Darby House (Baldwin, Louisiana) facts for kids

The Massé/Darby House is an old plantation house located in Baldwin, Louisiana. It stands on Highway 182 and is a great example of early French colonial architecture. People aren't completely sure when it was built or who built it first, but it's believed to be very old, possibly from the late 1700s. It's named after some of its important owners, like Andre Massé and the Darby family.

Who Built the Massé/Darby House?

The exact building date and first owner of the Massé/Darby House are a bit of a mystery! Some old newspaper articles from the 1970s suggest it was built around 1764, 1776, or 1782. These articles often named Andre Massé as the builder. His family, the Johnsons, owned the house for many years and might have had old documents.

However, other records suggest a different story. In 1814, Dr. James Hennen sold the land where he lived to his son, Alfred Hennen. Because of this, some people thought James Hennen built the house around 1815. But there are no clear records to prove this.

Andre Massé's Connection

Andre Massé was one of the very first settlers in the Attakapas area of Louisiana. A census from 1766 shows that he lived near what is now Charenton, not far from Baldwin. He was a well-established person with many people working for him. It makes sense that he would have built a large home for his business and family. This supports the idea that Andre Massé was the original builder of the house.

Confusing Names and Dates

The history of the Massé/Darby House can be a bit confusing because there was another house called "Darby House" in nearby New Iberia. Also, another plantation called Alice was once in Baldwin and was later moved. Alice plantation was built after the Massé/Darby House and also has different ideas about its building date. All these similar names and dates have made it tricky to figure out the true history of the Massé/Darby House.

Owners Through the Years

The Massé/Darby House has been home to many important local families over the years. Some of these include Agricole Fusellier and Charles Grevemberg. During the American Civil War, the house was owned by François Optat Darby, who was a captain in the Confederate Army.

After the Civil War, in 1867, a kind and important educator named John Baldwin bought the house. The town of Baldwin is actually named after him! The house stayed with Mr. Baldwin's family until 1938, when Jessie Frost Johnson purchased it.

French Colonial Style

The Massé/Darby House is a fantastic example of a special type of French colonial architecture. This style was once common in Louisiana but is now quite rare.

House Design

The house has two stories. The lower walls are very thick and made of brick. The upper walls are made of bousillage-entre-poteau. This is a traditional building material made from mud mixed with animal hair, placed between wooden posts.

The ground floor was used for practical things like an office, storage, or cooking. The upper floor was where the family lived. It had a main living room with a fireplace. This room opened onto a wide porch, called a gallery, across the front of the house. At the back, there was an inner covered walkway, called a loggia. Bedrooms were on either side of these main areas.

Special Features

At the back of the house, there were smaller, general-purpose rooms called cabinets. These were used for different things, like extra bedrooms, sick rooms, or sewing rooms.

All the rooms open directly onto the gallery or loggia through French doors. These are double doors with glass panes. The gallery and loggia acted like outdoor hallways, and they had stairways. The roof is steep and has a double-hipped shape with dormer windows. Fireplaces inside the house usually have fancy French mantels. The layout of the rooms on the ground floor is very similar to the layout upstairs.

From the outside, you can see five sections on the front of the house, created by strong, round columns made of plastered brick. These columns support the upper gallery, which has seven sections defined by thinner wooden columns. The doors and windows are placed to fit the inside rooms, so from the outside, they might look a little off-center compared to the columns.