List of plantations in Louisiana explained

This is a list of plantations and/or plantation houses in the U.S. state of Louisiana that are National Historic Landmarks, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, listed on a heritage register; or are otherwise significant for their history, their association with significant events or people, or their architecture and design.^[1] ^[2] ^[3]

List of plantations

Color key	Historic register listing
		National Historic Landmark
		National Register of Historic Places Historic District
		National Register of Historic Places Individual Listing
		Not listed on national or state register

Name	Image	Date designated	Town, Parish	Parish	Notes
87000849	Acadia Plantation			Thibodaux	Lafourche	Demolished 2010
83000554	Afton Villa Gardens			St. Francisville	West Feliciana	House destroyed by fire in 1963. Gardens and ruins open daily, March 1 to June 30 & October 1 to December 1.
91001046	Aillet House			Port Allen	West Baton Rouge	Built in 1830; French-Creole Architecture
01000007	Albania Plantation House			Jeanerette	Iberia
Albemarle Plantation House		Not applicable	Napoleonville	Assumption	Owned and in continuous operation by the original family since 1839.
84001291	Alice Plantation House			Jeanerette	Iberia
00001229	Alice C Plantation House			Franklin	St. Mary
96001263	Allendale Plantation Historic District			Port Allen	West Baton Rouge	Founded by Henry Watkins Allen and it was burned to the ground by during the American Civil War. The plantation was rebuilt after 1880 by another owner.
Angola Plantation		Not applicable	Angola	West Feliciana	Had been Francis Routh's cotton plantation; and the land is now part of the Louisiana State Penitentiary.^[4]
82000469	Ardoyne Plantation House			Houma	Terrebonne
80004476	Arlington Plantation			Lake Providence	East Carroll
82000457	Arlington Plantation House			Franklin	St. Mary
82004676	Arlington Plantation House			Washington	St. Landry
79001050	Ashland (Belle Helene)			Geismar	Ascension
72000552	Asphodel Plantation			Jackson	East Feliciana	Built in 1830, by Benjamin Kendrick. There is also a cemetery on the property.
Atahoe Plantation		Not applicable	Natchez	Natchitoches
87000729	Audubon Plantation			Baton Rouge	East Baton Rouge
82000434	Avondale Plantation Home			Clinton	East Feliciana	Now the Camp Avondale Scouting campground
07000424	Bagatelle Plantation			Sunshine	Iberville
79001056	Battleground Plantation			Sicily Island	Catahoula
9800142	Bayside Plantation			Jeanerette	Iberia
98001425	Belle Alliance			Belle Alliance	Assumption	Italianate and Greek Revival home, built about 1846.
Belle Grove		Not applicable	White Castle	Iberville	Burned in 1952
79001083	Bennett Plantation House			Alexandria	Rapides
91000705	Bocage Plantation			Darrow	Ascension	Built in 1837, possibly designed by James H. Dakin
Bonnie Glen Plantation		January 11, 1980	New Roads	Pointe Coupee	Built approx. 1825–1830 by Antoine Gosserand. Raised plantation home along False River representing the early Creole Greek Revival period. Privately owned by descendents of the Gosserand
09000931	Boscobel Plantation Cottage			Bosco	Ouachita
79001078	Bosco Plantation House			Bosco	Ouachita
83000527	Bouverans Plantation House			Lockport	Lafourche Parish
80001709	Breston Plantation House			Columbia	Caldwell
83000503	Buckmeadow Plantation House			Lake Providence	East Carroll	Delisted December 28, 2015
79001103	Butler-Greenwood Plantation			St. Francisville	West Feliciana
82002754	Calliham Plantation House			Hamburg	Avoyelles Parish
84002859	Calumet Plantation House			Patterson	St. Mary
82002767	Canebrke			Ferriday	Concordia
79001069	Carter Plantation			Springfield	Livingston	Built c. 1820 for free man of color Thomas Freeman. During the Civil War, a minor Confederate naval operation was launched here.
82002757	Cashpoint Plantation House			Elm Grove	Bossier
Caspiana Plantation		Not applicable	Caspiana	Caddo	The main house was moved and is now located in Sherevport, and the plantation store is now located in Natchitoches.^[5]
92000583	Caspiana Plantation Store			Natchitoches	Natchitoches
88001049	Cedar Bend Plantation			Natchez	Natchitoches
76000965	Cedars Plantation			Oak Ridge	Morehouse
82000442	Chatchie Plantation House			Thibodaux	Lafourche
73000869	Cherokee Plantation			Natchez	Natchitoches
77001519	Chretien Point Plantation			Sunset	St. Landry
85000970	Clarendon Plantation House			Evergreen	Avoyelles	Delisted
75000857	Cottage Plantation			St. Francisville	West Feliciana
84000144	Crescent Plantation			Tallulah	Madison
73000868	Darby Plantation			New Iberia	Iberia	Delisted: Burned down and replaced with replica.
86001054	Desire Plantation House			Vacherie	St. James	Built circa 1835, French Creole perique tobacco plantation. Private.
73002132	Destrehan Plantation			Destrehan	St. Charles	Completed in 1790, the site of a tribunal after 1811 German Coast Uprising, the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history. Restored by a nonprofit organization and open to the public.
87000851	Dixie Plantation			Franklin	St. Mary Parish
85002759	Ducros Plantation			Schriever	Terrebonne
94000742	Dulcito Plantation House			New Iberia	Iberia
82002791	El Dorado Plantation House			Livonia	Pointe Coupee
88003135	Emilie Plantation			Garyville	St. John the Baptist Parish
75000848	Enterprise Plantation			Jeanerette	Iberia
91001386	Evergreen Plantation			Wallace 30.0269°N -90.6396°W	St. John the Baptist	Composed of 39 buildings, Evergreen Plantation is an intact major antebellum plantation complex of the Southern United States.^[6] ^[7] Open to visitors.
88000102	Fairhaven Plantation House			Zachary	East Baton Rouge
93000821	Fairview Plantation House			Ethel	East Feliciana
10000062	Felicity Plantation				St. James	Sister plantation to St. Joseph Plantation, built circa 1850 and privately owned.
80001712	Frogmore Plantation			Ferriday	Concordia	Established circa 1815, Frogmore Plantation has a steam-powered cotton gin.
82004674	Frozard Plantation House			Grand Coteau	St. Landry
93001548	Godchaux–Reserve Plantation			Reserve	St. John the Baptist
97000967	Gracelane Plantation House			Baton Rouge	East Baton Rouge
92000510	Graugnard Farms Plantation House			St. James	St. James
82000451	Harlem Plantation House			Pointe à la Hache	Plaquemines
98001422	Hermione Plantation House			Tallulah	Madison	Relocated from Kell Plantation in rural Madison Parish
78001438	Hazelwood Plantation			Laurel Hill	West Feliciana
86003129	Homestead Plantation Complex			Plaquemine
70000842	Homeplace Plantation House			Hahnville 29.9711°N -90.4076°W	St. Charles	Built circa 1790, large French Colonial raised cottage. Not open to the public.
04001470	Hope Plantation House			Garyville	St. John the Baptist
80001694	The Houmas			Burnside	Ascension
92001529	Indian Camp Plantation			Carville	Iberville	Listed as the "Carville Historic District"
87002449	Inglewood Plantation Historic District			Alexandria	Rapides
01000669	Katie Plantation House			Breaux Bridge	St. Martin Parish
06000317	Kenilworth Plantation House			St. Bernard	St. Bernard
71000362	Kent Plantation House			Alexandria	Rapides
99000235	Killarney			Ferriday	Concordia	Also known as Alabama Plantation
84000145	LaBranche Plantation Dependency			St. Rose	St. Charles
02001296	Landry Plantation House			Youngsville	Lafayette
93000322	Lane Plantation			Ethel	East Feliciana
92001842	Laura Plantation			Vacherie	St. James	Plantation heiress and manager Laura Lacoul Gore's (1861–1963) autobiography tells the family's history and her experience living at the plantation. Open to the public.
78001426	Laurel Valley Sugar Plantation			Thibodaux	Lafourche
93000694	LeBeuf Plantation House			New Orleans	Orleans
Leonard Plantation		Not applicable	Algiers	Orleans	Located at Patterson Street and Merrill Street, and noted for its productive truck gardens. Ravaged by Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and dismantled several years later. Also known as Webert Plantation.
94000705	Linwood Plantation Manager's House			Newellton	Tensas
79001057	Lisburn Plantation House			Ferriday	Concordia
77000680	Live Oak Plantation			Weyanoke
74000924	Live Oaks Plantation			Rosedale
80001748	Logtown Plantation			Monroe	Ouachita
77000678	Loyd Hall Plantation			Cheneyville	Rapides
02001603	Lucky Plantation House			Sunshine	Iberville Parish
73000860	Madewood Plantation House			Napoleonville 29.9274°N -90.9943°W	Assumption
83000548	Magnolia Plantation			Schriever 29.7147°N -90.8189°W	Terrebonne
79001071	Magnolia Plantation			Derry 31.5529°N -92.9424°W	Natchitoches
86000253	Magnolia Lane			Westwego 29.9499°N -90.1533°W	Jefferson
72000549	Magnolia Mound Plantation House			Baton Rouge	East Baton Rouge
87002135	Marengo Plantation House			Jonesville	Catahoula
98000394	Marengo Plantation			Cinclare	West Baton Rouge	Listed as "Cinclare Sugar Mill Historic District"
83000533	Mary Plantation House			Braithwaite	Plaquemines
72000556	Melrose Plantation			Melrose 31.0877°N -92.9676°W	Natchitoches
80001769	Monte Vista Plantation House			Port Allen	West Baton Rouge Parish
87002505	Montegut Plantation House			LaPlace	St. John the Baptist Parish
82000444	Montrose Plantation House			Tallulah	Madison
82000468	Moro Plantation House			Waterproof	Tensas
06000779	Moss Grove Plantation House			Jonesville	Catahoula Parish
76002167	Moundville Plantation House			Washington	St. Landry Parish
80001717	Mount Hope Plantation House			Baton Rouge	East Baton Rouge
79001094	Myrtle Grove Plantation			Waterproof	Tensas
74002185	Myrtle Hill Plantation House			Gloster	DeSoto Parish
78001439	Myrtles Plantation			St. Francisville	West Feliciana
76000966	Narcisse Prudhomme Plantation			Bermuda	Natchitoches Parish
85000976	Narrows Plantation House			Lake Arthur	Jefferson Davis
80001733	Nottoway Plantation House			White Castle	Iberville
74002187	Oak Alley Plantation			Vacherie 30.0043°N -90.7759°W	St. James
92000036	Oak Grove Plantation Dependencies			St. Francisville	West Feliciana
Oakland Plantation			Haughton	Bossier
79001073	Oakland Plantation			Natchez 31.665°N -93.0033°W	Natchitoches
80001720	Oakland Plantation House			Gurley	East Feliciana
73002162	Oaklawn Manor			Franklin	St. Mary	Plantation home of U.S. Senator Alexander Porter.
79001072	Oaklawn Plantation			Natchez	Natchitoches
73000878	Oakley Plantation			St. Francisville	West Feliciana	John James Audubon worked here as an art tutor in 1821 & painted 32 of his Birds of America. Open as the Audubon State Historic Site.
80001697	Oakwold Plantation House			Evergreen	Avoyelles Parish	Sam Houston visited while in the area soliciting funds for his Texas army.
80001764	Orange Grove Plantation House			Houma	Terrebonne	Circa-1840 Greek Revival briquette-entre-poteaux architecture; operates as an inn today. See Orange Grove Plantation House.
90001748	Ormond Plantation House			Destrehan	St. Charles
77000665	Palo Alto Plantation			Donaldsonville	Ascension
70000258	Parlange Plantation			Mix 31.665°N -93.0033°W	Pointe Coupee
03001064	Pegram Plantation House			Lecompte	Rapides
71000360	Pitot House			New Orleans	Orleans	Built in the late 18th century in what then was outside of the city, home to Mayor James Pitot. Restored and open to the public.
84001347	Pleasant View Plantation House			Oscar	Pointe Coupee
80004251	Judge Poché Plantation House			Convent	St. James
87002136	Poplar Grove Plantation			Port Allen	West Baton Rouge	Former sugar plantation from the 1820s, manor house built in 1884 for the 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans.^[8]
01000943	Residence Plantation House			Houma	Terrebonne
79001064	Richland Plantation			Norwood	East Feliciana
80001736	Rienzi Plantation House			Thibodaux	Lafourche	Not open for tours
80001771	Rosale Plantation			St. Francisville	West Feliciana
76000974	Rosalie Plantation Sugar Mill			Alexandria	Rapides
73000880	Rosebank Plantation House			Weyanoke	West Feliciana
01000765	Rosedown			St. Francisville 30.796°N -91.371°W	West Feliciana
85003002	Roseland Plantation House			Ferriday	Concordia Parish
99001039	Sandbar Plantation House			Port Allen	West Baton Rouge Parish
74002186	San Francisco Plantation House			Reserve 30.0475°N -90.6055°W	St. John the Baptist Parish	Open for tours
78003448	Santa Maria Plantation House			Baton Rouge	East Baton Rouge
82000445	Scottland Plantation House			Tallulah	Madison
86001495	Sebastopol Plantation House			St. Bernard	St. Bernard
72000553	Shadows-on-the-Teche			New Iberia 30.0025°N -91.815°W	Iberia	Greek Revival home completed in 1834 by planters David & Mary Weeks, within New Iberia. William Weeks Hall left the building to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1958. Open for tours.
Shadowlawn Plantation		Not applicable	Franklin 29.7941°N -91.5009°W	St. Mary	Greek Revival home completed in 1833 by Simeon Smith.^[9] ^[10] Open for tours and events.
95000387	Smithfield Plantation House			Port Allen	West Baton Rouge
83000558	Solitude Plantation House			St. Francisville	West Feliciana
74002188	Southdown Plantation			Houma	Terrebonne
80001695	St. Emma			Donaldsonville	Assumption	Circa-1850 home on former sugar plantation, scene of a Civil War skirmish in 1862.^[11]
82000470	St. George Plantation House			Schriever	Terrebonne
05000987	St. Joseph Plantation House			Vacherie	St. James	Early 19th-century plantation, joined in 1890 with Felicity Plantation to form the St. Joseph Plantation & Manufacturing Company. Privately owned.
75000849	St. Louis Plantation			Plaquemine	Iberville	Italianate and Greek Revival style home on a working sugar cane plantation; owned by the same family for 150+ years, named for the city in Missouri. Private.
79001104	St. Maurice Plantation			St. Maurice	Pointe Coupee
03000680	Star Hill Plantation Dependency			Star Hill	West Feliciana	Also known as Star Hill Billiard Hall.
98000570	Stephanie Plantation House			Arnaudville	St. Landry, St. Martin
82000432	Synope Plantation House			Columbia	Caldwell
79001059	Tacony Plantation House			Vidalia	Concordia
80001731	Tally-Ho Plantation House			Bayou Goula	Iberville
99000257	Trio Plantation House			Rayville	Richland
Uncle Sam Plantation		Not applicable	Convent	St. James
02000297	Valverda Plantation House			Maringouin	Pointe Coupee
77000677	White Hall Plantation House			Lettsworth	Pointe Coupee
87001475	Whitehall Plantation House			Monroe	Ouachita
92001566	Whitney Plantation Historic District			Wallace	St. John the Baptist	Site of a slavery museum, opened to the public in December 2014. French colonial main house dates from 1803.
88000977	Wildwood Plantation House			Jackson	East Feliciana
98000702	Woodland Plantation			West Pointe à la Hache	Plaquemines

Historical background of the plantation era

Upland or green seeded cotton was not a commercially important crop until the invention of an improved cotton gin in 1793. With an inexpensive cotton gin a man could remove seed from as much cotton in one day as a woman could de-seed in two months working at a rate of about one pound per day.^[12] The newly mechanized cotton industry in England during the Industrial Revolution absorbed the tremendous supply of cheap cotton that became a major crop in the Southern United States.

At the time of the cotton gin's invention, the sub tropical soils in the Eastern United States were becoming depleted, and the fertilizer deposits of guano deposits of South America and the Pacific Islands along with the nitrate deposits in the Chilean deserts were not yet being exploited, meaning that there were fertilizer shortages, leading to a decline in agriculture in the Southeast and a westward expansion to new land.

Transportation at the time was extremely limited. There were almost no improved roads in the U.S. or in the Louisiana Territory and the first railroads were not built until the 1830s.^[13] The only practical means for shipping agricultural products more than a few miles without exceeding their value was by water. This made much of the land in the U.S. unsuitable for growing crops other than for local consumption.

Under ownership of Spain, the city of New Orleans held the strategically important location between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. The Carondelet Canal, which was completed in 1794, connected the Tremé section of New Orleans with Bayou St. John, giving shipping access to Lake Pontchartrain as an alternative route to the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. gained rights to use the New Orleans port in 1795.

Louisiana (New Spain) was transferred by Spain to France in 1800, but it remained under Spanish administration until a few months before the Louisiana Purchase. The huge swath of territory purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 was sparsely populated. During the Thomas Jefferson Presidency, a high priority was to build roads to New Orleans, specifically the Natchez Trace and the Federal Road through Georgia, initially intended to facilitate mail delivery.

The Napoleonic Wars and the Embargo Act of 1807 restricted European trade, which did not recover until the end of the War of 1812 in 1815. The Year without a summer of 1816 resulted in famine in Europe and a wave of immigration to the U.S., with New Orleans being the destination of many refugees. The return of good harvests in Europe along, with the newly cleared and planted land in the Midwest and Mississippi River Valley and improvements in transportation, resulted in a collapse in agricultural prices that caused the 1818–19 depression. Agricultural commodity prices remained depressed for many years, but their eventual recovery resulted in a new wave of land clearing, which in turn triggered another depression in the late 1830s. Cotton prices were particularly depressed.^[14]

Until the development of the steamboat, transportation of goods on major rivers was generally accomplished either with barges or flatboats, floated downstream or pushed upstream with poles or by hand using overhanging tree limbs. On the Mississippi River, most shipping was down river on log rafts or wooden boats that were dismantled and sold as lumber in the vicinity of New Orleans. Steam-powered river navigation began in 1811–12, between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New Orleans. Inland steam navigation rapidly expanded in the following decades. Railroads appeared before the Civil War, though at first were used to link waterways. After the Civil War, railroads took over most of the hauling of goods.

It was during the period of expanding steam transportation that plantation agriculture dominated the Southern economy, with two-thirds of the millionaires in the U.S. living in Louisiana, mostly between Natchez, Mississippi, and New Orleans. The surviving plantation homes range from relatively modest dwellings to opulent mansions, some containing original furnishings and many with period furniture.

Due to poor transportation and slow industrialization, plantations tended to be somewhat self-sufficient, growing most of their own food, harvesting their own timber and firewood, repairing farm implements, and constructing their own buildings. Many slaves were skilled blacksmiths, masons, and carpenters who were often contracted out. Cloth, shoes, and clothing were imported from Europe and from the Northeast U.S.

The self-sufficiency of plantations and cheap slave labor hindered economic development of the South. Contemporary descriptions cite the lack of towns, commerce, and economic development.

Besides the necessity of river transportation, the ground near the rivers and old river channels contained the best agricultural land, where the sandy and silty soil settled, increasing the height of the natural levees. The clay soil settled farther away from the rivers and being less stable, it slumped to muddy back-swamps.^[15] The plantations in the vicinity of St. Francisville, Louisiana, are on a high bluff on the east side of the Mississippi River with loess soil, which was not as fertile as the river alluvium, but was relatively well-suited to plantation agriculture.

Slave housing

See main article: Slave quarters in the United States. Examples of slave housing can be found on many of the extant plantation complexes. Historically housing for enslaved people on Louisiana plantations (prior to the reconstruction era), featured cabins consisting of two rooms, with one family in each room.^[16] After the American Civil War in 1865, the United States of America had abolished slavery, and the architecture changed for laborers on plantations to include more space, one example of this is found at the Allendale Plantation in Port Allen.

Other notable examples of slave housing can be found at the Laura Plantation in Vacherie and at the San Francisco Plantation House in Garyville.

Notes and References

"How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation," (PDF), National Register Bulletins, National Park Service. Retrieved March 22, 2007.
Web site: National Park Service . National Park Service . April 2007 . National Historic Landmarks Survey: List of National Historic Landmarks by State . 2007-05-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070609212946/http://www.cr.nps.gov/nhl/designations/Lists/LIST07.pdf . 2007-06-09.
Web site: National Park Service . National Park Service . National Historic Landmark Program: NHL Database . https://web.archive.org/web/20040606195612/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/default.cfm . dead . 2004-06-06 . 2007-08-14 .
Web site: Ryan. Joanne. Perrault. Stephanie L.. 2007. Angola: Plantation to Pententiary. US Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District.
Web site: Wildsmith. Henrietta. Pioneer Heritage Center gives glimpse into settler life. 2022-01-18. The News-Star. en-US.
Web site: Evergreen Plantation. National Historic Landmarks Program. National Park Service. 2010-02-18. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110308014808/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=2109&ResourceType=Building. 2011-03-08.
Web site: Evergreen Plantation . National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. National Park Service. 2010-02-18.
Web site: Poplar Grove Plantation House. 2021-05-25. NPGallery Asset Detail, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
Web site: Shadowlawn Plantation. 2021-12-10. Louisiana Official Travel and Tourism Information. en.
Book: Mary, Fonseca. Weekend Getaways in Louisiana. Pelican Publishing. 978-1-4556-1398-4. 414. en.
Book: Daspit, Fred . Louisiana architecture, 1840–1860 . 263 . 2006 . . 9781887366748 .
. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 ; and by Lindsay Publications, Inc., Bradley, Illinois, .
Book: Taylor , George Rogers . The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860 . 1989 . M.E. Sharpe . 978-0873321013.
Book: North , Douglas C. . The Economic Growth of the United States 1790–1860 . 1966 . W. W. Norton & Company . New York, London . 978-0-393-00346-8 . registration .
See soil surveys of the various parishes.
Web site: Louisiana Department of Historic Preservation National Register. August 1987. [{{NRHP url|id=96001263}} National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Allendale Plantation Historic District]. May 27, 2021. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. (with)

List of plantations in Louisiana explained