The Stoker House, or Old Stoker House, in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, northeast of Many, Louisiana, dates from 1848. It is the oldest house in Sabine Parish still at its original site, and it was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1976. The main historic resource is a house originally built as a dog-trot

log house A log house, or log building, is a structure built with horizontal logs interlocked at the corners by notching. Logs may be round, squared or hewn to other shapes, either handcrafted or milled. The term " log cabin" generally refers to a sm ...

built by Riley Stoker and his wife Elizabeth in the late 1840s, built with slave labor. Riley was one of four sons of Henry Stoker and his wife Nancy Varnell Stoker, who had settled on the land in 1818 and had built a lean-to on the listed property, which is less than one acre in area. Henry and Nancy had acquired a large number of acres between Rio Hondo and the Sabine River and had become wealthy. Henry Stoker was one of about 80 first settlers of the original Spanish land grant Rio Hondo lands in Sabine Parish who filed in 1824 for ownership; legal title was finally obtained by descendants only in 1878. After the death of two of his brothers in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, Riley probably bought out the interest of his remaining brother, and in any event became owner of all of Henry and Elizabeth's holdings. The original house was in plan. It included two log pens each consisting of a front room and a smaller back room; the pens were separated by a breezeway in between. The walls were hewn logs closely fit together and notched/dove-tailed at the corners. With It was built upon heavy sills, built of long leaf pine about in dimension and in length, set upon stone pilings. These foundations were, and remain, open to the air. A later renovation sheathed the walls, inside and out, with boards. The listing includes a second

contributing building In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

, a barn. The house is located about northeast of Many, Louisiana, "on the old San Antonio Trace." It is located on, and is visible from, the Natchitoches Highway (

Louisiana Highway 6 Louisiana Highway 6 (LA 6) is a state highway located in western central Louisiana. It runs in an east–west direction from the Texas state line southwest of Many to U.S. Highway 71 (US 71) and U.S. Highway 84 (US 84) in Clarence ...

). The NRHP nomination was written by Rebecca Stoker Kyle, a fifth generation descendant of Henry and Nancy, who had plans in 1976 to restore the house. The barn, about west of the house in 1975, was built at approximately the same time, and is also a double-pen structure built of logs notched together. Its sills were hewn from solid oak logs. The barn was used in support of the property serving as a stagecoach stop. The barn, and Mrs. Stoker, was noted by architect Frederick Law Olmstead (1822-1903) in his book ''A Journey Through Texas, or a Saddle Trip on the Southwestern Frontier'', published after his 1856-1857 trip. The Stoker Barn was moved from the property and is now on the grounds of the Burden Plantation in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

, in

East Baton Rouge Parish East Baton Rouge Parish (french: Paroisse de Bâton Rouge Est) is the most populous parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2010 U.S. census, its population was 440,171, and 456,781 at the 2020 census. The parish seat is Baton Rouge, ...

, in what is now the LSU Rural Life Museum.Stoker Barn - Baton Rouge, LA - Barns on Waymarking.com
/ref> It was donated by Rebecca Stoker Kyle, her brother James Stoker, and their father Riley Stoker in 1999. Note there is a typo/error in the book referring to Frederick Law Olmstead's journey or book as being from 1822-27: in fact Olmstead was born in 1822 and his journey was in 1856-57. LSU Rural Life Museum Trip Barn

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Dogtrot architecture in Louisiana Log buildings and structures in Louisiana National Register of Historic Places in Sabine Parish, Louisiana Houses completed in 1848