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Great River Road Attractions
Plantations Between New Orleans & Baton Rouge
Many people choose one or two homes -- Oak Alley, Nottoway, Laura, and Madewood are popular ones -- and find the quickest route (get a good map). If you choose to follow the route along the riverbanks, know that you will have to cross the Mississippi bridge a few times to see every plantation. The windy river makes distances deceiving; give yourself more time than you think you'll need. All the plantations discussed in this section are roughly 1 hour from New Orleans and approximately 15 minutes from each other.
St. Francisville & Surrounding Plantations
St. Francisville, 30 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, doesn't look like much on approach, but by the time you get to the center of town, you are utterly charmed. It's roughly a 2-hour drive from New Orleans and pretty much requires an overnight stay. There is lodging in town if you don't stay at one of the plantations described below, or you could decamp to Baton Rouge, but only if you have to. Contact the St. Francisville tourism information office for more information (tel. 800/789-4221 or 225/635-4224; www.stfrancisville.us; Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 9:30am-5pm), or the Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (tel. 800/LA-ROUGE [527-6843]; www.visitbatonrouge.com). Request their useful Baton Rouge Visitors Guide. It's worth pointing out that this is not Cajun Country; the area has American plantations only and no French history at all.
11 Results
- Historic Site
Destrehan Plantation
Its proximity to New Orleans (about 30 min. away), in-character docents, and appearance in Interview with the Vampire have made Destrehan Manor a popular plantation jaunt. It's the oldest intact plantation home in the lower Mississippi Valley open to the public. It was built in 1787…Destrehan
- Historic Site
Houmas House Plantation & Gardens
Houmas is actually two houses joined together under one roof: the original, 1775 four-room structure and the larger, Greek Revival–style house, completed in 1828 after 17 years of construction. The former sugar plantation has been restored several times since then, including by the…Darrow - Historic Site
Laura: A Creole Plantation
If you see only one plantation, make it Laura, simple on the outside but utterly absorbing within. It has no hoop-skirted guides, offering instead a thorough view of daily life on an 18th- and 19th-century sugar plantation, a cultural history of Louisiana’s Creole population, and a…Vacherie - Historic Site
Magnolia Mound
This plantation home was built in the late 1700s as a small settler's house, taking its name from its setting amid a grove of trees on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi. As prosperity came to the lower Mississippi Valley, it was enlarged and renovated, eventually becoming the… - Historic Site
Nottoway Plantation
Nottoway is everything you want in a dazzling Old South mansion. Dating from 1858, it’s the largest existing plantation house in the South, a mammoth structure with 64 rooms (covering 53,000 sq. ft.) and pillars to rival the White House’s. Saved from Civil War destruction by a…White Castle - Historic Site
Oak Alley Plantation
This is precisely what comes to mind when most people think “plantation.” A splendid white house, its porch lined with giant columns, approached by a magnificent quarter-mile drive lined with stately oak trees (the 1839 house has 28 fluted Doric columns to match the 28 trees)—yep,…Vacherie - Historic Site
Oakley Plantation at Audubon State Historic Site
Oakley Plantation, 3 miles east of U.S. 61, is where John James Audubon came to study and paint the wildlife of this part of Louisiana. Built in 1799, it is a three-story frame house with the raised basement typical of that era. A curved stairway joins the two galleries, and the… - Historic Site
Parlange Plantation
This plantation is one of the few that still functions as a working farm (and as such, is only open by appointment). Built in 1750 by Marquis Vincent de Ternant, the house is one of the oldest in the state, and its two stories rise above a raised brick basement. Galleries encircle… - Historic Site
Rosedown Plantation
By far the most impressive and historic of the more far-flung plantations, Rosedown is notable for its dramatic gardens and a tour stuffed with intriguing trivia, courtesy of more than 8,000 documents in their archives. Just east of St. Francisville, Rosedown was completed in 1834… - Historic Site
San Francisco
This brightly colored “steamboat Gothic” mansion was completed in 1856 by Edmond B. Marmillion, who died before he could occupy the home. He willed it to his two sons, one of whom married in 1855 while on a grand tour of Europe. The new wife undertook elaborate redecorations, leaving…Garyville - Historic Site
Whitney Plantation
Slavery, the plantation-tour elephant in the room, often gets either a meager mention or a thorough telling. Here at the first museum of its kind in the U.S., history comes from the perspective of the enslaved. Visitors receive a name tag with an enslaved person’s biography,…Wallace
Great River Road Shopping
Grandmother's Buttons -- Once in St. Francisville, stop by Grandmother's Buttons, at 9814 Royal St. (tel. 800/580-6941 or 225/635-4107; www.grandmothersbuttons.com). The owner makes jewelry from antique and vintage buttons (from Victorian brass picture buttons to 1940s Bakelite) -- one-of-a-kind, amazing creations. We've bought more earrings, brooches, and other gewgaws from here than we could ever possibly wear. Don't overlook their fascinating (really) Button Museum. They're open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5:30pm, Sun 11am to 5pm.
