Shop

• 34 Image Star Count
• Login to Give Star
• Login to Add Artwork

Description: This work and the next I’ll post are for Rosie – this one more for the color and the music than for the history which is, as with all the plantation histories, troubling because of its association with slavery. Strangely, the ghosts that are said to haunt Houmas House today have nothing to do with that dark history but rather with the spirit of the ancient and majestic oak trees that once lined the alley that moved from the river to the house but that were cut down two by two to make room for the huge levees along the river and the “River Road” itself. Working on this image – as well as another I’ll post in a day or so – I was inspired in the treatments by the rich blues tradition still prominent in the south. This piece - Mississippi Delta Blues by Muddy Waters – seemed just right to pair with this addition to my Plantation/Estate series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_eRVroLqs&feature=related To view a YouTube film recounting the “complete” history of Houmas House, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j1sil9mRHiU Houmas House Plantation and Gardens has reclaimed its position as Crown Jewel of Louisiana's River Road, yet like all of the great Southern plantations, it has a checkered history and owes much of its success and survival to the oppression or dispossession of others or to slave labor that served as the primary labor force for approximately 75 years. Through the vision and determination of Kevin Kelly, who fulfilled a lifelong dream by acquiring the property in the Spring of 2003, the mansion today reflects the best parts of each period in its rich history alongside the big bend in the Mississippi River though you will find little reference either to the original owners – the Houmas – nor to the hundreds of slaves that made such lavishness possible. The first owners of the plantation were the indigenous Houmas Indians, who were given a land grant by the French to occupy the fertile plain between the Mississippi and Lake Maurepas to the north. The Houmas who like most Native Americans knew little of the monetary value of the land sold it to Maurice Conway and Alexander Latil in the mid 1700's for a paltry $150 worth of cheap trade goods. The original French Provincial house that Latil erected on the property in is situated directly behind the Mansion, and is now adjoined by a carriageway to the grand home described during its antebellum heyday as "The Sugar Palace." The original home was later used as living quarters for the staff that served the great house. By the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the plantation was established and producing sugar. In 1810, Revolutionary War hero Gen. Wade Hampton of Virginia purchased the property which included a number of slaves and shortly thereafter Wade Jr. began construction on the Mansion. General Hampton, acknowledged as perhaps the richest man in America at that time, announced his intention to bring in some 400 additional slaves to expand the sugar production. However, it was not until 1825 when Hampton's daughter, Caroline, and her husband, Col. John Preston, took over the property that the grand house truly began to take shape. Construction on the Mansion was completed in 1828. At the same time, Houmas House began to build its sugar production and continued to increase its land holdings, which ultimately grew to 300,000 acres. At one point, there were actually 12 plantation homes on the Houmas property. Irishman John Burnside bought the plantation in 1857 for $1 million – a monumental sum of money in those days. Burnside himself had arrived from Ireland – a famine survivor with one dollar in his pocket. A businessman and a character, Burnside increased production of sugar until Houmas House was the largest producer in the country, actively working the crop on 98,000 acres. During the Civil War, Burnside saved the Mansion from destruction at the hands of advancing Union forces by declaring immunity as a subject of the British Crown. In addition to building a railway to carry his products to market —"The Sugar Cane Train (1862)" — Burnside, a bachelor, is also said to have offered payment to any parents in the parish who would name their sons "John." Houmas House flourished under Burnside's ownership even without slave labor which was abolished in 1863, but it was under a successor, Col. William Porcher Miles that the plantation grew to its apex in the late 1800's when it was producing a monumental 20 million pounds of sugar each year. In 1927, the Mississippi came out of its banks in the epic "great flood." While Houmas House was spared, the surrounding areas were inundated. The ensuing economic havoc was but a prelude to the devastation of the Great Depression just two years later. Houmas House Plantation withered away. The Mansion closed and fell into disrepair, a condition in which it remained until 1940 when Dr. George B. Crozat purchased it. Crozat bought Houmas House to be a summer home away from his native New Orleans. He renovated the property with the intent to give it a more "Federal" look than the stately Greek Revival style in which it was conceived. The structure was painted white inside and out. Crown moldings and ceiling medallions were removed and both interior and exterior forms and finishes were simplified. Eventually, the Crozat heirs opened the property to tourists. In 1963, the defining Bette Davis film "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" was shot in the property. The room in which Ms. Davis stayed while filming is preserved as part of today's Houmas House tour. Derivative work - painting based on a small public domain image MCN :: C8Y1A-6XG4J-S2N88