MARDI GRAS ESCAPEES PARADE TO ST. FRANCISVLLE
By Anne Butler

As the rest of south Louisiana celebrates Mardi Gras in a burst of fun and frivolity preceding the austerity of Lent, with everything from costumed royalty at masquerade balls to fabulous floats in colorful street parades and even rowdy riders galloping about in pursuit of terrified chickens for the gumbo pot, St. Francisville marches to its own different drum and does what it does best. This quiet little rivertown in English Louisiana, where the primarily Protestant pioneers made no fuss over carnival season, provides a respite from the madness, a peaceful haven for Fat Tuesday escapees and a romantic destination for Valentine lovers.

And whether you’re traveling for escape or romance, whether you’re trying to find yourself or lose yourself, St. Francisville has just the right accommodation for your trip. Bed & Breakfasts run the gamut from historic townhouses to antebellum plantations, from lakeside clubhouses to golf resorts and throw-back thirties’ motor courts. Some are contemporary and some historic, some in the countryside and some right in the midst of St. Francisville’s National Register of Historic Places downtown, and they’re as different as night and day.

Most historic of the in-town B&Bs is the Barrow House-Printer’ Cottage, two structures across the street from each other on beautiful Royal Street. The Barrow House was built around 1809 and during the Civil War was the home of attorney W.W. Leake, Confederate cavalry officer who facilitated the rare moment of civility when Masons in both blue and grey joined in universal brotherhood to bury a Union gunboat commander in the cemetery of nearby Grace Church. Leake’s daughter married Dr. A. Feltus Barrow, country doctor and town mayor who gave the house its name. The Printer’s Cottage across the street is a late 1700’s post-and-beam structure with upstairs evidence of the passage of a cannonball. Between the two structures, there are bedrooms and suites, with exceptionally fine antiques as well as modern conveniences.

The St. Francisville Inn is located in the Wolf-Schlesinger House adjacent to oak-shaded Parker Park and was built in the 1880s by prosperous merchant Morris Wolf, of the Jewish immigrant family so important to the region’s post-war economic survival. The bustling emporium begun across the street by his brother-in-law, J. Freyhan & Co., was taken over by Wolf and his brother Emmanuel and renamed M&E Wolf’s General Store and Cotton Gin. The Victorian house contains the wine parlor and dining area where a sumptuous breakfast buffet is served for the public and for guests staying in rooms across a bricked courtyard.

Shadetree bills itself as magical, and so it is, perched on a wooded hilltop on Royal Street with sloping lawns and a view of the Mississippi River from its rustic decks. An individual cottage plus several suites in the eclectic main structure provide upscale amenities, while the grounds are ideal for birding, bonfires and relaxing.

And then there are the 3-V Tourist Courts, throwbacks to the thirties’ cabin-with-attached-garage motoring days and perfect backdrop for the filming of “Bonnie and Clyde.” Fun little spaces and amazingly well equipped for their size, they are right next to Magnolia Café in the center of all the activity, especially on Friday nights when the Mag has live music.

There are also modern motel accommodations in town---Best Western and the 100-room Magnuson on the lake---capable of housing entire busloads of visitors, plus apartments at Lamplighter Suites for overnight, weekly or monthly rental. Peaceful Pines Campgrounds and Shelby J’s RV Park have full hookups and facilities for motor homes.

In the countryside surrounding St. Francisville, four historic plantations offer overnight accommodations. Begun in the 1790s by David Bradford of Pennsylvania, leader of the Whiskey Rebellion protesting a tax levied on spirits, The Myrtles has been more famous in recent years for a different variety of spirits, billing itself one of America’s most haunted houses. Stories swirl around the deaths of Bradford’s daughter and several small granddaughters, and there was also a documented Reconstruction-era murder on the long front gallery. Hair-curling candlelight mystery tours on weekends may have some guests preferring to stay in the newly constructed B&B cottages rather than the elaborate rooms in the main house. There is an on-site restaurant as well.

The main house at Butler Greenwood Plantation, also begun in the 1790s by the area’s first physician and later home to the chief justice of the Louisiana’s first Supreme Court, is still occupied by members of the original family, so guests stay in eight well-equipped cottages scattered around the landscaped grounds. Some overlook a pond and others are perched on the edges of steep wooded ravines, all very quiet and peaceful with lots of live oaks and 19th-century gardens.

Another early plantation is The Cottage, 1795 land grant purchased in 1811 by Thomas Butler, the first judge of the Florida Parishes, and remaining in the original family until the 1950s. Andrew Jackson stayed there on his way home from the Battle of New Orleans; his chief of staff was Judge Butler’s brother and there were at least 7 other Butlers in the party, taxing the accommodations of even this commodious home so that the host had to sleep in the pantry. Guests today have a choice of rooms in the main house and attached wing, furnished with fine antiques, or one separate pond-side cottage.

Designed for William Ruffin Barrow in 1830 by noted architect James Hammon Coulter, Greenwood Plantation was considered one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture, 100 feet square and completely surrounded by 28 immense Doric columns of slave-made brick. It was struck by lightning on August 1, 1960, and burned completely to the ground. Only the columns and chimneys were left, but they were enough to inspire the Barnes family to purchase the property and rebuild an exact duplicate. Guests are now welcomed for overnight stays in a separate structure across the reflecting pond.

More contemporary accommodations may be had at Lake Rosemound Inn, lakeside clubhouse situated on the banks of beautiful Lake Rosemound. Rooms and suites have private entrances, guests have access to lakeside beach and fishing, and there is even an ice cream parlor. Hemingbough is an ambitious conference center, elegant setting for large cultural events and receptions, with gardens and an amphitheater and Greek temple beside a large lake. Overnight accommodations here are in a replica of the garconnier at Uncle Sam Plantation, as well as a variety of smaller structures.

The Felicianas’ first golf resort and private residential community, The Bluffs enhances a spectacular 674-acre wooded setting overlooking Thompson Creek with a challenging 18-hole championship course designed by golf great Arnold Palmer to highlight its unique site. The Lodge at The Bluffs has suites, and the Clubhouse features a restaurant and grill, meeting and fitness facilities.
B&B owners can provide personalized recommendations for touring, dining, special seasonal events, recreational activities and everything else that can make overnight stays enjoyable and interesting, whether guests want to have an active visit or want to relax and do nothing at all. There’s something for everyone in St. Francisville. (And for those guests exhibiting withdrawal symptoms of carnival deprivation, right across the Mississippi River is one of the state’s oldest Mardi Gras celebrations in French New Roads, just over the Audubon Bridge!)

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, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season. 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 some weekends to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Sunday and Monday). Rosedown has special exhibits and events throughout the month of February in observance of Black History Month.

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 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).

ONLY IN ST. FRANCISVILLE

By Anne Butler

Audubon Pilgrimage

Tourism in Louisiana is big business, generating some $10.7 billion in annual spending by more than 26 million visitors. Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne, head of the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, is introducing a new marketing campaign for 2014 with emphasis on Louisiana’s cultural diversity. Its tagline is “Only in Louisiana,” a slogan promoting the state as a unique cultural destination, and St. Francisville fits right into that marketing campaign with a number of site-specific local offerings ranging from the country’s largest bald cypress tree to a museum full of compelling exhibits on the hair-raising history of the country’s largest and most infamous maximum-security prison.


This little 19th-century rivertown has always had an abiding sense of place and respect for its history as English Louisiana’s plantation country, which for more than four decades has been shared with visitors at the annual spring Audubon Pilgrimage, one of the state’s longest running and most professionally presented historic home tours. Most recently attention has turned to enhancing awareness of the area’s early Jewish immigrants; the turn-of-the-century temple has been beautifully restored and the parish’s first public school, built primarily with contributions from German Jewish immigrant Julius Freyhan, is being resurrected as a community cultural center and the state’s first museum highlighting the significant contributions of the early Jewish immigrants whose business and financial acumen proved so vital to the post-bellum economic recovery of the South.

Angola Museum

In a region long famous for its lush antebellum gardens, a contemporary horticultural masterpiece serves to showcase the contributions of another group of immigrants, the Japanese-American family who brought the extensive gardens at Afton Villa Plantation back to life upon relocating to Louisiana after World War II. Today Imahara’s Botanical Garden rivals the early plantation plantings with thousands of plant specimens as well as a display of Haiku cypress carvings sharing the family legacy.


St. Francisville’s early settlers, those who carved the indigo and cotton plantations from the wilderness, certainly chose a propitious location for the little settlement right along the Mississippi River, so important as a means of transportation. Springtime overflow of its waters enriched the surrounding bottomlands and also provided, along this the only unleveed stretch of the lower Mississippi, the cyclical flooding that created the unique environment now preserved as Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge, home of the country’s largest bald cypress and other old-growth trees as well as habitat for an abundance of both migratory and resident birds and waterfowl.

Cat Island NWR

From St. Francisville northward, the rugged Tunica Hills area is an unspoiled wilderness that continues to support the same rich birdlife that so enthralled artist-naturalist John James Audubon in the 1820s that he painted dozens of his famous bird studies right in West Feliciana Parish. The steep wooded hillsides and deep cool hollows shelter rare plants and animals such as chipmunks found nowhere else in the state, and St. Francisville’s proximity to Clark Creek Natural Area make it an ideal jumping-off spot for hiking to a popular series of waterfalls.


If the early settlers chose St. Francisville’s location for its prime planting prospects, correctional officials chose the area just as carefully for its rugged terrain making escapes difficult from the maximum-security penitentiary called Angola, once the bloodiest prison in the country. Now its days of infamy are preserved in compelling exhibits in a museum which, along with the prison rodeo called the Wildest Show in the South, has helped make the 18,000-acre correctional facility the unlikeliest of tourist attractions.


Another special event unique to St. Francisville is the summertime Civil War re-enactment called The Day The War Stopped. Instead of the usual guns-blaring battle scene, this is actually a celebration of a rare moment of civility in the midst of a bloody war, when Masons from both Confederate and Union forces joined together in brotherhood to bury under flag of truce a Union naval officer in the oak-shaded cemetery of historic Grace Episcopal Church.

Temple Sinai

Louisiana is indeed a unique cultural destination where visitors have experiences available nowhere else. As Lt. Gov. Dardenne says, “When they come to Louisiana, they are going to leave with an experience unlike anything else. When you leave Louisiana, stories will be your best souvenir.” St. Francisville certainly has its share of special experiences and goodness knows there are plenty of stories. As the little town becomes a creative haven for writers, artists, musicians and others seeking quiet inspiration, other local events have been especially planned to enhance that experience and share it with visitors.


On Saturday, February 22, A Gathering of Writers and Readers, a symposium sponsored by Arts For All of author presentations, panel discussions and book signings, takes place at Hemingbough in St. Francisville. Moderated by SLU professor and writer Charles Elliott, the event features National Medal of Arts recipient Ernest Gaines as well as four professional authors chosen to give the audience a well-balanced appreciation for the art of literature—poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, nonfiction.

Day the War Stopped

Nationally acclaimed award-winning fiction author Dr. Wiley Cash, the Entergy Author for this event, earned his PhD at UL Lafayette, where he began the bestselling novel A Land More Kind than Home, called “great Gothic Southern fiction filled with whiskey, guns and snake-handling.” His just released second book promises to be just as riveting. Rheta Grimsley Johnson is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and author of nonfiction books including Poor Man’s Provence about time spent in the Atchafalaya Basin. Dr. Julie Kane, Northwestern State University professor and Louisiana’s past Poet Laureate, has published five volumes of poetry, and Anne Butler writes nonfiction books preserving Louisiana history and culture.

For online information visit artsforall.felicianalocal.com; to purchase tickets, brownpapertickets.com/event/491750.This program is supported in part by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of CRT, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council, the Greater Baton Rouge Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.


Another literary event, planned for later in the year, will focus on the writings of the late Louisiana author Walker Percy and his cultural and family ties to 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 daily: the Cottage Plantation, the Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season. 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 living-history demonstrations most weekends 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, 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).

DECK THE HILLS AT ST. FRANCISVILLE’S CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION

By Anne Butler

Local Shop

Christmas, as customarily celebrated in the country, was marked by beloved rituals and time-honored traditions. Houses were decked with woodland greenery, cedar trees cut and strung with cherished decorations, mistletoe hung in anticipation of stolen kisses, nativities assembled and church services attended, even a few cups of creamy eggnog downed. And then 19^th-century country folk piled into horsedrawn wagons and headed into the area’s commercial and cultural center, St. Francisville, where wide-eyed children pressed cold noses against frosted storefront windows and dreamed of china dolls or wooden rocking horses.
The dry-goods emporiums and specialty shops of St. Francisville in the early days carried everything from farm implements and buggies to ladies’ fine millinery and gents’ furnishings, everything from cradles to coffins. They still do today, and the merchants of historic downtown St. Francisville take pleasure and pride in hosting a Christmas celebration that still draws celebrants of the season to a safe, family-oriented weekend of fun and festivities and fabulous shopping called Christmas in the Country, always the first full weekend of December, this year December 6, 7 and 8. There may not be any coffins for sale, but Santa still arrives in a horse-drawn vehicle.

White Cottage & Market Hall

Millions of white lights trace soaring Victorian trimwork and grace gallery posts to transform the entire town into a veritable winter wonderland as St. Nick arrives to kick off the Lighting Ceremony of the Town Christmas Tree beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, followed by a public reception at Town Hall hosted by jovial longtime St. Francisville Mayor Billy D'Aquilla and featuring fireworks and a performance by the First Baptist Church Children’s Choir.  The Baton Rouge Symphony presents its annual concert of seasonal selections and dessert reception beginning at 7 p.m. at Hemingbough; tickets are available at the Bank of St. Francisville.
Saturday, Dec. 7, begins with a 7:30 a.m. Community Prayer Breakfast at United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall just off Royal St., followed by Breakfast with St. Nick for children at Jackson Hall next to Grace Church at 8 and 9:30 a.m., sponsored by the Women’s Service League (reservations recommended; $6 tickets may be purchased online at www.womensserviceleague.com ).   The Women’s Service League also sells fresh wreaths and pre-wrapped Plantation Country Cookbooks all weekend on Ferdinand St. next to the library, with proceeds benefiting local civic and charitable activities.
From 10 to 4 Saturday there will be children’s activities plus the Main Street Band (noon to 2), handmade crafts and food vendors in oak-shaded Parker Park.  There will also be entertainment in various locations throughout the downtown historic district, featuring choirs, dancers, musicians, and other performers. 

Children meet Santa

The angelic voices of the Bains Elementary 2^nd Grade Choir are raised at the West Feliciana Historical Society Museum on Ferdinand St. at 10 a.m. From 9:45 to 10:45 the West Feliciana High School Mixed Performance Choir sings at the United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, followed from 11 to 11:45 by the school’s Beginning, Advanced, Performance and Soloist Choirs. The front porch of Town Hall is gospel headquarters with stirring performances from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. by the Sherobee Missionary Baptist Church Combined Choir, Mount Bethel Baptist Church Choir, recording artist Minister TEHA, and from New Roads Arthur & Friends Community Choir. From 10 to 2 the Sweet Adelines’ Lyrical Quartet strolls and sings along Ferdinand and Royal Sts., while the Angola Inmate Traveling Band from Louisiana State Penitentiary performs across from Garden Symposium Park from noon to 4.

Christmas Parade

Saturday’s highlight, of course, is the colorful 2 p.m. Christmas parade sponsored by the Women’s Service League with the theme “Deck the Hills with Lights and Holly.” Participants include everyone from local dignitaries and Mike the Tiger to Angola’s enormous Percheron work horses, their sleigh bells jingling and their burnished coats gleaming. Dozens of gaily decorated parade floats vie for coveted prizes, accompanied by cheerleaders, bands, bagpipes, vintage cars, marching ROTC units and dancers. Grand Marshall is the newly elected Parish President. The parade lines up on Royal St. and traverses Ferdinand and Commerce Streets, so don’t plan on driving through downtown St. Francisville mid-afternoon.
From 6 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, the United Methodist Church on Royal St. hosts a Community Sing-a-long, while the First Baptist Church (US 61 at LA 10) sponsors its very popular Live Nativity from 6 to 8 p.m., reminding of the reason for the season.  Also from 6 to 8 p.m., visitors can “Peep into our Holiday Homes,” peeking through handblown windowpanes and lace curtains into participating homes all decorated for the holidays in St. Francisville’s downtown National Register Historic District.

Santa Rides

In addition, Saturday evening from 5:30 to 8:30, visitors are welcomed for candlelight tours, period music and wassail at Oakley Plantation, Audubon State Historic Site on LA Hwy. 965, where artist-naturalist John James Audubon tutored the daughter of plantation owners and painted many of his famous bird studies in the early 1820's. This historic home never looks lovelier than in the soft romantic glow of the candles that were its only illumination for its early years. During the day from 10 to 4, the historic site observes its annual Colonial Christmas holiday festival, including cooking demonstrations.
Christmas in the Country activities continue on Sunday, December 8, with in-town activities and an afternoon Friends of the Library Tour of Homes from noon to 5 p.m. ($20 fee benefits the new parish library and advance tickets are available online at wftourofhomes.bpt.me or from the West Feliciana Parish Library; on the day of the tour, tickets may be purchased at The Bluffs clubhouse or participating homes). Four diverse homes are featured, two on LA 965 and two on Ferdinand St.; at The Bluffs, a jazz brunch (extra fee) precedes the tour and boutique shopping with refreshments follows.

Local Shop

The enthusiastic sponsors of Christmas in the Country are the downtown merchants, and the real focus of the weekend remains St. Francisville’s marvelous shops, which go all out, hosting Open Houses with refreshments and entertainment for shoppers while offering spectacular seasonal decorations, great gift items, and extended hours.  A variety of quaint little shops occupy historic structures throughout the downtown area and spread into the outlying district, each unique in its own way; visitors should not miss a single one. 
From the rich Victoriana of The Shanty Too, for thirty years the anchor of the downtown business community complete with old-time candy shoppe, to the jewelry beautifully crafted from vintage buttons at nationally known Grandmother's Buttons, and the incredibly extensive selections of carefully chosen gift and decorative items at Hillcrest Gardens and Sage Hill Gifts, downtown St. Francisville is filled with fine shopping opportunities.  Artists Herschel Harrington and Joe Savell (Backwoods Gallery) have studios displaying their own works, while St. Francisville Art & Antiques and Bohemianville Antiques feature vintage collectibles and furnishings. Femme Fatale specializes in fine fashions; Trends Boutique and Ma Milles Gifts also have stylish clothing, game-day gear and jewelry.

Singing along Main Street

St. Francisville Inn’s Wine Parlor has gift bottles of fine wines, and Birdman Books & Coffee has an eclectic selection of books. Ins-N-Outs and Coyote Creek nurseries carry live seasonal plants to complement any decorating scheme; St. Francis Christmas Trees also has fresh-cut trees, and Mia Sophia Florist features floral arrangements, wreaths and plants as well. The tourist information center/museum in the West Feliciana Historical Society headquarters on Ferdinand St. has a great selection of books, notecards and prints, plus free maps showing locations of all of the other retail outlets, local plantations, restaurants and accommodations.
On the outskirts of town, intrepid shoppers won't want to miss the exquisite custom-designed creations at Patrick’s Fine Jewelry and the fleur-de-lis decorative pieces in the expanded Elliott’s Pharmacy in Spring Creek Shopping Center, as well as Border Imports with huge selections of Mexican pottery, eyecatching ironwork and concrete statuary on US 61 north.  Most of the plantations around St. Francisville have gift shops, and a visit to those would permit enjoyment of spectacular seasonal decorations as well. Restaurants and B&Bs in the area offer gift certificates to extend the giving throughout the year.

Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and

Christmas Parade Trolley

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 open in season. 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 (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, 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).