White Hall Plantation House is an 1840s

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

and

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and e ...

attributed to the architect Henry Howard and built in 1848-49 by Elias Norwood. It is located in Legonier, a hamlet on the east bank of the

Atchafalaya River The Atchafalaya River ( french: La Rivière Atchafalaya, es, Río Atchafalaya) is a distributary of the Mississippi River and Red River in south central Louisiana in the United States. It flows south, just west of the Mississippi River, and ...

, today part of the unincorporated town of

Lettsworth, Louisiana Lettsworth is an unincorporated community located in the extreme northern tip of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the east bank of the Atchafalaya River near its intersection with the Mississippi and Red rivers at the Ol ...

. White Hall's most notable owner and slaveholder was Bennet Barton Simmes, founder of Simmesport, state senator, and contributor to the Louisiana Articles of Secession prior to the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. He is also said to have been a steamboat captain and Confederate general. The home is 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 v ...

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

General

Nathaniel P. Banks Nathaniel Prentice (or Prentiss) Banks (January 30, 1816 – September 1, 1894) was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, ...

used the house as a military headquarters in 1863. During the 20th century, the

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

was twice moved back from the encroaching river waters. In late 2013, after a decade of restoration work, the White Hall Plantation & Gardens were opened to public view for the first time.Restoration of White Hall Plantation at ''Country Roads Magazine''
Accessed 12 Apr 2015.

References

((Country Roads magazine, February 2014)) Houses completed in 1849 Plantation houses in Louisiana Italianate architecture in Louisiana Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana Houses in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana 1849 establishments in Louisiana National Register of Historic Places in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana {{Louisiana-NRHP-stub

See also

References