Home Place Plantation, River Road, Hahnville was built in 1790. (Courtesy of Gene Yoes)
Life on the planation sketch.
Sugar cane is inspected in the fields sometime during the sixties. St. Charles is one of 19 parishes still producing cane.
Source for photo: Publication published in the early 1900s by the St. Charles Development Company, Waterloo, Iowa; currently part of the Suzanne Friloux collection
Gravesite of Jean Baptist LaBranche and Eusebe LaBranche in St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery. (Jean—Ne’le 3 Mai 1777, de’ce’de’ le 27 Juillet 1837) (Eusebe LaBranche—Ne’le 8 Avril 1815, de’ce’de’ le 18 Nov. 1845)
Located in Hahnville on La. 18 (River Road). Built in the 1790s, this French Colonial raised cottage is of West Indies bousillage construction. Owners included LaBranche, Fortier, and Gaillaire, with the Keller family ownership since 1885. (Note: A National Historic Landmark and is listed on National Register of Historic Places.) (Erected by St. Charles Parish Police Jury and St. Charles Bicentennial Committee in 1975 in cooperation with Louisiana Tourist Division of Department of Commerce.)
Ormond Plantation.
Note Card - Keller's Homeplace.
Pan American offered homes for its employees on the Destrehan Plantation grounds.
The Destrehan Plantation house was used as an office building for refinery administrators of the Mexican Petroleum Company.
Destrehan Plantation House in the early 1900s.
The former slave quarters of Destrehan Plantation became freed Negroes’ homes after the Civil War.
Portrait of Nicholas Noel Theodule Destrehan, b. 1793, d. 1848; fourth son of Jean-Nöel Destrehan; married Victoire Fortier (m.l), Henrietta Navarre (m.2); father of four children from second marriage; lived in Gretna; active in sugar cane industry; scholar, inventor, astronomer; reportedly drew blueprints for the lock system for the Harvey Canal. Served as Corporal in Battle of New Orleans; reputed to be an original developer of New Marigny (New Orleans) and Mechankham (Gretna) suburbs. Interred in St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery.
President Thomas Jefferson signed what is now referred to as the Jefferson Document appointing four men to the legislative council. One of the four was Jean-Nöel Destrehan of the German Coast. These men were carefully selected and charged with the task of planning the new provisional government. The original Jefferson Document can be viewed at Destrehan Plantation on River Road.
Ormond Plantation in the early 1900s. (Photo courtesy of Chip Zeringue)
The Ormond Plantation is one of the few houses that escaped fires, floods, and the Civil War. It was originally built in 1790 by Pierre Trépagnier on land granted to him by Spanish Governor Bernardo deGalvez for his service during the time of the American Revolution. In 1805, the property was acquired by Richard Butler, who named the plantation Ormond after an Irish ancestor, the Duke d’Ormonde. Upon his death, Ormond was deeded to Butler’s sister whose husband was naval officer Samuel McCutchon (Fr. Paret spelled it McCutcheon). Ormond Plantation adjoined the Little Red Church property, housed a post office, and had a large boat landing. Ormond is the only plantation included in Fr. Paret’s series of watercolors that survives into the twenty-first century.
Only remaining building from the original plantation. Located in St. Rose on La. 48 (River Road). This late 18th and early 19th Century Creole house is of statewide significance because of its exceptional Federal woodwork and its rarity as a plantation dependency. Listed on National Register of Historical Places.
The Hermitage Plantation was owned by Judge Pierre Adolphe Rost and was located at the center of the present Bonnet Carré Spillway. Judge Rost was married to Louise Odile Destrehan and also owned the former Destrehan Plantation. He was considered one of the most significant and wealthy plantation owners along the German Coast. The Hermitage was seized by the federal government after the Civil War and later returned to Judge Rost. George Frederick Kugler served as overseer for Judge Rost and later acquired Hermitage Plantation. The property was subsequently sold to the United States government to be used as the site for the spillway project. Lumber from demolition of the Hermitage Plantation was used to build houses on Apple Street in Norco. Another African American cemetery known as the Kugler Cemetery is located at this site. Legend lends an interesting story that George Kugler planted many of the oak trees along the River Road.
Jean-Nöel Destrehan. 1754-1823. (Photo courtesy of Destrehan Plantation)
Jean-Noël d’Estréhan de Beaupre (1754-1823). (Source: Louisiana Portraits, courtesy of Marguerite Larue de la Houssaye)
Judge Jean-Louis LaBranche Plantation. Judge Jean-Louis LaBranche was born in 1805 in St. Charles Parish. A major crevasse occurred on May 8, 1858, at this site, followed a few days later by another levee break in the same area. On February 13, 1869, the L’Avant Courseur reported, “The hard times, the family losses, the brutalities of subordinate officers who acted like military police in St. Charles during and after the war, and finally the recent death of his aged mother all took their toll on Judge LaBranche’s fragile constitution.” He died on February 7, 1869.
Father of Louisiana Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. (Sketch by Janis Blair)