Silver Spirit Travels: Houmas House Plantation & Gardens

January 19: There are many lovely old plantation mansions available to visit in the area between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that we missed seeing on our trip to New Orleans a few years ago, so we decided to spend a couple of nights in a campground in Baton Rouge and spend the day visiting two of those plantations. It was a tough choice, but we narrowed it down to Houmas House (also known as the Sugar Palace) and Laura Plantation ( a Creole plantation), but once we reached Houmas House it proved to be such a rich environment to that we decided to just spend the day there, leisurely exploring and experiencing this beautiful home and gardens.

Houmas House built its fortune on sugar cane, a major crop in this area. At one time the property encompassed 300,000 acres, with 98,000 of it planted in sugar cane; at that time the plantations contained a slave population of around 1000, both to work the fields and maintain the plantation buildings and families. In 1857, the plantation was sold for $1million to a self-made Irish immigrant, and subsequently became one of the wealthiest plantations in the country. The website for this plantation contains an intriguing history page, including a film clip, which together do a much better job of describing the history of this amazing place than I can do in a brief blog entry, so I've provided a link here to that page for those who might want to know more, and will focus the rest of this blog entry on photos and on impressions during our visit.

One of the significant advantages to being able to travel during this "off-season" is the dearth of tourists at the various places that are prime tourist destinations during other seasons. Houmas House Plantation was no exception to this; we were able to enjoy a leisurely tour of the house in a group of just 4. Our tour guide was personable, enthusiastic, knowledgable, and humorous - it doesn't get better than that!

Unlike most such homes that are open for tours, nothing here was cordoned off, nothing had plate-glass blocking visitors from entering.

We were invited to sit on the furniture and imagine ourselves visiting or living there as the tour guide spun her tale of this magnificent house and property.

She invited photo-taking, handed us artifacts to touch and handle, invited us to try out the pool table in the gentlemen's smoking room, briefly played the piano and treated us to a chorus from the theme song from the Bette Davis 1964 film "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" which was filmed on location here.

The current owner, Kevin Kelly, actually lives in this home with his two Labrador Retrievers, and makes the place available for weddings and other special events. The property has also, not surprisingly, been the location for a number of movies in addition to the Bette Davis one, all of which are listed on the web site for Houmas House. There is a magnificent self-supporting circular staircase in the center of the home, which was featured in the Davis film (which I am now determined to see someday) and is the dream staircase for showcasing many a bride's wedding gown, according to the guide.

Several rooms in the home are used for special dinners, which are served by the on-site restaurant (also described on the website). We had a delicious lunch at the main restaurant building, oyster and shrimp "po boy" sandwiches.

The old live oaks surrounding the home are magnificent, as are the various gardens.

Interestingly, the man who has been head gardner for the past 20 years is also an artist, with an interesting and unique style, who has his studio in one of the outbuildings on the property, so it is not surprising that in addition to the historical and traditional statues dotting the grounds, gardens, and fountains, there are also modern and whimsical pieces of garden art, along with strange pairings of plants (Swiss chard among the roses in the rose garden, for example) creating an eclectic and altogether delightful atmosphere.