St. Francisville, LA Celebrates Audubon & His Birds March 16-18

St. Francisville, LA Celebrates Audubon & His Birds March 16-18
By Anne Butler

The forty-seventh annual Audubon Pilgrimage March 16, 17 and 18, 2018, celebrates a southern spring in St. Francisville, the glorious garden spot of Louisiana’s English Plantation Country. For nearly half a century the sponsoring West Feliciana Historical Society has thrown open the doors of significant historic structures to commemorate artist-naturalist John James Audubon’s stay as he painted a number of his famous bird studies and tutored the daughter of Oakley Plantation’s Pirrie family, beautiful young Eliza. A year’s worth of planning and preparation precedes each pilgrimage, and with 47 years of experience under their belt, society members put on one of the South’s most professional and enjoyable pilgrimage presentations. This year’s breath of fresh air comes from never-before-shown properties and enthusiastic new owners of old houses.

One of this year’s featured country plantations is a remarkable house called Woodland, a story of unexpected twists and turns, intergenerational connections and a fascinating trip all the way across the Mighty Mississippi to the ancestral lands of the present owner in West Feliciana, a journey across hundreds of miles and two centuries. A grand Greek Revival house, Woodland was built in the mid-1800s on a sugar plantation near the steamboat town of Washington, but had been abandoned for years and was facing demolition when Cammie and David Norwood saved it. It took a year to prepare the old structure to be hauled circuitously along 375 miles of back roads and another several years to put it back together. Now the Woodland house has been returned to its original glory, filled with fine family furnishings and anchored to its pastoral site by well-planned landscaping, looking as if it has been there forever.

Another country plantation home with a remarkable history is glorious Greek Revival Greenwood, which has enjoyed more than its fair share of miraculous resurrections. Its story began in 1798, when widowed Olivia Ruffin Barrow journeyed by covered wagon to Spanish Feliciana. One of her grandsons would elope with young Eliza Pirrie, Audubon’s pupil. In 1830 Olivia’s son William Ruffin Barrow engaged prominent architect James Coulter to build a fine home on family property that would grow to 12,000 acres.

In 1915 Frank and Naomi Fisher Percy restored the house and opened it to the public. Featured in magazines, visited by tourists and beloved by Hollywood, it was called by National Geographic the finest example of Greek Revival architecture in the South. But on the night of August 1, 1960, lightning started a fire and within three hours, there was nothing left but 28 Doric columns and some free-standing chimneys. These ruins touched the hearts of Walton Barnes and his son Richard, who purchased the house site and 278 acres in 1968 and began the enormous effort of rebuilding. In July 2016, along came new owners Julie and Hal Pilcher, recently retired with the energy and enthusiasm to undertake significant improvements to ready the home for its first pilgrimage appearance.

An earlier country home also featured for the first time on the Audubon Pilgrimage this year is The Cedars, its design and first cash crop—tobacco—bespeaking the Virginia background of original owner Simon Hearty, for whom the property was surveyed beginning in 1790. The house was built between 1793 and 1795, and it was said that the artist John James Audubon sketched the birdlife on Cedars Lane and visited with the family there. After Thomas Butler purchased the property from his mother-in-law in 1879, his two daughters, Mamie and Sarah, who stayed in New Orleans after graduating from Newcomb, returned as spinsters to spend weekends in a house enlarged with two-story octagonal additions; subsequent owners, the Fred Kings, raised a family in a home they too improved.

Today The Cedars is houses a vibrant young family, the Andrew Grezaffis. They have filled it with an eclectic mixture of furnishings imparting the feel of having been lived in by generations of the same family, as all old homes should feel, although the Grezaffis and their five small children have been in residence only a few years.

In historic downtown St. Francisville are a couple of featured cottages across from the parish courthouse. Miss Lise’s Cottage was originally built in Bayou Sara, the flood-prone port city on the banks of the Mississippi River. In the late 1800s it was hauled up the hill into St. Francisville, safe from the floodwaters, its two rooms home for the first “telephone girl” whose early switchboard was on the second floor of the nearby bank.

Until recently a conveniently located attorney’s office, now it puts the WOW factor in this year’s pilgrimage and shows how adaptable these old structures can be in the right hands. The exterior facade retains the traditional Creole cottage character. but oh, that unexpected interior-- all black and white and simply stunning, showing what happens when you turn loose a gifted career architect, Jim Dart, and a frustrated designer of equal talent, David Anthony Parker II, on a charming little historic cottage, where the juxtaposition of antique and contemporary is stunning and a carefully curated collection of modern art strikes a happy balance with treasured family antiques.

Some of the best-loved pieces descend from Dart’s grandfather, an engineer and attorney whose law office next door to Miss Lise’s Cottage is now home to Kora, Grezaffi and Levasseur Capital Management (yes, the same Grezaffi whose home The Cedars is another pilgrimage feature). Built in 1842, it has housed such notable barristers as Uriah B. Phillips who was blown up in a mid-1800s steamboat explosion, and Louisiana’s last antebellum governor Robert C. Wickliffe.

Besides these featured historic structures, pilgrimage visitors are welcomed at Afton Villa Gardens, Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, three 19th-century churches in town and beautiful St. Mary’s in the country, as well as the Rural Homestead with lively demonstrations of the rustic skills of daily pioneer life. Audubon Market Hall hosts an impressive exhibit of more than sixty of Audubon’s Birds of America done in the Felicianas, Audubon State Historic Site features morning explorations of nature photography and birding programs (led by C.C. Lockwood and Dr. Tom Tully) augmented by a bird walk at Oak Hill (home of artist Murrell Butler). There will also be floral arranging demos, and this year the hills are alive with the sound of music as special performances are scheduled for each featured home and throughout downtown St. Francisville in tribute to the late father of this year’s chairman. Daytime features are open 9:30 to 5, Sunday 11 to 4 for tour homes; Friday evening activities are scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m., Saturday soiree begins at 7 p.m.

The Historic District around Royal Street is filled during the day with the happy sounds of costumed children singing and dancing the Maypole; in the evening as candles flicker and fireflies flit among the ancient moss-draped live oaks, there is no place more inviting for a leisurely stroll. Friday evening features old-time Hymn Singing at the United Methodist Church, Graveyard Tours at Grace Episcopal cemetery (last tour begins at 8:15 p.m.), and a wine and cheese reception at Bishop Jackson Hall (7 to 9 p.m.) featuring Vintage Dancers and young ladies modeling the pilgrimage’s exquisitely detailed 1820’s evening costumes, nationally recognized for their authenticity. Light UpThe Night, the Saturday evening soiree, features live music and dancing, dinner and drinks beginning at 7 p.m. For tickets and tour information, contact West Feliciana Historical Society, Box 338, St. Francisville, LA 70775; phone 225-635-6330 or 225-635-4224; online www.westfelicianahistory.org, email wfhistsociety@gmail.com. A package including daytime tours and all evening entertainment Friday and Saturday is available. Tickets can be purchased at the Historical Society Museum on Ferdinand Street.

Other events planned for March in St. Francisville include A Walk in the Park on Saturday, March 3, from 9 to 4, bringing a festive gathering of musicians, artists and craftsmen to oak-shaded Parker Park.
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: The Cottage Plantation (weekends), Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs.

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

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

What's Old is New Again

St. Francisville’s Surrounding Plantation Country: What’s Old is New Again
By Anne Butler
St. Francisville has been the center of culture, government and religion since it was settled in the opening years of the 19th century, but the little port city of Bayou Sara along the Mississippi River just below the bluffs was the center of commerce, while the surrounding plantation country provided the economic driver for both communities. Today, Bayou Sara is no more and St. Francisville has become the center of commerce as well as culture, but there remain a number of recently rejuvenated historic plantations that attract visitors seeking an understanding of what life was like in the Cotton Kingdom.

One of the most significant and earliest of Louisiana’s state historic sites, Oakley Plantation and its surrounding hundred wooded acres reopened with an old-time Christmas celebration the first weekend in December after being closed for nearly a year for lead abatement. During that time the house underwent a complete exterior restoration and was repainted in the original colors, white with darker green trim, plus interior paint touch-ups and furniture conservation. Popular as the central focus of the Audubon State Historic Site for more than half a century, Oakley is a splendid West Indies-style three-story structure with jalousied galleries and has a fascinating visitor center/museum, picnic facilities and hiking trails, detached plantation kitchen reconstructed on original foundations with weaving and wash rooms, a barn full of horse-drawn vehicles and farm implements, and several rustic slave cabins.

These dependencies are periodically utilized to augment the house tour with demonstrations of early practical skills and fascinating living-history events; weekends in January the highlights will be “Time Travelers” featuring the thunder of cannon in 1810 (January 6); “The Boys of ’61” replicating conditions on the eve of war as civilians become soldiers (January 20); and “Open-Hearth Candle Making” (January 21).

Oakley Plantation was responsible for artist John James Audubon’s fruitful stay in 1821, when he was hired to tutor Eliza, the young daughter of the Pirrie family, and painted dozens of his Birds of America studies in the area. His pupil would enter into marriages that tied Oakley to other early plantation families. Her first marriage was to a dashing young Barrow cousin who contracted pneumonia on their honeymoon and died before the birth of their first child; her last was to an attorney called by her friends “a trifling sponge,” lured away by the Gold Rush and absent when she died of childbed fever.

It was her second marriage, to the eminently respectable first rector of Grace Episcopal Church, that produced the descendants who were still struggling to keep Oakley going into the 20th century; it also united the plantation with another state historic site, Rosedown, when Eliza’s son James Pirrie Bowman married the daughter of Rosedown’s Barrow/Turnbull family.

A glorious double-galleried Greek Revival structure embraced by the surrounding 28 acres of formal gardens, the house at Rosedown was constructed in the 1830s and remained for more than a century in the original family. Now owned by the state, it is not only a State Historic Site but also a National Historic Landmark in recognition of its enormous significance. A number of original outbuildings remain, and as at Oakley they are often used to illustrate various facets of early plantation life, as are the grand gardens.

Another important Greek Revival structure is Greenwood Plantation, which has recently found new owners and a new lease on life, having enjoyed more than its fair share of miraculous resurrections. Its story began in 1798, when widowed Olivia Ruffin Barrow arrived with 50 wagons full of possessions, 150 slaves, six children (some grown), and the wealth with which to build a new life in a new land. One of her grandsons became the first and short-lived husband of Audubon’s pupil Eliza Pirrie.

Another grandson, William Ruffin Barrow, in 1830 built his home on family property that would eventually grow to 12,000 acres. Nearly 100 feet square, the Greenwood house was completely surrounded by 28 Doric columns of brick, rising more than 30 feet from a porch set 5 feet above ground level, supporting an intricately detailed entablature and solid copper roof topped by a belvedere from which Barrow could survey his cotton and sugar cane fields being tilled by some 750 slaves.

The Civil War brought tragedy, but in the early 1900s the plantation was purchased by Frank and Naomi Fisher Percy, who restored the house and enjoyed sharing it with the public. Surrounded by live oaks, Greenwood was called the finest example of Greek Revival architecture in the South, featured in magazines, visited by thousands of tourists, and beloved by Hollywood as a movie setting. And then on the night of August 1, 1960, tragedy struck again; lightning started a fire that destroyed everything but columns and chimneys. Eventually the house was rebuilt as close to the original as possible, and now new owners have brought new enthusiasm, sharing the home with visitors for tours and special events as well as overnight stays.

Yet another plantation house that has found new energy and enthusiasm with a new generation is The Myrtles, which has its own connections with Oakley Plantation and Audubon’s pupil Eliza. Eliza’s mother Lucretia Alston Pirrie’s first husband was Ruffin Gray; her sister Ann Alston was the wife of early settler Alexander Stirling, and their son, born in 1795 and named Ruffin Gray Stirling for his uncle, purchased The Myrtles in 1834.

The plantation, originally known as Laurel Grove, was established in the late 1790s by General David Bradford, 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, Bradford narrowly escaped with his life to Spanish territory and built the north section of the house on a land grant of 650 arpents. After yellow fever epidemics in 1823 and 1824 killed the wife and two young children of the next occupant of The Myrtles, the property was sold, along with improvements and slaves, for $46,853.17 to Ruffin Gray Stirling. After a succession of owners, it was purchased in 1992 by the Moss family, and now a new generation, son Morgan, is implementing a long-needed restoration and re-landscaping with big plans for the future of this popular tourist destination.

Other plantations, the early Cottage Plantation which remarkably resisted gentrification through the generations of the same family, and Catalpa Plantation which has family ties to Rosedown and Oakley, are open only on weekends (The Cottage) or by appointment (Catalpa). Greenwood, Myrtles, and Rosedown are open to the public daily except holidays, while Oakley is open Wednesday through Sunday. Together they present a good picture of early life in the Felicianas, when pioneering families were joined together by blood, marriage, economic necessities and history, and they continue to hold much interest for the steady stream of tourists enjoying the St. Francisville area.

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

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

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

Life Lessons from Audubon's Birds

Life Lessons from Audubon’s Birds
By Anne Butler

Beloved historian and preservationist Libby Dart always said St. Francisville’s Audubon Pilgrimage tour of historic homes and gardens had as much to teach the locals as the visitors---an appreciation of area heritage, a spirit of community, a sense of place, all still relevant today. And this year’s pilgrimage taught in a new way another lesson from what might be called a bird’s eye view: appreciate what you’ve got, because when it’s gone, it’s gone.

While the popular annual tour as usual featured fabulous historic homes, hosts decked out in 1820s costumes, glorious gardens and a rural homestead recreating old-time crafts and skills, this year’s pilgrimage had a welcomed new focus on its patron saint, artist John James Audubon and his short but productive stay in West Feliciana Parish. Hired in 1821 to tutor the young daughter of Oakley Plantation, where he was paid $60 a month and had afternoons free to walk in the woods and study the birds, the artist would complete more than 70 of his life-sized bird drawings in the St. Francisville area and over 100 in Louisiana, more than in any other state.

The lush landscapes and rich bird life left the flamboyant artist so spellbound and inspired that the St. Francisville area is well represented among the 435 hand-colored prints made from engraved plates that were released in a series over the period from 1827 to 1838. On the 2017 pilgrimage dedicated to his memory, a remarkable exhibit of museum-quality reproductions of most of his West Feliciana birds was mounted in the 1819 Audubon Market Hall on Royal St. Each was identified as to location, whether at Oakley, Bayou Sara, Beech Grove, Tunica Swamp, Beech Woods, Sleepy Hollow, St. Francisville, Thompson Creek or simply Feliciana.

Many of the birds he found in the area are still around today, but some are not. The passenger pigeon, for example, in the 1850s was the most abundant bird in North America, maybe even the world, with 19^th-century migrations darkening the skies and some 136 million breeding adults devouring farm crops and nesting in trees whose overloaded branches would sag to the ground. But by the 1890s wild flocks numbered in the dozens rather than hundreds of millions. The once prolific Carolina parakeet (parrot) was hunted for sport and meat into extinction. The Ivorybilled Woodpecker was another one lost, though some optimists still hold out hope of finding a few in remote areas; the last of this huge bird was said to have been shot, and by a state legislator who should have known better.

Extinction of certain bird species had a number of causes, mostly habitat loss due to rural agriculture and urban sprawl, pesticides impacting egg shells, wholesale slaughter for food or fun, even the popularity of feathers as millinery decoration (the great snowy egret has fortunately made a comeback after being nearly wiped out as hunters slaughtered adult birds for their curling nuptial plumage, often leaving nestlings to die unattended).

The last Great Auk in the British Isles was clubbed to death by islanders convinced it was a witch due to its awkward appearance with tiny wings and large white spot on its head; the population of these penguin-like birds had already been decimated for their down used to stuff pillows. When they’re gone, they’re gone. By the same token, there are those today who advocate for the removal or destruction of reminders of offensive or divisive events or eras in history. Far better, it would seem, to leave them that we might appreciate what they have to teach us and learn their lessons.

And from these losses do come lessons. Local artist/naturalist Murrell Butler, who marvels at what Audubon must have seen in this vast habitat teeming with birds, notes some successful comebacks, notably bald eagles, wild turkeys, egrets, roseate spoonbills that were also killed for their rosy plumage, even a tiny resettled population of whooping cranes. And he also points out that there are some new species that have arrived in the state since Audubon’s time…English sparrows, European starlings, cattle egrets probably blown by hurricane winds from Africa in the fifties first to the Bahamas and then the mainland U.S., new types of doves from Europe and Mexico, and others.

This is an artist who preserves in paintings wildlife from the past as well as present; his most recent series of oil on canvas paintings of Bayou Sara creek will be revealed at a reception at Backwoods Gallery in St. Francisville on May 25 (5-8 p.m.). Now in his 80s, he recalls the beauty of the creek, with nesting wading birds, migratory Canada or blue geese, even a trumpeter swan seen by his grandfather in the thirties, and clear water and deep swimming holes. Now he sees the creek full of discarded garbage, when as a child he remembers its water so clear he could drink from it.

But he also sees hope, with a resurgence of interest in birding and in keeping waterways like Bayou Sara clean for kayaking and other recreations. And in St. Francisville itself, under the guidance of popular nine-term mayor Billy D’Aquilla and some sensible zoning regulations, the little river town seems to have struck the right balance between preservation and progress. Passengers debarking from visiting steamboats rave over the charm of this Main Street community, which actually owes much of its successful survival to the fortunate mix of commercial and residential structures giving it a 24-hour presence downtown, keeping it very much alive.

Of course there have been flush times and lean years, too; all was not moonlight and magnolias, and some historic structures were regrettably lost. But much has been preserved, and the 1700 or so town residents count their blessings as they stroll the bricked sidewalks beneath overhanging live oaks, past whitewashed picket fences and gingerbread galleries, lawns abloom with azaleas or camellias or crepe myrtles depending on the season, and front porch rockers beckoning after a busy day.

Consistently on the list of most beautiful small towns across the country, St. Francisville also has a small bookstore among the top ten in the state, enormously popular festivals celebrating music and art and literature and history and holidays, fun family-friendly special events, some top-notch overnight accommodations, restaurants with a surprising variety of ethnic origins, and beautifully restored plantations in the surrounding countryside open for touring. Not to mention recreational opportunities in the extensive parish sports park, at The Bluffs golfing resort, and in the Tunica Hills…hiking, biking, bicycle racing, birding (of course), tennis, kayaking on Bayou Sara, hunting and fishing.

And so while the losses must be regretted, at the same time lessons must be learned from them. What’s left that is unique and significant must be appreciated and preserved and built upon, because when it’s gone, it’s gone.

The month of April is full of activities in the St. Francisville area, beginning April 1^st with an Easter Egg Hunt for children at Rosedown State Historic Site from 1 to 5; the plantation gift shop also has a special Civil War exhibit throughout the month. April 16 Arlin Dease hosts the spectacular Easter Sunrise Service, nondenominational and free for all, in the lakeside Greek amphitheater at Hemingbough. The enormously popular Angola Prison Spring Rodeo and Craft Show draws crowds Saturday and Sunday, April 22 and 23; grounds open at 9 a.m., rodeo starts at 2 p.m., and visitors are advised to remember that this is a penitentiary and regulations should be followed to the letter. April 28 Grace Episcopal Church provides an acoustically perfect setting for Baton Rouge Symphony’s concert featuring a string quartet, while the Tunica Hills Music Festival is set for April 29. For information, refer to www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, andNatchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination.  A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: The Cottage Plantation (weekends), Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19^th-century plantation life and customs (the main house at Oakley is closed for lead abatement, but the visitor center and grounds remain accessible and planned programs continue).

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

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

Fruitcake Weather in St. Francisville

Fruitcake Weather in St. Francisville

By Anne Butler

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MAMIE THOMPSON’S FAMOUS CATALPA EGGNOG

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

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

VIOLET GLOVER’S OYSTER DRESSING

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

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

GRANDMA’S HARD SAUCE (from Oil & GAStronomy)

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

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

FRENCH 75

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

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

St. Francisville ROCKS!

St. Francisville ROCKS!
By Anne Butler

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photographs by Darlene Reaves

2016 Audubon Pilgrimage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts of Thanksgiving in St. Francisville, LA

Thoughts of Thanksgiving in St. Francisville, LA
By Anne Butler

Thanksgiving turns our thoughts backward, back to the 1620s First Thanksgiving celebrated by Plymouth pilgrims with the Native Americans who taught them survival skills, back to our heritage and history, back to “Over the River and Through the Wood, To Grandmother’s House We Go.”

These days, Grandma might just as well be on a skiing trip to her condo in Colorado instead of laboring over a hot oven roasting turkey for the multitudes, and anyway, the original poem penned by Lydia Maria Child said we were going to Grandfather’s House. And while Ol’ Man River keeps on rolling, rolling, rolling in timeless fashion past St. Francisville, we’re missing two of the icons of a trip over the waters. The ferryboat we rode for a century or so has been replaced by a grand new bridge. And Miss Emily, ah, we miss Miss Emily.

For more than 30 years, the long wait at the landing for the ferry to cross the Mississippi River between St. Francisville and New Roads was brightened by the much anticipated sight of Miss Emily. Braving the freezing breezes or broiling sun, straw-hatted Miss Emily trundled along the landing road with a bright red Radio Flyer wagon loaded with her famous homemade pralines, teacakes, boiled or roasted peanuts. Generations of travelers from around the world grew to love Miss Emily, daughter of an old-time pastor/carpenter. Miss Emily worked for many years as nanny and housekeeper for the Wilcox family in St. Francisville, but she needed more income to support her seven children. When she came up with the idea of hawking snacks, she asked the Lord to give her a recipe, and after a few failures, she and the Lord perfected the ingredients and technique for what visitors and residents alike called the world’s best pecan pralines.

When she died in September at the age of 84, longtime St. Francisville mayor William H. D’Aquilla, “by the authority vested in me by the State of Louisiana and the Town of St. Francisville,” officially proclaimed October 3 as Ms. Emily Smothers Williams Day in recognition of the great respect with which she was viewed in the community.

Today her grandson Antonio Williams, long her understudy, continues to make her popular pecan candy, selling it from her home across from the town post office as well as in the local historical museum and other shops in St. Francisville, carrying on the tradition in fine fashion.

This being November, the month of nostalgia, there’s another salute to tradition and heritage on Sunday, November 1, when the Hemingbough Blues Festival pays tribute to the roots music from which so many contemporary musical genres spring, everything from jazz and R&B to rock and roll or hip hop. From 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 11:30), the Baton Rouge Blues Society has assembled an incredible array of talent to give concert goers the opportunity to enjoy world-class blues played by some of the best musicians around.

Hosted by radio personality Rob Payer, the festival features blues and soul man Luther Kent, who was born in New Orleans and began singing professionally at age 14. One-time lead singer for “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” he has been inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame as well as the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Another member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame is Gregg Wright of the stellar guitar and soulful voice fame, called King of the Rockin’ Blues. Wright played 75 concerts as Michael Jackson’s guitarist on his legendary 1980’s Victory Tour. Worldwide audiences proclaim him one of the most innovative guitarists of our time, in the top echelons of the great blues guitarists.

They will be joined by Chris LeBlanc, for over 20 years a mainstay on the Louisiana music scene, whose performances resonate with the rich bluesy sound of the south; Betsy Braud with her upbeat gumbo bayou jazz with a hint of the swamp; talented LSU music school grad Kiki Lynell; and beloved local blues band the Delta Drifters. Also appearing are Oscar “Harp” Davis, one of the region’s best blues harmonica players and member of the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame; John Gray, educator and trumpet player noted for his wide range of musical genres from classical to jazz, funk and R&B; Chris Belleau, physiatrist by day and in Zydeco bands by night, whose album Knee Deep in the Blues featured him on vocals, harmonic and Cajun accordion.

Tickets for the Hemingbough Blues Festival are $20 in advance, $25 at the gate, and are available at Phil Brady’s Bar and the Elizabethan Gallery in Baton Rouge. No coolers are allowed; food and drink are available on-site for purchase.

So if you don’t have an accessible Grandma to go home to for Thanksgiving, come on over the river and through the wood to St. Francisville, eat some of Miss Emily’s legendary pralines and hear some soulful sounds of the southern blues for which this area is famous.
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and
Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination.  A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation, Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).

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

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

St. Francisville’s Beautiful Oak-Shaded Parker Park

St. Francisville’s Beautiful Oak-Shaded Parker Park
By Anne Butler
Few of the folks who enjoy community festivals and get-togethers on the landscaped grounds of beautiful Parker Park in historic downtown St. Francisville stop to think of the history of that particular property, but if these oaks could talk!
In 1870 Sara Mulholland Flower sold her 40-arpent property called Magnolia Glen, located right in the heart of town where the well-travelled roads leading from Woodville, Baton Rouge and Bayou Sara converged. The buyer was a young dentist from New York, Dennison Stocking, who had moved to Pointe Coupee as a 22-year-old, served four years in the Confederate army, then moved across the river to St. Francisville. There he set up his dental chair in one room of the old Magnolia Glen house and advertised that he would attend all calls on the coast (meaning the Mississippi River) from New Orleans to Natchez, as well as “the back country when accessible with a buggy.”
As he prospered, his family grew to include a wife and three daughters named Eliska, Eugenie and Mehitable, the latter known as Hetty. In 1876 plans for a suitable estate were drawn, including a handsome grove and circular drive, plus stables in the back and 6 ½ acres labeled as “park.” The enormous Victorian Gothic house he built had a broad front gallery and three steep pointed gables across the front. By the 1880s the Wolf brothers, who took over Julius Freyhan’s huge dry-goods emporium and cotton gin just across the street, would build matching homes of similar style next door, one still standing as the St. Francisville Inn.
Dr. Stocking died in 1887, and the house burned in 1937. Two of the daughters, Eugenie and Mehitable, demolished the old Royal Hotel and used the bricks to erect cottages on the old house site for travelling tourists of the new automobile age, calling it Stocking Court.
During the Depression, Eugenie’s talented daughter Eloise hit the road for Hollywood in a Model-T Ford and used her musical skills to build a successful business empire that included a klieg lighting business and a fancy hostelry patronized by the rich and famous. During World War II she delighted in entertaining the “local” boys stationed in California, showing them a real good time, and she scandalized the local ladies when she made periodic trips back home to St. Francisville in a big pink Cadillac chauffeured by muscle-bound California beachboys, accompanied by a foul-mouthed minah bird.
In the 1990s the widow of her son, James Munroe Parker, graduate of Annapolis and great-grandson of Dr. Dennison Stocking, donated the property to the Town of St. Francisville, and it now contains a veteran’s memorial, Victorian bandstand, paved walkways and well-maintained shaded grounds. Parker Park is the site of the popular fall Yellow Leaf Arts Festival, community market days, movies in the park, and numerous other activities, and advance scheduling of activities must be done through town officials.
The colorful Eloise Parker will be one of the local characters resurrected for a new fundraising event called Night At The Museum the second Saturday in August. This benefits the West Feliciana Historical Society, with costumed presenters entertaining the crowd, plus fine refreshments at the Ferdinand Street headquarters/museum/tourist information center (call 225-635-4224 for details). The museum, in an 1880s hardware store, has fascinating exhibits recently professionally redesigned to show off the society’s extensive collection of artifacts. Proceeds benefit ongoing preservation projects and maintenance on restored historic structures.
And on August 22 the popular annual Polos and Pearls evening event puts the sizzle into summer shopping and entices customers to St. Francisville’s National Register downtown historic district and outskirts beginning at 5 p.m. All the interesting little shops (and there are some wonderful new ones to complement the more established outlets) and galleries offer lots of extras---refreshments provided by local restaurants or caterers, live music or other entertainment, and plenty of bargains, making shopping after dark just plain fun. Visitors can drive or hop on the trolley to visit participating stores throughout the downtown area.
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and
Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation, Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.
For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).