner was hung from an oak on the front lawn. And among the six historic plantations open for daily tours in St. Francisville, there is The Myrtles, which capitalizes wonderfully on its own woeful past.

Sticklers for historical accuracy might regard as more entertainment than fact the scintillating stories that captivate and terrify tourists on popular weekend mystery tours through a house calling itself the most haunted in America--the slave Chloe wearing a green tignon to cover the ear whacked off as punishment for eavesdropping, the tiny tots poisoned by oleander baked into a birthday cake, the slain soldiers and stabbings over gambling debts, the illicit affairs between master and slave, the disturbed Indian burial mound and the unquiet spirits captured in discolored mirrors.

But the murder at The Myrtles of William Drew Winter, ah, that’s another story altogether, and one well grounded in historical fact. William Winter had been born in Bath, Maine, in 1820, a direct descendent of pilgrim John Alden. His father was a ship captain who drowned when William was 15, and misfortune seemed to follow William all his life.

One fine day in August of 1856, for example, he boarded the steamer Star bound for Last Island, popular with south Louisiana’s plantation families and residents of the Crescent City escaping deadly yellow fever epidemics amidst the healthful sea breezes. Just off the Louisiana coast, Isle Dernier was a fashionable Victorian resort with summer cottages and a small hotel, fine fishing and sea bathing, and broad sand beaches for promenading and carriage riding.

Aboard the Star, attorney William D. Winter approached the island just as Louisiana’s first great hurricane arrived unheralded from the opposite direction. Devastating winds and strong surf inundated the lowlying island from both gulf and bay sides, with houses collapsing and shrieking residents washed out to sea. The crippled Star, its anchor chains snapped, was very nearly swept past the island to perish in gulf waters, but as the captain struggled to dock, the vessel bilged in the sand near the highest point of the island.

One of the heroes of the disaster would be William Winter, who arrived in time to see the collapse of the island hotel where numerous guests and visitors had taken refuge. With his colleague Dr. Jones Lyle, Winter leapt from the foundering steamboat into the raging waters and rushed into the shattered hotel to save scores of men, women and children, leading them to the terrapin pens, sturdy enclosures holding turtles destined for the dining table. Then, during a brief calm in the midst of the storm, the men formed a human chain stretching toward the foundered Star and led their two dozen charges from the neck-deep waters of the terrapin pens to the safety of the boat’s hull.

Winter and Lyle were both known as great gourmets, and at one point during the frantic struggle, as they watched hundred-pound turtles swimming around the trapped survivors and being washed out to sea, Winter wryly commented on how many good dinners were being lost. But in the aftermath of the tragedy, with hundreds of lives lost, an aunt of Winter’s would write that he could not speak of the disaster without tears in his eyes.

William Drew Winter’s first wife died in childbirth. Four years before the Isle Dernier disaster, in June 1852, he married 19-year-old Sarah Mulford Stirling at The Myrtles Plantation, home of her parents, Ruffin Gray Stirling and Mary Catherine Cobb. The Winters would have six children. After the death of Sarah’s father, William served as agent and attorney for his mother-in-law’s extensive properties, including the Myrtles, described in estate partitions as “2300 acres more or less, comprising all the land between Bayou Sara on the West and the Woodville Road on the East, and between lands of Mrs. Harriet Mathews on the North, and lands of D.S. Lewis and others on the South.”

The plantation, originally known as Laurel Grove, had been established in the late 1790s by Judge David Bradford, Pennsylvania attorney who represented Monongahela Valley farmers opposing an excise tax levied on their corn whiskey by US authorities. As one of the ringleaders of the so-called Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, Bradford narrowly escaped with his life to Spanish territory (the St. Francisville area remained under Spanish control until 1810). After his death in 1809, Bradford’s property was occupied by his descendants until 1834 when it was sold, along with improvements and slaves, for $46,853.17 to Ruffin Gray Stirling, father-in-law of William Winter.

The prosperous days of the Cotton Kingdom were ended by the Civil War, and by 1867 William D. Winter had to declare bankruptcy. However, after a tax sale by US Marshalls, the title to The Myrtles was transferred to his wife Sarah, and the family was still in residence on the tragic day in January 1871 when William Drew Winter met his end. Records of Grace Episcopal Church, quoted by expert genealogist Ann Stirling Weller in her meticulously researched book on the Stirling family in West Feliciana, say of William D. Winter, “He was shot at his own door 26 Jan. at half past seven o’clock, M.M. Dillon rector.”

William D. Winter was said to have been teaching a Sunday school class in the front room to the right of the entrance at The Myrtles when he heard someone outside calling his name. He went out onto the broad front gallery with its wrought-iron grillwork, and there he was shot dead. His stunned family inside heard the shooting, followed by the sound of horse’s hooves clattering off into the distance. Family recollections relate that Winter dropped dead where he was shot; later reenactments sweep him, mortally wounded, back into the house, through the gentleman’s and ladies’ parlors and onto the staircase rising from the central hallway, where he expired in his beloved’s arms on exactly the 17th step. Today ghostly steps are said to echo across the wood floors, halting on the fateful 17th stair tread.

William Drew Winter was buried at Grace Church the following day. Recountings of the tragedy blame an unnamed assailant, perhaps harboring a grudge due to the troubles of the turbulent Reconstruction era, when nighttime violence was commonplace and newspaper dispatches mention angry mobs of former slaves armed with torches and guns marching on St. Francisville. But actual newspaper accounts of Winter’s demise refer to the upcoming trial of one E.S. Webber for his murder.

Today The Myrtles makes the most of Winter’s murder and other tragedies on hair-raising mystery tours Friday and Saturday evenings (as well as the very popular spooky Halloween extravaganzas). The house is also open for daily historic tours from 9 to 5. Overnight accommodations are offered in the main house and other structures, and the Carriage House restaurant on the grounds is open daily for lunch and dinner, Sundays for brunch only, and closed Tuesdays. The Myrtles is also a favored venue for weddings and other special events (see www.myrtlesplantation.com).

With five other plantations—Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, Butler Greenwood, The Cottage and Greenwood--open for daily tours as well, and Afton Villa Gardens open seasonally, the St. Francisville area (located on US Highway 61 between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS) is a year-round tourist destination, but visitors find it especially enjoyable in the winter when the glorious 19th-century gardens are filled with blooming camellias. There are unique little shops in restored historic structures, and reasonably priced meals are available in a nice array of restaurants in St. Francisville. Some of the state's most unique Bed and Breakfasts offer overnight accommodations ranging from golf clubs and lakeside resorts to historic townhouses and country plantations; a modern motel has facilities to accommodate busloads. The scenic unspoiled Tunica Hills region surrounding St. Francisville offers excellent biking, hiking, birding, horseback riding and other recreational activities. For online coverage of tourist facilities, attractions and events in the St. Francisville area, see www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvilleovernight.com, or telephone (225) 635-3873 or 635-4224.

December 2009 St. Francisville, La.

2009-11-18T01:45:00.000-06:00

HISTORIC ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA, CELEBRATES CHRISTMAS

by Anne Butler

Christmas in St. Francisville, historically the commercial center of surrounding English Louisiana cotton plantations, was always a magical time. In the 19th century, country folks from miles around would pile into wagons to do their weekly shopping in the little town’s dry-goods emporiums that offerd everything from buggies to coffins, gents’ fine furnishings and ladies’ millinery. And at Christmas time, tiny tots would press their noses against frosted storefront windows to gaze with wishful longing at elegant china dolls and wooden rocking horses. It’s still that way today.

Its location atop bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River brought St. Francisville its earliest settlers, and residents have rejoiced in its fortuitous location ever since. The historic little rivertown’s Christmas in the Country celebration on December 4, 5 and 6, pays tribute to its heritage and showcases its continuing vitality as the center of culture and commerce for the entire surrounding region.

Present residents are a whole lot livelier than the initial ones. Respected historian Elisabeth K. Dart, who has researched and written about the area for half a century, says St. Francisville’s high bluffs led Spanish Capuchin friars from the early French settlement of Pointe Coupee to ferry their dead across the Mississippi for burial on high ground safe from the floodwaters. “In the very early years of the 19th century,” writes Mrs. Dart, “an enterprising American of Anglo descent named John Hunter Johnson bought the tract of land on which the burying ground lay from its legal owner, William Williams, who had held it under a land grant from the Spanish crown since 1796.”

Recorded wills, legal documents, and early plat maps cited in a 1945 Louisiana Historical Quarterly essay on the political career of John H. Johnson’s son Isaac, who became state governor, show John H. as owning most of central St. Francisville (when he died in 1819 “he left a large estate, including all the land now the town of St. Francisville” less those lots already sold by him), and credit has traditionally been given to him along with his brother for founding the town atop the bluffs. This was an entirely separate municipality from the port settlement called Bayou Sara along the riverbanks below, founded a bit earlier by John Mills, who had been a business partner of Johnson’s father.

It was John H. Johnson’s goal, according to historian Dart, “to establish a market town for the surrounding plantations even then producing cotton hauled to the Bayou Sara Landing and then barged to New Orleans for shipment to markets in Europe, and to grow rich from the sale of lots laid out on the same wooded bluffs occupied by the peaceful dead.” Although in 1810 both John H. Johnson and John Mills would help lead the revolution that ousted the inept Spanish regime, at the time Johnson established St. Francisville the area remained under Spanish rule, and the crown had strict requirements that towns be “properly chartered and laid out by the Royal Surveyor in an ordered grid of streets and squares of twelve lots measuring 60x120 feet centered by a public square.”

Johnson, says Mrs. Dart, “Anglo Protestant though he was, called his town after the Roman Catholic saint of the old burying ground, in the tongue of his Spanish overlords, La Villa de San Francisco. Thinking to please further, he called his main street after the Spanish King Ferdinand, and named other streets Royal, Florida, and Prince, crossing these with Fidelity, Prosperity, Prospect, and Feliciana. The street bordering the burying ground he called after his own family name, Johnson.” His little town was laid out atop a loessial bluffland ridge of highly erosive soil, however, and outer perimeter streets soon sloughed off into the gullies.

But lots along the central streets quickly attracted buyers and builders, and many of the little stores and residences they constructed in the very early 1800s still stand, still hosting that unique downtown combination of commercial and residential that allowed St. Francisville to retain its economic vitality long after deteriorating downtowns in other areas had been abandoned. Thanks to dedicated preservationists and an active Main Street program, downtown St. Francisville today is very much alive. And the well-established Christmas in the Country weekend, December 4, 5 and 6, gives the little town the perfect opportunity to strut its stuff.

Millions of tiny white lights trace soaring Victorian trimwork and grace gallery posts to transform the entire town into a veritable winter wonderland for Christmas in the Country, as special activities throughout the National Register-listed downtown Historic District provide fun for the whole family at this safe small-town celebration of the season which has for decades provided a joyful alternative to mall madness. The Saturday parade this year has the theme “Homegrown and Hip,” playing on the little town’s lively and engaging present that is nonetheless firmly rooted in its historic past.

Beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, Santa Claus comes to town to kick off the Lighting Ceremony of the Town Christmas Tree, followed by a public reception and fireworks display at Town Hall hosted by jovial longtime St. Francisville Mayor Billy D'Aquilla and featuring performances by the First Baptist Church Children’s Choir and West Feliciana Middle School Choir. The West Feliciana Parish Hospital is sponsoring a balloon release in recognition of cancer victims and survivors, with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. From 6 to 8, visitors have the rare opportunity to glimpse beautifully decorated interiors of participating houses along Ferdinand and Royal Streets’ Peep Into Our Holiday Homes. The Baton Rouge Symphony presents its annual concert of seasonal selections and dessert reception beginning at 7 p.m. at Hemingbough (the location has been switched from Grace Church, which is undergoing ceiling repairs); tickets are available at the Bank of St. Francisville. In Grace Church’s parish hall, parishioners host an art exhibit called “Saints and Angels” all weekend, with proceeds funding mission work in Honduras.

Saturday, Dec. 5, begins with a 7:30 a.m. Community Prayer Breakfast at United Methodist Church on Royal St., followed by Breakfast with St. Nick for children at Jackson Hall next to Grace Church at 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m., sponsored by the Women’s Service League (reservations recommended; call 225-202-5403). The Women’s Service League also sells fresh wreaths and pre-wrapped Plantation Country Cookbooks all weekend on Ferdinand St. next to the library, with proceeds benefiting local civic and charitable activities.

Throughout the day Saturday there will be children’s activities--spacewalk and obstacle course, train and pony rides, games, pictures with Santa—plus holiday baking contest, Main Street Band (noon to 2), handmade crafts and food vendors in oak-shaded Parker Park. There will also be entertainment in various locations throughout the downtown historic district, featuring choirs, dancers, musicians, and other performers.

The angelic voices of the Bains Lower Elementary children's choir—Voices in Motion-- are raised at the West Feliciana Historical Society Museum on Ferdinand St. at 9:30. The Bain Elementary Chorus sings at the Methodist Church Fellowship Hall at 9:15, followed by West Feliciana High School's very popular Latin and Spanish Clubs (10:30 a.m.) and the high school choir (11). At 11:30 on Ferdinand St. the Junior Jazzercise group puts on a lively show, followed by a Shin Sun Korean Martial Arts demonstration. From 10 to 2 the Sweet Adelines’ Lagniappe Quartet strolls and sings along Ferdinand and Royal Sts., while the Angola Inmate Traveling Band from Louisiana State Penitentiary performs in Garden Symposium Park from noon to 4.

Saturday’s highlight, of course, is the colorful 2 p.m. Christmas parade sponsored by the Women’s Service League, its grand marshall beloved town matriarch Lucille Leake, mother of its popular spring pilgrimage and founder of past Red Cross swimming programs, an energetic 96-year-old who wasn’t about to let a little thing like the loss of a leg slow her down. Dozens of gaily decorated parade floats vie for coveted prizes, accompanied by cheerleaders, bands, marching ROTC units and dancers, even the high school football homecoming court whose own parade got rained out. There will also be bagpipes, vintage cars, and representatives of parish and town law enforcement and fire departments, all flinging plenty of candy. Santa rides resplendent in a magnificent sleigh pulled by Louisiana State Penitentiary's immense prized Percheron draft horses, groomed and gleaming in the sunlight with their sleigh bells jingling.

On Saturday and Sunday, St. Francisville Transitory Theatre presents its quirky version of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, a hilarious localized adaptation complete with haunted plantations, nosy tourists and timely atrocities like the swine flu; performances are at 4 and 7:30 p.m. at Jackson Hall next to Grace Church. At 6 p.m. on Saturday, the Methodist Church on Royal St. hosts a Community Sing-a-long, while the First Baptist Church on US 61 at LA 10 sponsors its very popular Live Nativity reminding of the reason for the season.

In addition, Saturday evening from 6 to 8, visitors are welcomed for candlelight tours, period music and wassail at Audubon State Historic Site, where artist-naturalist John James Audubon tutored the daughter of plantation owners and painted many of his famous bird studies in the early 1820's. This historic home never looks lovelier than in the soft romantic glow of the candles that were its only illumination for its early years.

Christmas in the Country activities continue on Sunday, December 6, with a Christmas Tour of Homes presented from noon to 5 by the Women’s Service League (tickets available at Historical Society Museum and at the League’s wreath sales area on Ferdinand St.).

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 little shops, which go all out, hosting Open Houses with refreshments and entertainment for shoppers while offering spectacular seasonal decorations and great gift items. A variety of quaint little shops occupy historic structures throughout the downtown area and spread into the outlying district, each unique in its own way, and visitors should not miss a single one.

From the rich Victoriana of The Shanty Too, for thirty years the anchor of the downtown business community and always noted for eyecatching Christmas decorations, to the jewelry beautifully crafted from vintage buttons at Grandmother's Buttons, and the extensive selections of carefully chosen gift and decorative items at Hillcrest Gardens and Sage Hill Gifts, downtown St. Francisville is filled with fine shopping opportunities. Potter Michael Miller and artists Herschel Harrington and Joe Savell (Backwoods Gallery) have studios displaying their own works, while the St. Francisville Art & Antiques, Avondale Antiques, and the recently opened Bohemianville Antiques feature vintage collectibles and fine furnishings. Birdman Books & Coffee has an eclectic selection of books, Belle Glen Traditions has children’s toys plus sports memorabilia and gift items, and Destinee’s Clay Pot augments its florist selections with decorative items as well. Ins-N-Outs and Coyote Creek nurseries carry live seasonal plants to complement any decorating scheme. The tourist information center in the West Feliciana Historical Society on Ferdinand St. has free maps showing locations of all these retail outlets, as well as local plantations, restaurants and accommodations.

On the outskirts of town, intrepid shoppers won't want to miss the exquisite creations at Patrick’s Fine Jewelry, the fleur-de-lis decorative pieces at Elliott’s Pharmacy and an extensive collection of the latest in electronics at Radio Shack in Spring Creek Shopping Center, as well as Border Imports with huge selections of Mexican pottery, ironwork and concrete statuary on US 61 north. Most of the plantations in the St. Francisville area have gift shops, and a visit to those would permit enjoyment of spectacular seasonal decorations as well. The two state historic sites in the St. Francisville area, elegant 1830s Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation (Audubon SHS), are decorated in period style with lots of natural greenery, fruits and nuts, and both offer living history demonstrations and other special activities most December weekends as well as daily tours except on Christmas Day.

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, but visitors find it especially enjoyable in the winter when the glorious 19th-century gardens are filled with blooming camellias. Six historic plantations--Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, Butler Greenwood, the Myrtles, the Cottage and Greenwood--are open for daily tours, Catalpa Plantation is open by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. Reasonably priced meals are available in a nice array of restaurants in St. Francisville. Some of the state's most unique Bed and Breakfasts offer overnight accommodations ranging from golf clubs and lakeside resorts to historic townhouses and country plantations; a modern motel has facilities to accommodate busloads. The scenic unspoiled Tunica Hills region surrounding St. Francisville offers excellent biking, hiking, birding, horseback riding and other recreational activities. For online coverage of tourist facilities, attractions and events in the St. Francisville area, see www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvilleovernight.com, or telephone (225) 635-3873 or 635-4224.

October 2009

2009-10-08T17:57:00.004-05:00

FIRST FROSTS INTRODUCE FALL ACTIVITIES IN
ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA.

by Anne Butler

The first frigid frosts paint the Feliciana foliage in autumnal hues---the brilliant

Fall Colors - Back Roads

scarlet of sumac and swamp maples, the bright yellow of gingko and beech trees---sights that have inspired creative artists ever since John James Audubon painted more than 80 of his famous bird studies in the area in 1821. Judging from St. Francisville’s calendar of events for October, the inspiration remains undiminished, for there are celebrations of everything from art and music to glorious antebellum garden design. Throw in a few bucking broncos, scarecrows snuggled up to watch a 3-D movie under the stars, costumed re-enactors demonstrating rustic plantation skills, and a famous one-eared ghost wearing a green turban, and October in St. Francisville offers something for just about everyone, and then some!

The Audubon State Historic Site, centered by the remarkable West Indies-style Oakley House which hosted the artist Audubon, kicks off its month-long weekend living history programs on Saturday, October 3, with Nature Day, as interpretive staff present programs on the plantation’s ecosystem (10 a.m.), tree identification walk (11 a.m.) and guided nature hike (1 and 3 p.m.) highlighting the natural beauty and original paths once trod by Audubon, and interaction with the plants and animals of Oakley (2 p.m.). Of course everybody’s favorite resident fowl is the overbearing turkey who serves as Wal-Mart greeter! On Sunday, October 4, the morning program (10:30 a.m.) examines 19th-century garden plants and their uses, while the afternoon focus shifts from the big house to the quarters to explain the life of the plantation slave, from housing in one of the historic cabins to cooking and crafts. Audubon’s sister state site, Rosedown Plantation, offers a program on 19th-century schooling of plantation children on Saturday, October 3 (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.). For information on Rosedown State Historic Site programs, call 888-376-1867 or 225-635-3110.

Local Artist at Yellow Leaf Festival

On Saturday, October 10, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Audubon State Historic Site kicks off its year-long observance of the bicentennial of the West Florida Rebellion of 1810 by commemorating the 1779 capture of the British post at Baton Rouge by Spanish General Bernardo Galvez along with American troops. Marking the end of English control of the Mississippi, this largely unheralded Louisiana battle of the Revolutionary War set the stage for Spanish domination of West Florida until the revolt of Anglo planters in 1810, and it will be observed at Oakley with soldier encampments, musket demonstrations and explanatory talks. For information on Audubon State Historic Site programs, call 888-677-2838 or 225-635-3739.

The active St. Francisville Main Street program gets everyone into the Halloween spirit on Friday, October 16, in oak-shaded Parker Park, beginning at 5:30 p.m. with fun children’s programs, carving pumpkins and decorating scarecrows; pumpkins and carving utensils will be provided along with hay to stuff the scarecrows, but participants should bring old clothes or other embellishments. This will be followed at dark by the Movie Under the Stars, “Coraline,” a 2009 animated stop-action 3-D fantasy film based on British novelist Neil Gaiman’s book. Called by Entertainment Tonight’s movie critic “the best 3-D movie I’ve ever seen,” it stars Dakota Fanning. Admittance is a canned good donation to the West Feliciana Food Bank. The Women’s Service League sells concessions and 3-D glasses are provided, but moviegoers should bring their own folding chairs, blankets, and other accessories. For information, call the Main Street office at 225-635-3873.

Afton Villa Gardens

Also on Friday, October 16, as well as Saturday, October 17, the twenty-first annual Southern Garden Symposium presents a series of workshops bringing in gardening enthusiasts from across the South to bask in the beauties of the glorious antellum gardens for which the St. Francisville area is justly famous. Programs feature lectures by visiting horticultural experts and hands-on demonstrations, lunch at Afton Villa Gardens and Hemingbough, tea at the recently restored Brasseaux House and cocktail buffet at Greenwood Plantation. For information see www.SouthernGardenSymposium.or or call 225-635-3738.

Artist Murrell Butler With His Paintings

The weekend of October 24 and 25, the popular Yellow Leaf Arts Festival is put on by Arts For All, local non-profit arts promotion organization, with sponsorship by the Bank of St. Francisville and a cast of dozens of artists and craftspeople, musicians and poets, writers and just about every other kind of creative soul you can imagine. To get everyone in the spirit, on Friday, Oct. 23, a y’all-come “paint-out” will fill downtown Parker Park with artists painting en plein air, and during the festival the artist-in-residence, Ronnie Collins of Jennings, will paint a mural in the park gazebo. Saturday, October 24, the music tent features live music beginning at 11 a.m. with the West Feliciana Children’s Chorus, continuing through the afternoon with an old-time string band called The Mosspickers, the bluegrass group with the catchy name of Laughing Lizards String Band, singer-songwriter Kim Smith, Karuna Spoon, and Lee Barber and the Broken Cup warming up for an evening performance at Magnolia Café. Sunday’s music begins with Nancy Roppolo’s songwriter circle, Dylan Sneed, the Ben Bell 3 and the Fugitive Poets. Free yoga classes are offered at 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. This seventh annual Yellow Leaf Arts Festival has attracted more than fifty artists who will present their creations from 10 to 5 Saturday and Sunday—potters, painters, photographers, jewelry makers, metal and stained glass artists, fiber and fabric artists, wood crafters, folk artists, doll makers and candle makers and soap makers, beekeepers and birdhouse builders. For information, email birdmancoffee@bellsouth.net.

Nancy & Joe Roppollo

Also on Sunday, October 25, the historic United Methodist Church on Royal Street in St. Francisville hosts an evening of gospel, country and folk music by its talented folk choir following a pancake supper at 5:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Donations benefit property acquisition.

Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31, from 6 to 10 p.m., the Myrtles Plantation hosts its chilling Halloween extravaganza through a spooky historic house called one of America’s most haunted. Food and beverages will be available on site in the Carriage House Restaurant or courtyard concessions. For information, call 800-809-0565 or email chloe@myrtlesplantation.com.

Every Sunday in October the Louisiana State Penitentiary on LA 66 at Angola puts on “The Wildest Show in the South,” with prisoner hobbycraft sales, tons of food, and hair-raising rodeo events guaranteed to be unlike any you’ve ever seen at any other rodeo. Other than the ladies’ barrel racing, all rodeo participants are inmates in this enormous maximum-security prison. The covered arena seats over 10,000 and fills up every Sunday; with road construction along US Highway 61, visitors should pack plenty of patience to cope with traffic congestion. Grounds open at 9 for the arts and crafts, and the fascinating state museum at the entrance gate will also be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. 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 prison property.

Rodeo Clowns at Angola Rodeo

The St. Francisville area features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations most weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs. The nearby Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge and the surrounding Tunica Hills provide unmatched recreational activities in unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. Besides the fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area, there are unique specialty shops, many in restored historic structures, as well as some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts for overnight stays, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district.

For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com. .

Bicentennial Kick-off

2009-09-08T14:52:00.005-05:00

West Florida Republic Bicentennial Kick-off
in St. Francisville, LA

by Anne Butler

The invitations aptly call it A Gathering of Forces, summoning the public for ceremonies to kick off the year-long bicentennial celebration of those momentous events that culminated in the wresting of Louisiana’s Florida Parishes from Spanish control in 1810 and set off the rolling wave of revolutions that shaped the entire country. Guests are invited to gather on September 27 at 2 p.m. on the proposed site of the memorial Republic Park beside the parish courthouse in St. Francisville, with state and local luminaries, scholars of history and costumed period re-enactors firing cannon salutes and toasting the ‘Old Republic’ as the Bonnie Blue Flag of the proud Republic of West Florida is raised and the coming year’s events are revealed. Keynote speakers include Dr. Sam Hyde of Southeastern Louisiana University and Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne.

And as these gathered dignitaries cast their eyes about them in historic St. Francisville, which in 1810 served as the capital of the fledgling West Florida Republic, they can see not only some structures which have stood witness to those past 200 years, but also some descendants of the very men who risked life and limb to lead the rebellion against Spanish tyranny. Spanish commandant Carlos de Grand Pre referred to those leaders, mostly Anglo residents of the Feliciana district which was the most populous part of West Florida, as “inclined to insubordination and prone to insurgency,” and he would soon find out how true his words would ring through history.

Tiring of the lengthy international diplomatic wrangling over just where the eastern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 actually was, depending on which treaty was cited as France and England and Spain shifted the territory among themselves, the Anglo settlers of West Florida ousted the Spanish officials continuing to claim territory east of the Mississippi River and implemented their own independent republic, carefully conceived with constitution, militia, elected officials and a promise of more equitable government.

Dispatches from the legislative chambers where the leaders of the Republic of West Florida met in the fall of 1810 came from the St. Francisville Hotel. While this structure, originally located on one corner of what is now the courthouse square, is no longer in existence, surely the ringing tones of stirring orations by local rebellion leaders like William Barrow, John Mills and John Hunter Johnson could be heard at the adjacent townhouse now called the Barrow House.

Built around 1809 by the town jailer and later owned by the local postmaster who advertised it for sale in 1812 as “well calculated for a store and private family” on a lot not inferior to any in the village, this two-story saltbox with cottage addition became home to William Barrow’s descendant Dr. A. Feltus Barrow in the 1890’s. Dr. Barrow was an old-time horse-and-buggy doctor and town mayor; when he returned from exhaustive trips visiting patients in remote regions, he relished his bath and had an enormous clawfoot tub installed next to a downstairs window, from which he could lean to hold court for local miscreants or direct the treatment of patients dripping with blood.

"Ambush on Royal St." by David Norwood

One of Dr. Barrow’s numerous relatives, Capt. John Barrow, was sheriff during the trying times of Reconstruction following the Civil War and was ambushed right across Royal Street, where he had just paid a visit to his barber in the structure called the Cabildo. Capt. Barrow was handed a note and had stepped back into the shaded doorway of the Cabildo to read it out of the sun’s glare when he spotted a stranger aiming a rifle at him from the opposite side of the street as a bullet fired from another direction struck the doorway where he had been standing. Drawing his pistol, Capt. John quickly dispatched the culprits, sending one to meet his maker and the others hightailing it out of town. The sheriff lived to tell the tale to his daughter Margaret Leake Barrow Norwood, who preserved it for posterity.

By 1824 the Cabildo, a significant structure with heavy hand-hewn joists and sturdy walls of handmade bricks 22 inches thick, was serving as the first West Feliciana Parish courthouse after the original Feliciana parish was divided into two, with court meeting in the upper chambers above the local bank. Earlier uses of the building suggest the artist John James Audubon patronized Maximillian’s Tavern there, perhaps on his way to purchase art supplies at the neighboring brick townhouse now called Propinquity.

{mospagebreak}

In the 1820’s German-born Dietrich Holl and his nephew Maximillian Nubling operated a store at Propinquity, a sturdy structure built around 1809 by John Mills, the Scotsman who founded the riverport of Bayou Sara around 1790. Mills held the early Spanish land grant that would become Rosedown Plantation, where he planted indigo and cotton utilizing the labor of slaves despite his disapproval of what he branded “that Inhumane commerce.” Like plantation owner William Barrow, Mills was part of the Anglo migration southward from the East Coast in the late 1700’s. He had partnered in a Natchez District sawmill venture with Isaac Johnson, an Englishman from Liverpool, until a spring freshet washed away the mill and the two men moved on down into the Felicianas. Johnson’s eldest daughter married Mills’ son Gilbert.

It was on Johnson’s Troy Plantation that much of the substantive planning for the West Florida Rebellion would take place, just south of where his son John H. Johnson founded the town of St. Francisville on the bluff above Mills’ settlement at Bayou Sara; a namesake grandson would become Louisiana’s 13th governor. On September 11, 1810, Major Isaac Johnson and a troop of mounted Feliciana dragoons captured the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge and unfurled the republic’s famous banner, a lone white star on a blue field hastily sewn by Johnson’s wife.

Only a superb classical wellhouse remains of Troy Plantation; in the 1880’s as then-owner Dr. I.U. Ball returned upriver by steamboat from a trip to New Orleans, he spotted smoke rising on shore and exclaimed, “Troy is burning!” and so it was. But all around the courthouse square in St. Francisville are structures that bore witness to the heroic revolution and heady days of the short-lived Republic of West Florida and to the brave gathering of forces whose descendants join in celebration this bicentennial year. A striking monument, its simple obelisk crowned with a single star, has been designed by William Barrow’s descendant, artist David Norwood, as focal point of the Republic Park, where visitors are invited to gather on September 27th to kick off a year of commemorative events.

The nearby Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge, home of the country’s largest bald cypress tree, and the adjacent Tunica Hills region offer unmatched recreational activities in unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are unique specialty shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area, as well as some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts for overnight stays, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district.

For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Slow Down & Savor - FOR FULL ARTICLE - CLICK HERE

2009-08-19T15:13:00.009-05:00

ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA: JUST THE PLACE TO SLOW DOWN AND SAVOR THE SUMMER

By Anne Butler

Slow down, you’re moving too fast. Summer in the south means dialing it back, says Southern Living editor Eleanor Griffin. She’s talking about abandoning the swift interstates for the picturesque winding back roads, decompressing in venues that don’t insist on round-the-clock activities, slow-cooking those old favorites that don’t come in the frozen-foods section of the local grocery. She’s talking about: St. Francisville, Louisiana, the perfect place to take it easy in the dog days of summer.

There are books extolling the virtues of slowing one’s pace. Go Slow England, a new travel guide recommending that visitors take time to smell the roses, speaks for an entire movement the author describes as “born of a renewed regard for the simple pleasures in life…resisting the homogenization of food and culture, longing for the return to a sense of place.” And if there’s anything St. Francisville has, this little Victorian rivertown between Baton Rouge and Natchez in Louisiana’s English Plantation Country, it’s a sense of place, anchored by an appreciation for the simple pleasures in life.

Tours through the local historic plantation homes and glorious 19th-century gardens remind visitors of the days when a stroll through the hydrangeas and a sip of sun tea in the shade of the gazebo were exertion enough for a hot summer’s day. Six of these splendidly restored antebellum treasures are open daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation and The Myrtles, all dating from the late 1790s; Oakley Plantation established shortly thereafter and famous for associations with John J. Audubon; and Rosedown Plantation and Greenwood Plantation, grand Greek Revival structures built in the 1830s. Rosedown and Oakley are now significant state historic sites and on most weekends offer living-history demonstrations and fascinating educational programs. In addition, the charming Victorian cottage centering Catalpa Plantation opens by appointment, and Afton Villa Gardens is accessible seasonally.

The St. Francisville area boasts a wonderful assortment of Bed & Breakfasts, ideal for relaxing getaways and romantic retreats. Several of the plantations provide overnight accommodations amidst the ancient live oaks: The Cottage, The Myrtles, Greenwood and Butler Greenwood. In the National Register-listed historic district in town are other B&Bs: Shadetree, Wisteria, Barrow House, St. Francisville Inn, 3-V Tourist Court, each with its own unique charm. Lake Rosemound Inn sits on an enormous lake and entices summertime visitors with fishing, party barge and in-house ice cream parlor, and Hemingbough also features a picturesque lake setting. There’s also a Quality Inn and a lodge at The Bluffs golfing resort. The hosts of all these facilities can provide information on everything the guest might like to do, from massages and spa treatments to horseback riding and hiking in the spectacular unspoiled wilderness areas of the Tunica Hills, and they also have the good grace to accommodate those guests who want to do absolutely nothing at all. Wide welcoming porches with comfortable rocking chairs, hammocks and swings, shady garden nooks and cool swimming pools, picnic areas, barbecue grills…these B&Bs know just what to provide for a relaxing stay.

Local restaurants stress fresh summertime fare, cool salads, homemade ice cream, produce straight from the farmers’ market, which visitors lucky enough to be in the area on Thursday afternoons can patronize themselves for farm-fresh veggies, fruits, flowers, artisanal breads, honey and jellies. An eclectic collection of little shops fill historic commercial structures in the downtown area, offering everything from the nationally famous button jewelry of Grandmother’s Buttons to the lush Victoriana of The Shanty Too, fabulous gifts and housewares from Hillcrest Gardens and Sage Hill, and an extensive collection of regional books and art complementing the museum exhibits at the West Feliciana Historical Society’s tourist information center. There are several fine art galleries purveying paintings and prints, Michael Miller’s exceptional pottery, an artists’ co-op and other small specialty shops. The downtown merchants, in an attempt to make summer shopping as painless as possible, sponsor an enjoyable and effortless shopping extravaganza called White Linen Nights on Saturday, August 22, with the Highlands Bank trolley transporting participants from shop to shop to enjoy live music, art, refreshments, special bargains and a laid-back cool-of-the-evening atmosphere.

Even the hummingbirds slow down in the summertime in this birding paradise so beloved by John James Audubon. The Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration, sponsored annually by the Feliciana Nature Society, provides participants with an up-close and personal acquaintance with these tiny feathered friends. Normally among nature’s fastest winged creatures, hummingbirds can fly at speeds up to 34 miles per hour, wings flapping up to 90 times per second and hearts beating as many as 1200 beats per minute. This year hummingbirds were not in great profusion, but the ones captured at the celebration the end of July seemed to welcome the chance to chill before rushing off, as hummingbird biologists banded the birds, weighing and measuring them, to provide useful information on their habits and habitats. Information on next year’s hummingbird event is available at www.audubonbirdfest.com, or by telephoning 800-488-6502.

Migrating ruby-throated hummingbirds have such a high metabolism that they can fly across the Gulf of Mexico non-stop on a 500-mile flight, but they are also capable of slowing down their metabolism by entering a hibernation-like state called torpor, slowing the heart rate considerably, resting and rejuvenating their tiny bodies. Don’t we all need times when the pace slows, the mind rests, the body relaxes and recharges? St. Francisville in the summertime provides exactly that respite from the hustle and bustle.

For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street, 225-635-3873, or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us, www.stfrancisville.net, or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

The Day The War Stopped

2009-05-05T16:43:00.000-05:00

THE DAY THE WAR STOPPED — IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA

by Anne Butler

Volley from black powder rifles.
by ptWalsh

Up the steep hill they trudged, sweating in the sticky June heat, staggering under the weight of the coffin, the white flag of truce flying before them in the hot summer sun. The guns of their federal gunboat, the USS Albatross, anchored in the Mississippi off Bayou Sara, were silent behind them as a small party of officers struggled toward St. Francisville atop the hill.
The procession was not an impressive one, certainly not an unusual event in the midst of a bloody war, and it would no doubt have escaped all notice but for one fact--this was the day the war stopped, if only for a few mournful moments, and the lovely little rivertown of St. Francisville invites the public to join in commemorating the events 146 years ago on the weekend of June 12-14.
In June 1863, the Siege of Port Hudson was pitting 30,000 Union troops under Major General Nathaniel P. Banks against 6,800 weary Confederates under Major General Franklin Gardner, fighting over the all-important control of traffic on the Mississippi River. Port Hudson and Vicksburg were the only rebel strongholds left along the Mississippi, and if the Union forces could wrest from them control of the river traffic, they could cut off supplies from the west and completely surround the Confederacy. Admiral David Farragut had attempted to destroy Confederate cannons atop the bluffs from the river, but of his seven ships, four were turned back, one was completely destroyed, and only his flagship and the USS Albatross passed upriver safely, leaving ground troops to fight it out for nearly another month.

Procession at Grace Church

by ptWalsh

Lt. Commander John E. Hart, the federal commander of the Albatross, had just the week before posted a touching letter to his wife, left behind with their young son Elliott in Schenectady, New York. Praising his little boat for getting through the fearsome firing from the batteries atop the bluffs at Port Hudson, Commander Hart promises after the war to take his wife on a trip down the river to see the famous battlefields. As he writes he can hear the cannons booming to the south, but his attentions are on more immediate matters…how many blackberries his crew have had to eat lately, and how when a “jolly good cow” is spotted, he sends a sailor ashore with a pail, chuckling how some rebel farm folk will be surprised when “old Brindle comes home at night and ain’t got no milk for them”…how hot it is, and how long since he has seen ice, and how he would love a glass of cool claret and water.
Even in the midst of war, there are mundane little touches of life scattered through the letter from Hart to his beloved wife…the mockingbirds singing around the boat, the little puppy he’d put ashore at Plaquemine to be raised, the shipboard litter of kittens. After perilously running through the Grand Gulf batteries on the river to the north, Hart writes that the Admiral signalled, “How many killed?” And he answered none. The Admiral signalled, “How many wounded?” And he answered none. And just then Kitty, ship’s mouser, produced kittens which Hart insisted become part of the official report…important to note the wartime births as well as the all-too-frequent deaths.

Angolas horses, a favorite to
visitors of the annual parade.

by ptWalsh

A respected naval officer and graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Commander Hart would have even more lasting impact through his death, which occurred at 4:15 p.m. on June 11, 1863, in the captain’s stateroom as the Albatross patrolled the waters of the Mississippi River near Bayou Sara, just below St. Francisville. Masonic and naval records list Hart as having “suicided,” died by his own hand “in a fit of delirium.” It had been surmised that perhaps he suffered from dementia induced by yellow fever, for a mere four days earlier his cheerful letter home hardly seemed to exhibit despair, but the surgeon’s log implicates debilitating dyspepsia, perhaps combined with depression. The note left behind by the commander, in those days before antacids and little purple pills to ease the pain of gastric reflux disease, lamented, “God knows my suffering.”
Hart was a Mason, and aboard his ship were other officers also “members of the Craft,” desirous of burying their commander ashore rather than consigning the remains to the river waters, especially since a metallic coffin which might have contained the body for safe shipment home to New York could not be found. A boat was sent from the Albatross under flag of truce to ascertain if there were any Masons in the town of St. Francisville. It just so happened that the two White brothers, Samuel and Benjamin, living near the river were Masons from Indiana. They informed the little delegation that there was indeed a Masonic lodge in the town, in fact one of the oldest in the state, Feliciana Lodge No. 31 F and AM. Its Grand Master was absent serving in the Confederate Army, but its Senior Warden, W. W. Leake, whose “headquarters were in the saddle,” was home on furlough and was soon persuaded to honor the request. As a soldier, Leake reportedly said, he considered it his duty to permit burial of a deceased member of the armed forces of any government, even one presently at war with his own, and as a Mason, he knew it to be his duty to accord Masonic burial to the remains of a brother Mason without taking into account the nature of their relations in the outer world

Costumed actors participant
in the reenactment.

by ptWalsh

The surgeon and officers of the USS Albatross, struggling up from the river with Hart’s body followed by a squad of Marines at trail arms, were met by W. W. Leake, the White brothers, and a few other members of the Masonic lodge. They were greeted at Grace Episcopal Church by the Reverend Mr. Daniel S. Lewis, rector, and with full Episcopal and Masonic services, Commander John E. Hart was laid to rest on June 12, 1863, in the Masonic burial plot in Grace’s peaceful cemetery, respect being paid by Union and Confederate soldiers alike. And soon the war resumed, Lee’s northern invasion turned back at Gettysburg July 3, Vicksburg falling July 4, and Port Hudson finally surrendering July 9, all in one catastrophic week.
But for one brief touching moment, the war had stopped at St. Francisville, and this moment will be marked the weekend of June 12, 13 and 14. The commemorative events begin on Friday, June 12, at 7 p.m., with graveside histories in the peaceful oak-shaded cemetery at Grace Church, where Commander Hart’s grave is marked by a marble slab and monument “in loving tribute to the universality of Free Masonry,” and over the years it was decorated with flowers by members of the Daughters of the Confederacy. W.W. Leake in 1912 was buried nearby after a long and honorable career as state senator, parish judge and bank president. An Open House and presentation of lodge history at the double-galleried Masonic Lodge just across Ferdinand St. from the graveyard follows at 8 p.m. Friday evening.
On Saturday, June 13, a lively parade travels along St. Francisville’s historic main street beginning at 10:30 a.m., followed by lunch at the Masonic Lodge from 11 to 12:30. Visitors will be pleasantly transported back in time during the afternoon, as Grace Church’s parish hall is the setting for a concert of antebellum period music and graceful vintage dancing from 11:30 to 1:30. At 1:30 commences the very moving dramatic presentation showing Commander Hart’s young wife in New York as she reads his last letter to their small son and then receives the terrible news of his death. This is followed by the re-enactment of the burial of Hart, with re-enactors in the dignified rites clad in Civil War uniforms accurate down to the last button and worn brogan. Taking leading roles in this ritual, amazingly, are W.W.Leake’s great-great-grandson Robert S. Leake, as well as Frank Karwowski, member of Commander Hart’s Masonic lodge, St. George’s in Schnectady, New York, and Shirley Ditloff who now operates a popular B&B in W.W. Leake’s Royal St. townhouse.

Numerous clowns ride in
this annual parade.

by ptWalsh

During the afternoon on Saturday, Oakley Plantation in the Audubon State Historic Site offers special related programs, including a Civil War encampment, complete with tents and authentically clad re-enactors, which may be visited from 2:30 to 5. Black powder and musket demonstrations begin at 3 p.m., followed by a demonstration of Civil War costumes at 4. From 6 to 8 p.m. costumed dancers perform stylish dances popular during the Civil War period, and Oakley House, which is never lovelier than by candlelight, opens for special evening tours from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
On Sunday, June 14, Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site from 1 to 3 presents a program on Civil War medical techniques and their all-too-often conclusion, period burial customs. At nearby Locust Grove State Historic Site, a 2 p.m. talk at her gravesite focuses on Jefferson Davis’ young bride, Sarah Knox Taylor Davis, daughter of President Zachary Taylor, who succumbed to yellow fever on their honeymoon visit to his sister’s plantation in West Feliciana. A gravestone rendering class utilizes some of the historic headstones in this peaceful little graveyard.
All of these activities are free and open to the public. Among sponsors are St. Francisville Overnight! (Bed & Breakfasts of the area), the Feliciana Lodge No. 31 F and AM, Grace Episcopal Church, and St. Francisville Main Street.
The St. Francisville area features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. 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 fascinating living-history demonstrations every weekend to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs. The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are unique specialty shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area, as well as some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts for overnight stays, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district.

For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com. For additional information on The Day The War Stopped, see www.daythewarstopped.net.

Cross-country cyclists

2009-04-19T20:38:00.004-05:00

Thank godness we've had good weather to greet some 20 plus cross-country cyclists. Recently had the pleasure of chatting with one such solo cyclist. He's a family/divorce lawyer from the San Francisco area, with his major clients in the music business. Said the recent recession has spurted his business, with many actions seeking to adjust divorce/support settlements. He's using his "alone" time to rethink his own retirement plans. Usually just stays overnight at any one place; but the attractions of SF (and especially the camellias) had induced him to stay over an extra day at the SF Inn.
Wonder if provisions have been made to accomodate cyclists on the new bridge, if the ferry is to be discontinued.

Spring in St. Francisville, La.

2009-03-26T12:22:00.017-05:00

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
by Murrell Butler

SPRING IN ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA,
PUTS A NEW TWIST ON THE BIRDS AND THE BEES

By Anne Butler

Spring in other locales may turn a young mans fancy to the good old birds and bees, but the residents of the historic little rivertown of St. Francisville, Louisiana, put their own spin on it. Here, the emphasis in April is on the birds and thebulls.The birds are only natural in a scenic unspoiled area so richly endowed by Mother Nature that some 175 resident or migratory feathered species frequent it. In the 1820s more than half of these were painted by artist-naturalist John James Audubon for his famousBirds of Americawhile in residence at Oakley Plantation near St. Francisville, and participants in the 8th annual Audubon Country BirdFest April 4th should see be able to chalk up sightings of a large number of these.

But the bulls? This is, after all, part of Louisiana’s fertile plantation country, where the early cash crops of indigo and cotton were planted in orderly rows across the hilly farmlands. But one of the most notorious of these agricultural endeavors is the penal farm called Angola. That’s where the bulls come in, at one of the region’s most popular events, “the wildest show in the South.” The infamous Angola Prison Rodeo, begun in the 1960s, proved so popular during its regular fall runs that an entire spring weekend, April 18 and 19, has now been devoted to it as well.

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
by ptWalsh

The Feliciana Nature Society sponsors the Audubon Country BirdFest in its efforts to enhance the appreciation and preservation of the area’s splendid natural resources, and this event attracts birders and nature lovers from across the South. The guided field trips this year take participants into some of the most intriguing wildness areas, including Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge along the only un-leveed stretch of the lower Mississippi River, the swampy wetlands habitat of old-growth cypress trees including the champion bald cypress. The Cat Island tour is generally by canoe because of high water (canoes, life jackets and paddles are provided), so participants signing up for this tour should be capable of paddling for several hours. Other field trips, led by experienced birders, visit Oak Hill Plantation, home of wildlife artist and naturalist Murrell Butler with a variety of habitat areas from heavily forested hilly woodlands to swampy lakes and creekbeds, and historic Ouida Plantation, Tunica Hills home of Nature Society president Tracey Banowetz surrounded by steep ravines, open fields and cultivated butterfly gardens.
The area’s two state historic site plantations, Rosedown and Oakley, are also Birdfest features, with guided tours designed for both beginner and intermediate birders. Both have intimate family connections to Audubon; the artist first came to the St. Francisville area in 1821 to tutor Eliza Pirrie, young daughter of the family at Oakley, under an arrangement leaving him half of each day free to roam the woods collecting specimens for his paintings. Eliza’s son would marry beautiful Sarah Turnbull of Rosedown Plantation, interweaving the family histories of these two remarkably preserved plantation properties.
Except for the state historic site tours, morning and afternoon field trips carpool from the St. Francisville Inn, BirdFest headquarters; capacity is limited, so advance reservations are required. The Audubon State Historic Site (Oakley House) sponsors an educational Audubon Nature School Day on Friday, April 3, with interactive stations providing students with hands-on learning, and on Saturday, April 4, Audubon Nature Day at Oakley highlights “Thinking Green” and explores nature conservation and green environmental practices with modern implications.

Pileated Woodpecker at Oakley House
photo by ptWalsh09

After birdwatching the first weekend in April, visitors to the St. Francisville area can bask in the beauties of nature at the Easter Sunrise Service at Hemingbough. This extrmely popular non-denomination service, hosted for several decades by gracious owner Arlin Dease, begins at 7 a.m. Easter morn, April 12, as the sun rises over still waters and the congregation fills the lovely lakeside amphitheater. Music, spiritual inspiration and complimentary continental breakfast make this an unforgettable experience in a setting of unsurpassed beauty. For information, telephone 877-635-6617.

Considerably livelier is the following weekend’s entertainment in the St. Francisville area, the annual Angola Prison Rodeo on April 18 and 19th. From the time the mounted black-clad Angola Rough Riders race at break-neck speed into the arena, flags streaming and hooves flying, visitors are on the edges of their seats through events pitting inmates against pro-stock Brahma bulls and wild-eyed bucking broncos. The only non-inmate event in what is called the longest running prison rodeo in the country features ladies’ barrel racing.

But the crowd favorites are the events unique to Angola, the "Bust Out" when all the chutes containing ferocious bulls are opened at once, or the "Wild Horse Race" in which inmates try to catch and mount frantic wild horses, or the "Wild Cow Milking" where obtaining even a drop of milk is easier said than done. Two other events pit convicts against bulls in a contest of wills: "Convict Poker," with four inmates seated at a poker table as a bull is released into the arena, and the last one to remain seated wins; and the crowd-pleasing "Guts and Glory", an arena full of inmates on foot trying to remove a $100 chit tied between the horns of the meanest Brahma bull around. Professional rodeo clowns and pick-up riders do their best to assure the safety of the contestants, and Angola's EMS units haul off the casualties.

Museum at Audubon State Historic Site

The rodeo grounds open at 9 a.m. for a huge arts and crafts festival and sale showcasing inmate talent in hobbycraft like jewelry, handtooled leather, paintings and woodwork both large and small. Inmate bands perform throughout the morning, and the famous Angola Prison Rodeo Band takes over for the duration of the rodeo events, which begin at 2 p.m. There are a large number of concessions offering a variety of food and drink, and the stands provide shaded seating for more than 10,000 cheering spectators.

Tickets should be purchased in advance by calling 225-655-2040, 225-655-2607 or 225-635-2042, or by mail from the Louisiana State Penitentiary Business Office, Angola, LA 70712, or online atwww.angolarodeo.com. Visitors should allow time to tour the fascinating prison museum just outside the front entrance gates to learn more about the history of this enormous maximum-security penitentiary. It should be noted that there are specific regulations with which visitors must comply when entering prison grounds; no food, drink, cell phones or cameras are allowed through the rodeo entrance gate, and on prison property no weapons, ammunition, alcohol or drugs are permitted; purses and bags will be searched and all vehicles must be locked when unoccupied.

The St. Francisville area features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. The area’s two state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, offer fascinating living-history demonstrations every weekend to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

Bull Riding at Angola Prison Rodeo submitted by LSP

Movie Under the Stars

2009-03-09T13:02:00.002-05:00

Friday March 13, 2009 Parker Park in downtown St. Francisville will be rocking with the Movie Under The Stars. This months featured movie will be High School Musical.

Admission is one canned good for the West Feliciana Parish Food Pantry. Concessions will be available along with Face Painting from the WFHS International Club.

Bring your blanket or lawn chair and join us for the family fun night.

The Movie will start at dark.

For more information call Laurie Walsh 225 635 3873 at the St. Francisville Main Street Office.

St. Francisville Main Street Workshop

2009-03-09T12:41:00.002-05:00

St. Francisville Main Street will host a workshop on Thursday March 12, 2009 at 6:00pm at the Town Hall.

Valerie Gaumont and Alison Saunders both with the Louisiana Office of Historic Preservation will present information on Main Street Basics and Historical Tax Credits. They will be available by appointment on Thursday to make a site visit if you are interested in either commercial or residential tax credits. This is a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of. If you are interested in the working of the Main Street Program, we encourage you to come on Thursday night.

For more information please call Laurie Walsh 225 635-3873 or email lauriemainst@bellsouth.net

2009 Audubon Pilgrimage

2009-02-26T02:21:00.008-06:00

ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA’S
ANNUAL AUDUBON PILGRIMAGE

By Anne Butler

Home Tour in St. Francisville

In 1809 a young English adventurer travelled down the Mississippi and across the 31st parallel from the Mississippi Territory into the wilds of Spanish West Florida. He described this area as having the finest and best cultivated soil and the wealthiest settlers, on the whole “a charming country,” and he especially enjoyed his sojourn with Don Juan O’Connor, whom he called a respectable old gentleman who for many years had served as the alcalde or chief magistrate of the vicinity. O’Connor was building “a very large and commodious house.”

Today we know this home as Rosebank, and it will be one of the features on the West Feliciana Historical Society’s popular annual spring tour called the Audubon Pilgrimage March 20, 21 and 22. The Rosebank house shows Caribbean influence in its sensible architectural style, its thick brick walls and broad galleries designed to mitigate the hot humid summers.

Period Customs

After leaving Rosebank, Cuming travelled nearer to St. Francisville, visiting along the way the early pioneering families, the Barrows, Butlers, Stirlings and Flowers, and then passing through “a forest abounding with that beautiful and majestick evergreen, the magnolia,” before arriving at the commodious home of millwright and planter James Pirrie, late of Scotland. Those same majestic forests would within a decade arouse the creative passions of artist-naturalist John James Audubon, flamboyant Frenchman whose tenure at Oakley Plantation, where he was hired in 1821 to tutor the Pirries’ young daughter Eliza, would result in the completion there of no less than 80 of his famous bird folios in his quest to paint all the birds of this young country America. Oakley, now a state historic site, is also one of the features on the 2009 Audubon Pilgrimage, a wonderful West Indies-influenced soaring structure with wooden jalousies shading its double galleries and cooling interiors furnished with fine period pieces.

Period Customs

Other featured homes span the 19th century of development in the St. Francisville area. Rosedown Plantation, another state historic site, dates from 1834, the elaborate main house approached by a magnificent oak allee, surrounded by fascinating historic dependencies and set off by 27 acres of glorious gardens full of heirloom plants. The reclaimed gardens at Afton Villa, 19th-century terraced plantings and formal parterres, originally enhanced an immense Gothic villa which burned in 1963; they have been so beautifully restored that in their own right they are one of the most popular features of the Audubon Pilgrimage each year.

Fairview Townhouse, in the Royal Street Historic District, was purchased in 1891 by Edward L. “Ned” Newsham, whose drygoods store in St. Francisville afforded the financing to embellish the home with a bay window, second story with small gable gallery up top and exuberant gingerbread decorating the front gallery wrapping around the lower floor. Newsham served as bank president and was elected mayor before his death in 1904. His parents had come from England to settle in Missouri, and during the Civil War served as a heart-wrenching example of family divisions, his father fighting for the Union side and his father’s twin brother serving in the Confederate Army. This marks the first time this recently restored home has been opened for tours.

On Tour Rosebank Plantation

Another feature of the pilgrimage is Wyoming, built in the early 1900s on the site of the plantation home of Robert C. Wickcliff, last antebellum governor of the state of Louisiana, whose wife Ann Ruffin Dawson was the granddaughter of St Francisville’s founder John Hunter Johnson as well as of John Bennett Dawson, early parish judge and state legislator who had himself been a candidate for governor in 1834. After Governor Wickcliff’s term ended, he practiced law in St. Francisville and was said, during the Civil War, to have played poker with Union naval officers on the river at Bayou Sara, when he won sparing St. Francisville a shelling. This year marks Wyoming’s first appearance on the Audubon Pilgrimage.

In the first West Feliciana Parish courthouse on Royal Street, a circa 1809 structure of old handmade brick and exposed beams, local artist Murrell Butler will exhibit the lush landscape paintings and bird studies that have led to comparisons of his exacting and detailed renditions with those of Audubon, who roamed these same fields and woodlands generations before and actually knew some of Butler’s early ancestors.

Period Custom

At the Rural Homestead just north of St. Francisville, the sensible skills of the pioneering settlers are celebrated in authentically recreated simple cypress structures. Demonstrations showcase such skills as grinding corn in a 19th-century gristmill, hand-riving cypress shingles, weaving oak-strip baskets, quilting and making candles, blacksmithery, plowing with a mule, cooking cracklins in black iron pots over an open fire and baking cornbread in the wood stove; youngsters especially enjoy the wagon rides and petting zoo.

The featured homes are open from 9:30 to 5 Friday and Saturday, noon to 5 on Sunday. Evening entertainment includes a cemetery tour at historic Grace Episcopal Church and hymn singing at United Methodist Church, followed by a wine and cheese reception at the West Feliciana Historical Society Museum on Friday night, and on Saturday evening “Light Up The Night” features dining and dancing along Prosperity Street and on the courthouse lawn.

Throughout the days of the pilgrimage, costumed children dance the Maypole and play nostalgic games, while three sites host antique sales (Jackson Hall, Masonic Lodge and Market Hall). Pilgrimage workers wear costumes beautifully recreating the garb of the 1820’s when Audubon was in residence, and these magnificent dresses have won national recognition for their painstaking attention to authentic detail. Visitors are also welcomed to three historic churches in St. Francisville’s historic district, Grace Episcopal established in 1827, United Methodist which replaced a flood-damaged Bayou Sara church built in 1844, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel overlooking the Mississippi River from atop Catholic Hill and designed by General P.G.T. Beauregard.

Pilgrimage tickets and orientation are available at the West Feliciana Historical Society Museum on Ferdinand St. in St. Francisville, or by mail from Box 338, St. Francisville, LA 70775. For information, telephone 225-635-6330 or visit online at www.audubonpilgrimage.info.

Period Customs

Spring is a glorious time in St. Francisville, with antebellum and contemporary gardens abloom with azaleas, late camellias and all manner of flowering shrubs and plants. Visitors to the area will find that the St. Francisville area features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily throughout the year: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. The area’s two state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, offer fascinating living-history demonstrations every weekend to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs. The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are some unique shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area as well as some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts for overnight stays, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district. For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Colorful Camellias

2009-01-13T04:52:00.004-06:00

ST. FRANCISVILLE, LA’S COLORFUL CAMELLIAS IN THE COUNTRY FESTIVAL

By Anne Butler

Chef John Folse

Louisiana’s beloved culinary ambassador to the world, John Folse, has developed an international reputation as a fabulous chef as well as the brilliant head of a burgeoning empire of food processing plants, catering companies, dairies, product suppliers, cookbooks and book publishers, and just about everything else his fertile imagination can conceive. The man must never sleep. But as if that were not enough, Chef Folse is also one of the most generous professionals in the field, freely offering his time and talents and facilities for just about every charitable non-profit cause there is.

Consequently, when the little Feliciana Nature Society contacted him to help with its Camellias in the Country festival in St. Francisville the first weekend in February 2009, he was already inclined to offer assistance. And then they made him an offer he simply could not refuse, combining as it did his incredible culinary talents with his great fascination with history and heritage as well as a growing interest in horticulture.

The Camellia Festival is sponsored each year by the little Feliciana Nature Society, which also conceived and hosts the annual Audubon BirdFest and Feliciana Hummingbird Festival. Just as the BirdFest is an ideal activity in the area most treasured by artist John James Audubon when he painted a large number of his Birds of America there in the early 1820s, so the Camellia Festival is particularly suited for the area to which the 1831 Encylopedia Americana referred as “the garden of Louisiana.”

And so it was, for once the great indigo and cotton plantations of this English section of Louisiana had been established, attention turned from the practical to the merely pleasing and the early manor houses were quickly surrounded by formal gardens laid out in orderly bordered beds and patterned parterres, protected from roaming livestock by picket fences and presided over by classical marble statues. Great allees of live oaks were planted, their arched canopies soon to provide much-needed shade, and lattice-sided summer houses offered cool quiet retreats.

The glorious antebellum gardens of the St. Francisville area, many inspired by the great plantings of Europe, combined the plantation mistress’s passion for ornamental plants with a fortuitious climate, rich soil and unlimited labor. From the surrounding woods were transplanted ferns, trilliums and oak-leaf hydrangea, violets, dogwood and wild plum trees. But the pride of the gardens were the camellias, and these had to be imported.

These colorful natives of the Far East were initially carried to other lands by missionaries and early medical men after trade with the Orient was opened in the early1500s by the Portuguese and their Black Ships. The trading companies dealing in spices, silks, porcelains and other treasures all had medical officers who became the first to study native plants of the Far East, initially for their medical propensities. A camellia japonica specimen collected in China in 1677 by a physician with the East India Company introduced this botanical novelty to England. By the close of the 18th century, the first camellias had been brought overseas to the United States.

Garden Walk at Rosedown

From a nursery in New York, young Martha Turnbull first ordered camellias to grace the gardens at Rosedown Plantation, plantings inspired by those seen on her wedding trip to the Continent in 1835. Her gardens would eventually expand to 28 acres of formal beds surrounding the grand Greek Revival house, and her gardening diaries spanning some 60 years of love and labor proved invaluable in the careful restoration of the Rosedown grounds and gardens. Daily she recorded her continual efforts, especially to propagate the hundreds of camellias, with advice on their proper care. “Japonicas must have water over the leaves once a week and plenty of water otherwise during the whole summer; half sand and woods-earth and a little cow manure when first potted, and engraft early in the spring, and they must be well shaded in the whole summer.”

From the mistress of Catalpa Plantation Martha Turnbull borrowed some helpful tips: “Mrs. Fort puts one gallon Guano to a barrel of water to water her plants,” and it was no wonder the camellias and hydrangeas at Catalpa flourished as well. At Butler Greenwood Plantation hundreds of camellias were being ordered from eastern nurseries as well to thrive in the formal gardens around the lovely summer house, while at Afton Villa gardens the camellias held their own with the famed Pride of Afton azaleas lining the magnificent oak avenue.

Every plantation had its grove of camellias, and many of the townhouses in St. Francisville as well. A number of these plantations and gardens today are open to the public for tours, and there is no lovelier time of year to visit than the cooler months when the camellias are in full bloom. The Feliciana Nature Society began the Camellias in the Country festival to encourage visitors to do just that, but in 2009 an extra added attraction promises to greatly enhance the enjoyment, for this year visitors can not only see the camellias, they can actually TASTE them, thanks to Chef John Folse and the lucky visitation by a distinguished French physician to one of the local plantation Bed & Breakfasts.

Docteur Pierre Gausset, “Ancien Externe des Hopitaux de Paris,” enjoyed the hospitality of the Bed & Breakfast at Butler Greenwood Plantation in early 2008 and admired the more than 150 ancient camellias blooming in the formal and sunken gardens there. Had the owner ever tasted, he wondered, Vin de Camelia? He highly recommended it. In fact, he happened to have the recipe and would be happy to share it, since the St. Francisville area obviously had plentiful ingredients. Written in French, of course, the recipe is a combination of white or red wine, eau de vie de fruits, camellia blossoms, sugar and vanilla, all allowed to rest for 20 days as the wine absorbs the aroma of the camellia blossoms before bottling.

Butler Greenwood Lawn

Chef John Folse, of course, rose to the challenge and enthusiastically set about making a few test batches, pronouncing them superb. Not only that, but he also revealed ancient recipes for ratifies and bounces, cordials and fruit wines that had traditionally been made in the area. While most of the good grape wines and clarets were shipped to Louisiana in great wooden casks and wicker-covered demijohns from Europe in antebellum days, every little local fruit and berry that would ferment was turned into some sort of enjoyable beverage, from figs and plums to wild cherries and dewberries, muscadines and peaches. And the newly popular aromatherapy, far from being a modern invention, Chef Folse explains is also as old as the hills, for every plantation mistress knew how to make scented waters---rosewater, orange blossom water---for perfuming the air and body. Camellia wine is such an aromatic infusion. The flowering plants of the nineteenth century gardens were rarely merely ornamental; they had other uses as well, for seasonings and preservatives, also for medicinal purposes. The most strongly scented were used to mask less pleasant odors, such as during wakes and funerals.

Chef Folse unveils his Camellia Wine, produced from camellia blossoms from St. Francisville gardens, at a presentation on Friday, February 6, at 6 p.m. at the historic Audubon Market Hall on Royal Street in St. Francisville. Guests will have the opportunity to sample the wine, perhaps even purchase some, and Chef Folse will also autograph his remarkable cookbooks for interested visitors at the wine and cheese reception following his presentation.

The fifth annual Camellias in the Country program continues on Saturday, February 7, at Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site. Site manager Patricia Aleshire will lead a workshop on “Knowing and Growing Camellias in the Deep South” at the visitor center beginning at 9 a.m. Lunch at Audubon Café will be followed by a guided walking tour of Rosedown’s extensive formal gardens, where participants will enjoy seeing outstanding examples of both heirloom and contemporary japonicas. The gardens at Rosedown are simply spectacular this time of year.

Camellia at Catalpa

A $25 registration fee covers the Chef Folse presentation and reception Friday evening as well as the Saturday programs and lunch. Admission for the Friday reception alone is $10, and advance reservations are highly recommended; telephone 800-488-6502 or 225-635-3110 for information and reservations, or visit online www.audubonbirdfest.com or stfrancisvillefestivals.com. All proceeds benefit the Feliciana Nature Society and support its commendable efforts to encourage appreciation and preservation of the natural resources of the area.

The St. Francisville area features a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. The area’s two state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, offer fascinating living-history demonstrations every weekend to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs. The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. There are some unique shops, many in restored historic structures, and some fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area as well as some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts for overnight stays, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district. For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com. (our Festival Website)

For high resolution photos, email Patrick Walsh at pat@bluegoosemedia.com

Camellias in the Country

2009-01-02T11:14:00.002-06:00

Camellias in the Country
February 6 & 7, 2009

The Feliciana Nature Society and Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site will host the 5th annual Camellias in the Country program on February 6 & 7, 2009. The two-day event will kick off on Friday evening, February 6, at the historic Market Hall on Royal Street in St. Francisville. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. for a wine and cheese reception, followed at 6:30 by award-winning chef, author, and TV celebrity, John Folse, who will conduct a program on camellia wine.

The program will continue on Saturday, February 7, beginning at 9:00 a.m., at the visitor center at Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site. The morning session will feature Rosedown manager Patricia Aleshire leading a workshop, “Knowing and Growing Camellias in the Deep South.” Lunch at Audubon Café will be followed by an extensive walking tour of Rosedown’s historic gardens where participants can view some of the best heirloom and contemporary varieties of camellias on the grounds.

A $25 registration fee covers the John Folse reception on Friday night as well as the Saturday program and lunch. Admission for the Friday reception only is $10. Due to limited seating, advance reservations are highly recommended. Proceeds benefit projects of the Feliciana Nature Society. For reservations and more information call 1-800-488-6502 toll free or local 225-635-3110. Visit www.audubonbirdfest.com.

Celebration of Readers & Writers

2008-12-29T21:42:00.003-06:00

Celebration of Readers and Writers
Symposium, February 28, 2009

The West Feliciana Parish Library and the Friends of the Library will host its 3rd Annual Celebration of Readers and Writers Symposium on February 28, 2009. This event recognizes outstanding regional authors and provides a forum for discussion of their works.
The Symposium program will include:
• James Wilcox, the author of nine novels, is the director of Creative Writing at Louisiana State University. In his most recent novel, Hunk City, Wilcox revisits Tula Springs and the characters of his debut novel, Modern Baptists. Wilcox was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
• Danny Heitman, an award-winning columnist for The Baton Rouge Advocate, chronicles a pivotal season that John James Audubon spent in St. Francisville in 1821. His first book, A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House has moved Heitman into new arenas. A recognized essayist, his essays have appeared in “Smithsonian,” “The Christian Science Monitor” and other national publication. In 2007, Heitman was awarded the Templeton Foundation’s national “In Character Prize” for distinguished commentary.
• Pamela Binnings Ewen is a retired lawyer and author of her just released second novel, The Moon in the Mango Tree. Ewen’s first novel Walk Back the Cat was published in 2006. She is also the author of the nonfiction book, Faith on Trial (1999) which was used as a text for a course in law and religion at Yale Law School.
• Reggie Scott Young is an Associate Professor of English at UL, Lafayette. He is a scholar, fiction writer, and poet who grew up in Chicago, and has now edited two volumes of works by Ernest J. Gaines. Among his creative honors is the Gwendolyn Brooks Poet Laureate Award for Significant Illinois Poets and the PEN Discovery Award for fiction. We await his first novel, Preludes: A Love Story, available in the spring of 2009.
• Charles Elliott, prolific author, scholar, film director and history faculty member at Southeastern Louisiana University, will speak about the creative process as well as literary genres these authors represent.

Lunch at the Oxbow is included, and books will be available for purchase and signing by the authors. Tickets are $35.00 per person and must be purchased ( cash / check only) in advance at the West Feliciana Parish Library, 11865 Ferdinand St, (St. Francisville) or by mail: PO Box 3120, St. Francisville, LA 70775. For information call the West Feliciana Parish Library (225) 635-3364.

Christmas in the Country

2008-11-18T15:29:00.009-06:00

St. Francisville Celebrates Christmas in the Country

By Anne Butler

Christmas in Country Parade

Troubled economic times call for a return to comfort, to simplicity, to the tried-and-true. That’s just what the little Louisiana community of St. Francisville, perched on a ridge overlooking the Mississippi River, offers visitors with its annual Christmas in the Country on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, December 5, 6 and 7th. This safe, small-town celebration of the season combines intriguing shopping opportunities with lots of old-fashioned fun for the whole family—lively Christmas parade, strolling carolers, living nativity, house tours, theatrical performances, all in historic downtown St. Francisville.

Vendors display their wares along the main street.

The celebration kicks off on Friday evening when the angelic voices of the Children’s Choir of the First Baptist Church ring out from the front porch of Town Hall on Ferdinand St., following which longtime Mayor Billy D’Aquilla will light the town tree and host a welcome reception at which Santa just might put in an appearance.

With its Victorian homes and shops decorated with twinkling white lights tracing gingerbread galleries and soaring rooflines, the little town is transformed into a veritable winter wonderland for the holiday season, and after dark it is positively magical. Friday night the downtown merchants host White Light Night from 6:30 to 9 p.m., with trolley transportation between shops, each one featuring spectacular decorations and delightful merchandise in a pleasant and relaxed environment far removed from mall madness. Visitors should take time to hop off the trolley to participate in the popular pastime called Peep Into Our Holiday Homes, with signs designating those historic homes that offer curious visitors a glimpse through lace-c urtained windows into family holiday observances. At 7 p.m. the Baton Rouge Symphony performs at Grace Episcopal Church, followed by a dessert reception, and tickets are available through the Bank of St. Francisville.

Christmas in Country Parade

Saturday gets an early start with a 7:30 Prayer Breakfast at the Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. Children will relish the opportunity to have Breakfast With St. Nick at Grace Episcopal’s Jackson Hall, sponsored by the Women’s Service League, with three seatings, 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m.; reservations may be made by calling 225-202-5403 and there is a fee. The Women’s Service League will also sell their popular giant cypress wreaths as well as Plantation Country Cookbooks on Ferdinand St. throughout the weekend to fund charitable community projects.

Throughout the day on Saturday, musical entertainments are scheduled all around the historic downtown area. The Bains Elementary Chorus sings at 9:30 a.m. at the Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, Bains Lower Elementary Choir at 9:30 at the Historical Society Museum, West Feliciana Middle School Choir at 10 at the museum, Lagniappe Quartet strolling along Ferdinand and Royal Streets from 10 to 2, West Feliciana High School Spanish and Latin Club singers at 10:30 at the Methodist Fellowship Hall, High School Choir at Methodist Hall at 11. The Angola Inmate Traveling Band enlivens things across from Garden Symposium Park from noon to 4, and the Main Street Band performs in Parker Memorial Park noon to 2. Junior Jazzercise puts on a lively demonstration at 11:30 downtown.

Vendors offer handmade goods.

The Women’s Service League’s immensely popular annual Christmas Parade begins at 2 p.m. Saturday and runs along Ferdinand and Commerce Sts. with decorated floats, bands, marching units and plenty of candy flung to onlookers. Theme this year is JUMP IN! in tribute to grand marshall Miguel Pate, hometown hero-athlete who participated in this year’s Olympics competing in the Long Jump. All day in Parker Memorial Park there will be vendors offering food, music and children’s activities, and other artisans will offer strictly homemade items along Ferdinand and Royal Streets throughout the weekend.

Saturday evening abounds with special activities, beginning with a Community Sing-A-Long at the Methodist Church on Royal St. at 6 p.m. The First Baptist Church at the intersection of LA 10 and US 61 reprises its beloved Live Nativity from 6 to 8 p.m., and the Peep Into Our Holiday Homes continues along Ferdinand and Royal Streets from 6 to 8 p.m. At 7:30 p.m. at the Old Market Hall on Royal St., the talented group of thespians in the St. Francisville Transitory Theatre presents two Christmas stories, “A Christmas Carol” and “The Gift of the Magi,” with limited seating and a small admission charge.

Christmas in Country Parade

Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. the Library Tour of Homes opens the doors to some spectacular private residences for the benefit of the parish library system; tickets may be purchased at the library on Ferdinand St. in advance or on the day of the tour. Featured homes are those of Clifford and Cynthia Wilcox, Phillip Plaisance and Ken Haydel, L.J. and Jo Sevin, Chard and Mendy Richard, and the Chapel at The Bluffs. The St. Francisville Transitory Theatre presents a second performance of the two Christmas stories at 7:30 p.m. Sunday evening in the Old Market Hall.

Unless otherwise noted, all activities are free of charge and open to the public. The St. Francisville area also provides other opportunities for visitors throughout the month. There are a number of splendidly restored plantation homes open for tours daily: The Cottage Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, The Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, all decorated for the holidays in antebellum style, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation and Afton Villa Gardens seasonally. The area’s two state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, offer fascinating living-history demonstrations every weekend to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs. The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking, birding, photography, horseback riding with rental mounts from Cross Creek Stables. Besides the shops, many in restored historic structures, there are fine little restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area as well as some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts for overnight stays, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of all the seasonal festivities.

For additional information on the St. Francisville area, telephone 225-635-4224, 225-635-3873 or 225-635-6330; online www.stfrancisville.us, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Friends of Library "Tour of Homes"

2008-11-10T17:01:00.004-06:00

"2008 TOUR OF HOMES" Friends of the WFP Library's Annual Christmas Tour of Homes West Feliciana Tour of Homes The twelfth annual Friends of the West Feliciana Tour of Homes will be held Sunday, December 7, 2008 between 12 noon and 5:00P.M. During Christmas in the Country. Four homes will be on tour: one in Plantation Oaks off Hwy 61 near Riverbend Nuclear Plant, one in Plantation Ridge off Hwy 10, and two in the Bluffs. Additionally, The Chapel on the Bluff in The Bluffs will be open to the tour. Tickets for the tour are $15 per person and may be purchased in advance and on the day of the tour at the West Feliciana Parish Library, 11865 Ferdinand Street in St. Francisville. All Proceeds from the tour are used for library projects. For more information, call the library at 225-635-3364. West Feliciana Parish Library 11865 Ferdinand St. St. Francisville, La, 70775 Website: www.youseemore.com/westfeliciana For more information call 225-635-3364
*Homes on 2008 Tour*
Clifford and Cynthia Wilcox 5310 Live Oak Drive St. Francisville, La 70775 A country French style home built in 2006. It features an open floor plan and is completely handicapped accessible. It sits on 9 acres of beautifully landscaped property.	Photo by Ann Weller
Philip Plaisance & Ken Haydel 5758 Alexander Drive St. Francisville, La 70775 A brick and stucco cottage in French Quarter-West Indies style built in 2004 by Haydel Contractors. The owners’ collections feature antique estate silver, Tiffany china, vermeil and Chinese and Japanese porcelains. The home is currently being photographed for several national interior design magazines.	Photo by Ann Weller
L.J. & Jo Sevin 14205 Sunrise Way St. Francisville, La 70775 The Sevin Home is built in the West Indies style with an enclosed courtyard. The outdoor kitchen overlooks the 18th green of The Bluffs Golf Course and Thompson Creek, and a sundeck is above the outdoor kitchen. An interior winding staircase, locally crafted, leads to a library area, guest quarters, and a media center which opens to a sundeck.	Photo by Ann Weller
Chard & Mindey Richard 5913 Afton Villa Way St. Francisville, La 70775 Built and designed by Jordan Traditions in 2005, this Louisiana colonial style home was designed using materials from the 18th century era. Rustic materials, such as old brick and virgin longleaf heart pine floors and beams, gabled rooflines and a huge classic front porch speak to the traditional roots of this home. These classic features join with the open floor plan, kitchen and bath amenities and Energy Star features to meet the needs of modern family life.	Photo by Ann Weller
The Chapel on the Bluffs The Chapel on the Bluffs is a nondenominational chapel for the use and enjoyment of all Bluffs members, residents, and lodge guests. The hanging light fixtures originated from an old European chapel. Black walnut paneled walls are from a preacher’s barn. The church is surrounded by a custom built white picket fence with cross detail. The masonry of the outdoor steps is an exact replica of an old church in Clinton, Louisiana.	Photo by Ann Weller Photo by Ann Weller

Christmas Special - Transitory Theatre

2008-11-10T16:57:00.005-06:00

St. Francisville Transitory Theatre presents;
Performances are scheduled for 4:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 6 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 7 at Market Hall on Royal Street in St. Francisville. Each performance will run approximately 90 minutes which includes a 15 minute intermission between plays. Admission to all performances is $5.00 per person. Tickets will be on sale 30 minutes prior to each performance. Seating is limited to 50 people, so come early to get your seats!.

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