The Houmas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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The Houmas
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The main house in 2010
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 Location in Louisiana
Location in the United States
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| Location | West of Burnside, about 0.63 miles (1.01 km) west of intersection of River Road and Louisiana Highway 44 |
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| Nearest city | Burnside, Louisiana |
| Area | 10 acres (4.0 ha) |
| Built | 1840 |
| Built by | John Smith Preston |
| Architectural style | Federal, Greek Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 80001694 |
| Added to NRHP | September 27, 1980 |
The Houmas, also known as Burnside Plantation, is a famous historic plantation and house museum in Burnside, Louisiana. This beautiful estate was named after the native Houma people, who lived in this area of Louisiana long ago. The plantation started in the late 1700s, and its impressive main house was finished in 1840.
Today, The Houmas is a museum where visitors can learn about its past. The property includes eight buildings and covers about 10 acres. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 27, 1980, recognizing its importance in history.
Contents
A Look Back: The Houmas' History
The story of The Houmas plantation began around 1774. At that time, Alexander Latil and Maurice Conway obtained land from the Houma people on the east side of the Mississippi River. Alexander Latil built a French Colonial style house there around 1775.
Early Owners and Sugarcane
By 1803, when the United States bought the area in the Louisiana Purchase, The Houmas was already a working sugarcane plantation. Soon after, Daniel Clark bought the property. He started to develop it and built one of the first sugar mills along the river. In 1807, Clark and Governor William C. C. Claiborne had a duel on the property.
In 1811, Wade Hampton I, a general from the American Revolutionary War, bought Daniel Clark's land and the people enslaved there. Hampton was one of the richest landowners in the antebellum era (before the Civil War) South.
The oldest building still standing is the original main house. Experts disagree on when it was built. Some think it's the first Latil house with changes made later. Others believe it was built during Wade Hampton's time. This house is a Federal style brick building with two stories. It has two rooms on each floor and connects to the newer main house.
The Grand Mansion is Built
Around 1825, John Smith Preston took over managing the property. He was married to Caroline Hampton, Wade Hampton's daughter. The Prestons built a grand new main house in front of the old one in 1840. This Greek Revival mansion is two-and-a-half stories tall. It has 14 huge Doric columns on three sides. Its roof has arched windows and a small tower called a belvedere.
During this time, other buildings were added, like matching brick octagonal "garçonnières." These were bachelors' quarters, with a sitting room downstairs and a bedroom upstairs. Many other brick service buildings were also built near the house.
John Burnside's Era
In 1857, John Burnside, who was from Belfast, Ireland, bought the huge estate. It was more than 10,000-acre (4,000 ha) big. Within a few years, Burnside made it even larger, reaching 12,000 acres (4,900 ha). He also built four sugar mills to process his sugarcane crop. Before the American Civil War, this was the center of the largest slave holding in Louisiana, with about 750 enslaved people on it and Burnside's other plantations.
During the Civil War, Union general Benjamin Franklin Butler planned to use the plantation house as his headquarters. Butler governed New Orleans after the city was captured in May 1862. However, Burnside was still a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He reportedly stopped this by saying that taking his estate would cause problems with other countries.
Decline and Restoration
John Burnside never married and died in 1881. He left the estate to his friend, Oliver Beirne. Later, it went to William Porcher Miles, Beirne's son-in-law. After Miles died in 1899, the property started to be divided up, and the house began to fall apart. The big Mississippi River flood in 1927 and the Great Depression made things even worse for the property.
In 1940, Dr. George B. Crozat bought the house and what was left of the land. Dr. Crozat started a big project to restore the house and gardens. He removed some of the original decorations to give the house a simpler, "Federal style" look. The house and grounds stayed with his family until Kevin Kelly became the new owner in 2003.
Filming Location
The Houmas has been a popular place for filming movies, TV shows, and commercials. It is most famous for the Bette Davis movie Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). In the movie, the house feels like a character itself, similar to Tara in Gone with the Wind.
Other films shot at The Houmas include Mandingo (1975), Fletch Lives (1988), and Love, Wedding, Marriage (2011). Many TV films and series have also used the plantation, such as Moon of the Wolf (1972), All My Children (1981), Top Chef (2009), and The Bachelor (2017). Companies like Budweiser and Best Buy have also filmed commercials there.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Ascension Parish, Louisiana
- List of plantations in Louisiana
- History of slavery in Louisiana
