Evergreen Plantation is a

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

located on the west side of the Mississippi River in

St. John the Baptist Parish St. John the Baptist Parish (SJBP, french: Paroisse de Saint-Jean-Baptiste) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 42,477. The parish seat is Edgard, an unincorporated area, and the largest c ...

, near

Wallace, Louisiana Wallace is a census-designated place (CDP) in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 570 at the 2000 census. It is part of the New Orleans– Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area. The rural co ...

, and along

Louisiana Highway 18 Louisiana Highway 18 (LA 18) is a state highway that serves Ascension, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, and Jefferson Parishes. Called the Great River Road, it runs from west to east, parallel to the west bank of the Mississippi R ...

. The main house was constructed mostly in 1790, and renovated to its current Greek Revival style in 1832. The plantation's historical commodity crop was sugarcane, cultivated by enslaved African Americans until emancipation. The plantation operated until about 1930, when the Depression resulted in the owners abandoning the house. The plantation continued to produce sugar cane under the direction of the bank that owned it, and it is still a working sugar cane plantation today. The house was extensively restored during the 1940s, with 300,000 bricks from the demolished Uncle Sam Plantation used in the restoration.

Description

The plantation includes 37 contributing buildings, all but eight of them

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ...

, making it one of the most complete plantation complexes in the state and the South. Of great significance are the 22 slave quarters, arranged in a double row along an ''

allée In landscaping, an avenue (from the French), alameda (from the Portuguese and Spanish), or allée (from the French), is traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side, which is used, as its L ...

'' of oak trees. Among the outbuildings are a ''garconnière'', where young bachelors of the family or male guests could stay; a ''pigeonnier'' for keeping pigeons (a sign of status among the planters); an overseer's cottage; and late 19th-century barns.

National Historic Landmark

Because of its quality and significance, the plantation was included among the first 26 featured sites on the

Louisiana African American Heritage Trail Louisiana African American Heritage Trail (french: Sentier de l'héritage afro-américain de la Louisiane) is a cultural heritage trail with 38 sites designated by the state of Louisiana, from New Orleans along the Mississippi River to Baton Rouge ...

. It was designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1992 for its rich architectural legacy. and The house is open for tours every day except Sundays; tour times are at 9:30 am, 11:15 am, 1:00 pm, and 2:45 pm. Heiress and businesswoman, Matilda Geddings Gray (1885–1971) sponsored the restoration project in the 1940s, and it is now a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

In popular culture

It is a production site of films such as ''

Django Unchained ''Django Unchained'' () is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Walton Goggins, Dennis Ch ...

'' (2012) and ''Antebellum'' (2020).

References

External links

Louisiana's African American Heritage Trail
at LouisianaTravel.com
Evergreen Plantation Website

Louisiana Digital Library – Evergreen Plantation
{{National Register of Historic Places National Historic Landmarks in Louisiana Louisiana African American Heritage Trail Sugar plantations in Louisiana Historic house museums in Louisiana Museums in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana Houses in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana Houses completed in 1832 Plantation houses in Louisiana National Register of Historic Places in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana Slave cabins and quarters in the United States 1832 establishments in Louisiana

Description

National Historic Landmark

In popular culture

See also

References

External links