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As we sit here sipping cocktails at Turtles Bar, I cant wait to see what the rest of our trip will bring. Although the plantation went on to change hands several times, the current main house was constructed by John Smith and Caroline Preston. This breathtaking Greek Revival structure is distinguished by its hipped roof and majestic Doric columns. Those who are interested in the history of New Orleans plantations have no better starting point than the stories of Houmas House and Oak Alley Plantation. These storied homes provide unmatched insight into the architecture and lifestyle of mid-1800s Louisiana. With its year-round growing season, the Houmas House gardens are always alive with new plantings, new growth, and new blooms, even in the winter.
TOUR HIGHLIGHTS
The carriageway was created between the two buildings and two additional bedrooms and a center hall were added to the 2nd floor of the mansion. The first floor of the mansion was re-designed to accommodate the extensive library of William Porcher Miles, incorporating the current Dining Room and creating a larger dining room in the rear of the building. In 1899, at the age of 77, William Porcher Miles died, and the Houmas Estate and Company was inherited by William P. Miles, Jr., and his sisters. In April of 1848, there were thirty family members and guests in residence at the Houmas, and just as many servants in the household. The lavish dinner tables were dressed with fish, shell fish and oysters from the Gulf, wild turkey, venison, duck from the swamp, and woodcock, snipe and birds shot by Preston and his guests in the fields.
Plan Your Visit
Each room includes a large flat screen TV, Wifi, coffee and tea makers, and an iron to name a few. Tickets to tour the Houmas Estate and The Great River Road Museum can be purchased upon arrival. Take a tour of the grounds, book a stay at the inn, plan your next special event with us, or learn more about local restaurants, things to do and what to see in the area.
Houmas House Plantation - A haunted tale - Weekly Citizen
Houmas House Plantation - A haunted tale.
Posted: Sat, 29 Oct 2016 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Houmas House Plantation Tickets, Tours and Reviews
In June 1807, Clark and territorial Governor William C. C. Claiborne fought a duel on the property, in which Claiborne sustained a gunshot wound to his leg. This beautiful and spacious two room suite features a King size four poster bed in a private bedroom with a separate living room with a sofa sleeper. The estate remained in the original family until 1925, when it was purchased by Andrew and Josephine Stewart.
Immerse yourself in a captivating landscape with sunlight filtering through majestic oaks, inviting you to explore a remarkable mansion. Louisiana’s River Road boasts the jewel of the 1840 Houmas House Plantation—a timeless attraction blending history and promise. Travel through time, envisioning the splendor it held and still exudes 250 years later. Houmas House remains a preeminent sugarcane plantation in Louisiana. The mansion is completely handicap accessible and each room provides several places to sit throughout the guided tour.
Houmas House Plantation & Gardens
John Burnside was born in Tyrone County, Ireland around 1810 of a poor family. At the age of twelve or thirteen, he somehow managed to obtain passage to America, with only a few pennies in his pocket. He began his young career in the grocery house of Talbot Jones in Baltimore. John Burnside and Oliver Beirne, Andrew Beirne’s son, were the same age and matured together in Mr. Beirne’s business, becoming very close friends, a friendship that lasted through the years.
Houmas House Plantation and Gardens
The great colonnade has not changed since 1829, when General Hampton set out to build a mansion fitting for his wife, Mary Cantey Hampton. Changes in ownership through the years have led to changes in appearance, but the house and grounds today more accurately reflect their 1840s appearance. Your docent, dressed in period costume, brings Houmas House’s past alive through vivid stories and song. Learn about the sugar barons and their families that once lived here at “The Sugar Palace,” and explore what was once one of the largest sugar plantations in the country. Tours are also offered in French and can be booked to include round-trip transportation from New Orleans.
For those seeking a truly immersive experience, Houmas House offers luxurious cottages for overnight stays. Nestled within the lush gardens, these cottages provide a tranquil escape and a chance to experience the Southern charm of the plantation after hours. Latil designed a more modest home that reflected both the French and Spanish architectural influences that still define Louisiana’s heritage. The smaller residence that also houses the kitchen and is now connected at the back of the Mansion by a carriageway was, indeed, the original Latil House.
A Private Functions at Houmas House
Off the menu specials are offered daily and posted on the Houmas House Facebook page. Spring comes early to plant life along the River Road, and the gardens at Houmas House literally explode overnight with color and fragrance. The gardens are managed to create a natural display of indigenous plant life and blooms alongside the more formal presentation of selected exotics that add to the overall Houmas House experience. Head to The Turtle Bar for mint juleps or French 75s before dinner at The Carriage House Restaurant, which serves traditional Louisiana dishes with a contemporary twist.
John Burnside, 48 years old when he acquired the Houmas, immediately began enlarging his holdings and purchasing other sugar plantations along the Mississippi River. In a very short time he was dubbed “The Sugar Prince,” by attaining the largest sugar empire in the South. Along with his properties on the Mississippi, Burnside also purchased the largest estate in the City of New Orleans, then known as the Robb Mansion. He collected great furnishings and great works of art to appoint both his city estate, later named “Burnside Place”, and his country estate, “The Houmas”.
After the tour, you are free to roam the beautiful grounds for as long as you wish, and pretty much anywhere you wish. Kind of unusual given that the owner actually lives on the property.Our tour was at 7 pm on a Friday night (The house closes at 8 pm.), and we saw numerous couples dressed very nicely. We thought there was a wedding party on site, but it turns out that the "fine dining" restaurant was open. Guided mansion tours are offered daily and offer a glimpse of plantation life.
Houmas was the inspiration for The Antebellum, an 8,212 sqft estate and gardens in Grogan's Point. It is one of six historically inspired estates developed by the Westbrook Building Company in 1988.[10] In-kind, The Antebellum inspired three additional plantation estates in East Shore of The Woodlands. Pricing for this experience starts at $100 per person for dinner with the option to add wine pairings and any other upgrades.
Among Houmas House Plantation and Gardens’ unique features are twin Garconierre, very rare among plantation homes. One of the “Top 20 Restaurants in America,” Café Burnside features a laidback, southern menu. This optional on-site stop is considered a must-do while visiting the plantation.
The normal rear gallery was omitted because of the close proximity of the old house. It has a graceful helix staircase set in a rear vestibule opposite a corresponding curving wall. Significant exterior features include the handsome colossal Doric galleries, the Federal arched dormers, the cupola, and the movable louvered shutters. The axial formal garden, which extends to the sides and rear of the house, is largely the result of work done by former owner Dr. George Crozat in the 1940s.
To a great extent, the point of these elegant and dramatic southern mansions was to emulate the grand homes and villas of wealthy Europeans who set the standard of the day for exhibiting wealth and expressing style. The Houmas house is significant in the area of architecture as an excellent example of a plantation house designed in the peripteral mode of the Greek Revival. It represents an important regional variation of the Greek Revival, which typified many of the grandest residences in the deep South. Houmas house is also historically important because under owner John Burnside in the 1850s and 60s it was the center of the largest slave holding in Louisiana. With over 800 slaves, it represented the largest economic unit in the prevailing slave economy of the state's pre-Civil War period. The plantation house began in the late 18th or early 19th century as a two-story, pitched roof brick building with end wall chimneys and a stuccoed exterior.
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