Hollywood in the Hills

St. Francisville: Hollywood in the Hills

By Anne Butler

As Louisiana has become the country’s third busiest state for movie and television production, just behind California and New York according to figures cited by writer Timothy Boone, so St. Francisville has become one of the film industry’s most popular locations. Hollywood, in other words, has discovered what residents have known for a long time: the St. Francisville area has something for everyone.
From the Mississippi River to the sandy creeks and unspoiled wilderness areas of the rugged Tunica Hills, from sand pits that look like desserts and deeply sunken roadbeds to architectural treasures like antebellum plantations and rude rustic cabins, from country lanes overhung with moss-draped trees and weathered barns to the quaint little rivertown of St. Francisville and even the state’s enormous maximum security penitentiary, location scouts excited about the area’s potential have directed a number of productions to West Feliciana in recent years---Jonah Hex, GI Joe II, Oblivion starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, Beautiful Creatures, Whiskey Bay, Maze Runner, Battle Los Angeles, Everybody’s All American, Dead Man Walking, Out Of Sight, North & South. Filming for The Reaping, with Hilary Swank, was interrupted by Hurricane Katrina.
For the just completed docudrama Bonnie and Clyde, a large number of locations in St.Francisville were used in the filming, including the courthouse, recently restored Temple Sinai for funeral scene, Magnolia Café, and Birdman Books and Coffee, plus other locales in the surrounding countryside. The town of St. Francisville was perfect for this production, according to tourist director Laurie Walsh, because “it steps back in time so naturally.” Cover the streets around the courthouse square with sand, bring in some vintage cars and actors in period costumes, and St. Francisville is transformed into an ideal 1930s setting, especially with still-used structures like the 3-V Tourist Courts, tiny overnight cabins with attached garages that were so typical of the era.
Productions like Bonnie and Clyde, so visible and accessible, involve the entire community, according to Walsh, and townsfolk are very supportive, with lots of locals experiencing the excitement of working as extras, not to mention the thrill of sharing a latte with the likes of William Hurt in the local coffeehouse. The exposure for St. Francisville and West Feliciana is great, Walsh explains, and the productions generate income for all segments of the community, not only for tourist services like accommodations and restaurants but also for cleaners (costumes often need cleaning), gas stations, hardware stores, locations for base camps, law enforcement agencies for providing extra security, crowd control and traffic diversions. Thanks to Walsh and an active local location scout, owners of properties used in filming are paid, often quite well.
In addition to serving as the Main Street Manager and Tourist Commission Director, Walsh is also the Film and Video Liaison for both town and parish, charged with overseeing film productions. A required no-fee permit includes practicalities like insurance indemnity and providing advance notification to local authorities on filming sites and shooting schedules, and Walsh very capably assists production crews locating whatever they need.
The town works closely with the Baton Rouge Film Commission, which has just launched a new website, www.filmbatonrouge.com, with St. Francisville area settings like Tunica Hills and Cat Island prominently displayed on the very first page of suggested filming locations. Additional information is available on St. Francisville town and tourist commission websites. According to figures from Louisiana Entertainment, statewide economic impact from the film industry in 2012 was $1.7 billion, generating 14,000 jobs, thanks in part to the state’s film tax credit program. With industry productions having such a huge impact on the state economy, St. Francisville is well positioned to take advantage of continuing interest in movie and television productions that can be enormously beneficial to the entire area.
But it’s not necessary to be a movie star to enjoy the area. Summertime special events in St. Francisville include the popular annual Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration, sponsored by the Feliciana Nature Society in this area where the artist Audubon found inspiration for many of his famous bird studies in the 1820s. It will be held Friday and Saturday, July 26 and 27. The Friday evening kick-off event begins at 6 p.m. at Rosedown State Historic Site, with a wine and cheese reception featuring LSU professor Catherine Fontenot speaking on hummingbirds and the plants that attract them to landscapes. Saturday the banding of birds by biologists Nancy Newfield and Linda Beale gives visitors the opportunity to observe the hummingbirds being captured, weighed and banded from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at two locations, Murrell Butler’s home and artist’s studio at 9485 Oak Hill Road, and Carlyle Rogillio’s home at 15736 Tunica Trace. Online visit www.audubonbirdfest.com.
Also on Saturday, July 27, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church’s Jackson Hall on Ferdinand Street in St. Francisville, the West Feliciana Animal Humane Society celebrates its first successful year of operations with a “Take a Chance on Me” Anniversary Gala, featuring food and drink, wine bar, live music by the popular local group Delta Drifters, fashion show and silent auction. Tickets of $25 benefit the WFAHS and the James L. “Bo” Bryant Animal Shelter, and they may be purchased in advance by mailing checks (payable to WFAHS) to Box 2032, St. Francisville, LA. For additional information online see http://wfahs.thebonnieblue.net. Thanks to the dedication of hardworking volunteers, this animal shelter has an incredibly high adoption rate; donations and volunteers are always welcome.
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; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are 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 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 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, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park and the twice-weekend Farmers Markets on Thursdays and Saturdays).

St. Francisville, May 2013

Every Southern Porch Needs a Dog, and St. Francisville’s Bo Bryant Shelter Has Just The Right One For You

By Anne Butler

Prior to 2012, the dog pound in St. Francisville consisted of a few makeshift pens attached to the parish jail, where the two-legged inmates had sentences considerably shorter than the four-legged ones who were pretty much on death row. A mere 5%-10% of the impounded animals were adopted out, most of those thanks to the efforts of a retired state trooper turned sheriff’s deputy, the late Bo Bryant; the rest met a sadder fate.

Help for homeless animals has come a long way since then. Just ask Hershey.
Hershey is a lab, a chocolate one, naturally, given the name. When he arrived not long ago at the new animal shelter in St. Francisville, the one named for Bryant and opened in 2012 as a collaboration between the parish police jury and sheriff’s department, Hershey was in terrible shape, heartworms, malnourished, even an old gunshot wound. Fortunately, a microchip scanner had been donated by local veterinarian Dr. Glenn Dupree; through Hershey’s chip, his owners could be identified. Baker residents who were on vacation in Oklahoma when contacted, they immediately returned to pick up the dog, who had been missing for three years! A joyous reunion ensued, Hershey leaping for joy to recognize his family and not a dry eye in the shelter, especially among the dedicated volunteers.

The story was repeated with a husky running loose in St. Francisville and getting in the way of a movie crew. Taken to the shelter, he too was found to have a microchip, permitting the staff to locate his family hours away in Waveland, Mississippi, from which he had been missing for several months. Miraculous reunions like these are complemented by a remarkable number of adoptions to new families. The James L. “Bo” Bryant Shelter now adopts out at reasonable fees some 90% of rescue cats and dogs, once they have been vetted, vaccinated and spayed at cut-rate cost by local veterinarians. This is a wonderful testament to the hard work of volunteers who foster, groom, tame, exercise, socialize and then transport animals wearing irresistible bright-colored vests pleading “Adopt Me” to public gatherings like St. Francisville’s monthly Community Market or the Angola Rodeo. Since the new shelter opened in August 2012, more than 143 adoptions have been arranged—dogs, cats, and even a horse. Not all of the shelter occupants are strays; some have arrived due to owner illness, death or relocation.
Volunteer and donor efforts are coordinated by the non-profit West Feliciana Animal Humane Society, whose 15 or so active civilian volunteers are supported by several volunteer inmates from the nearby parish work-release facility. Of course there is always a need for more—more volunteers to keep the facility open three days a week, care for the animals and oversee the adoptions; more foster homes for animals, especially those too young to stay in the shelter; more money and supplies like collars and leashes, pet carriers, cat litter, old towels, pet food; and more families willing to adopt. Kennels and cages are located in a large metal shed off the West Feliciana Parkway going toward the sports park, with exercise yards, holding pens and corrals that were built by Angola inmates. Adoption days are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 9 to 2.

The humane society has a wonderful website and a Facebook page full of heartwarming images, and prospective volunteers can contact the sheriff’s office for information. The animal control officer for St. Francisville and West Feliciana Parish, on the job for more than a decade dealing with loose livestock and animal cruelty cases as well as strays and nuisance complaints, says the volunteers of the WFAHS have made his job so much easier with their professionalism and compassion.

The next West Feliciana Animal Humane Society Pet Adoption Day will be at the public library on Ferdinand Street in St. Francisville on Saturday, May 18, from 9:30 to 1:30, with lovable adoptable dogs looking for a home and the humane society benefitting from a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Porch Dogs, new book by author-photographer Nell Dickerson who will be on hand to sign copies from 11 to 1 at this event co-sponsored by the Friends of the West Feliciana Parish Library and the West Feliciana Animal Humane Society. Mississippi native Dickerson, passionate about historic preservation, celebrates the southern tradition of the porch as every home’s most important living-gathering-socializing space, back in the days before air conditioning shut everyone inside and incommunicado. And just as every welcoming gallery had its rockers and porch swings and hammocks full of chatters and storytellers and pea-shellers, so every porch had its family dog. If your porch is missing one, this is your opportunity to complete the picture.

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; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are 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 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 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 at www.stfrancisville.us or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities, including the lively monthly third Saturday morning Community Market Day in Parker Park and the twice-weekly Farmers Markets).

ST. FRANCISVILLE COMMEMORATES CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL IN A DIFFERENT WAY

By Anne Butler

As communities across the country mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the observance in the quaint little rivertown of St. Francisville, LA, will not celebrate a victory in battle or commemorate a heart-wrenching defeat. Rather, St. Francisville’s observation of events 150 years past preserves a moment of civility in the midst of a bloody war, and the bonds of brotherhood that proved stronger even than the divisiveness of a bitter civil conflict pitting brother against brother. St. Francisville’s observance June 7, 8 and 9th is called The Day The War Stopped, and that is exactly what happened, at least for a little while.

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 Albatross was patrolling the Mississippi River off the port city of Bayou Sara just below St. Francisville when a single shot rang out from the captain’s stateroom. It was 4:15 p.m. on June 11, and the vessel’s commander, John Elliot Hart of Schenectady, New York, lay mortally wounded on the floor, his pistol beside his body and a note detailing his despondency over his sufferings from dyspepsia. Attempts to find a metal coffin in which to ship his body home proved futile, and so the ship’s surgeon went ashore in hopes of making arrangements for burial on land.

He was a Mason; Commander Hart was also a Mason. Living near the river he found several helpful brothers named White who were also Masons, and in St. Francisville was the second oldest Masonic Lodge in the state, its senior warden a Confederate cavalry officer who happened to be at home on furlough. It would be his duty, this Confederate officer felt, to afford a decent burial to a fellow Mason and fellow military officer, regardless of politics. And so the war stopped, if only for a few mournful moments.

The commemorative events begin on Friday, June 7, 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 lie the Reverend Dr. Daniel Lewis, Episcopal rector who presided at the burial, and W.W. Leake, the 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.

At 10 on Saturday morning, June 8, a lively parade processes through St. Francisville’s downtown Historic District, after which lunch is served from 11:30 to 12:30.

Visitors will be pleasantly transported back in time during the afternoon at Grace Church’s Bishop Jackson Hall from 11:30 to 1:30 as a concert of antebellum period music is followed by a graceful demonstration of vintage dancing. 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. A representative of Commander Hart’s New York Masonic lodge travels south every year to participate in the re-enactment with local Masons, and some years there are actually descendants of the original participants involved.

On Saturday evening from 6 to 8:30 p.m., 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., with all three floors filled with costumed living historians demonstrating what life was like during the trying 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 cared for 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 9, 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, 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; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are 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 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 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.daythewarstopped.com, 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 the twice weekly Farmers Markets on Thurdays and Saturdays) or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com.