Belle Grove, also known as Belle Grove Plantation, was a

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

and elaborate

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

and

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

-style plantation mansion near White Castle in Iberville Parish,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. Completed in 1857, it was one of the largest mansions ever built in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

, surpassing that of the neighboring Nottoway, once cited as the largest antebellum plantation house remaining in the South until it was destroyed by fire on May 15, 2025.Friends of Belle Grove Plantation of Louisiana Website
/ref> The masonry structure stood high and measured wide by deep, with seventy-five rooms (including a jail cell) spread over four floors. It burnt down in 1952.

History

Belle Grove was owned by John Andrews, a wealthy sugar planter originally from Virginia. He owned over spread over several plantations, with Belle Grove having of river frontage, worked by a large community of enslaved laborers. He founded Belle Grove during the 1830s, with Dr. John Phillip Read Stone as a partner. Andrews assumed full ownership in 1844 when the partnership was dissolved. By the 1850s, the more than 150 people, mostly slaves, were producing over one-half million pounds of sugar each year. Andrews built the mansion from 1852 to 1857 at a cost of $80,000. The house was designed by

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

architect Henry Howard. Andrews had a legendary rivalry with the owner of Nottoway Plantation, John Randolph. This competition even extended to their mansions, with both massive structures designed by Howard in a mix of the Greek Revival and Italianate styles. Belle Grove Plantation 02

Following the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

and ensuing collapse of the slave-based plantation economy, Andrews sold the home and plantation in 1868 to Henry B. Ware, for the meager sum of $12,000 (~$ in ). Ware and his descendants owned and operated the plantation for 65 years, and two of his sons, James Andrew Ware and John M. Ware, eventually acquired it. James married Mary Eliza Stone and John married Marie-Louise Dupré, who was related to Jacque Dupré, former governor of Louisiana. Eventually, James and Mary Eliza acquired the entire estate. James died in 1908, leaving the plantation to their son, J. Stone Ware, who oversaw the operations of the plantations until a "run of mosaic disease decimated the crops" in the mid 1920s, causing the family to abandon the plantation for good. The succeeding decades saw the finely crafted home rot away in Louisiana's harsh environment. Neglect allowed a roof leak to expand and destroy one wing. In 1943, Frederick J. Nehrbass purchased the house and 17 acres of its original land for $2,000 (~$ in ) with aspirations to restore it. On March 17, 1952, a mysterious fire during the night destroyed what remained of the house. Belle Grove Plantation 07

Dozens of accounts have been written about Belle Grove's beauty and charm, and hundreds of photographs of it have been published. During the late 1930s a comprehensive set of photos and architectural drawings were produced for the Historic American Buildings Survey. This material, an inventory of the house's contents made on the death of Isayah E. Henry in 1908, and a drawing of the missing wing, are available on the website of the Library of Congress.https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Belle%20Grove&co=hh Photographer Clarence John Laughlin described Belle Grove in his work, ''Ghosts Along the Mississippi'':

When completed, its tremendous mass rose on huge brick foundation arches over twelve feet above the surrounding earth, its walls and mantels were plastered and carved by the most expert European craftsmen money could secure, its great flight of brick steps was covered with imported marble, its door knobs and keyhole guards were of silver, its pillars bore Corinthian capitals six feet high but of the utmost refinement. Its theatrical magnificence would have delighted the Bibiena family - seventeenth century designers of the most elaborate and grandiose stage sets for kings. Yet it was not heavy, or pompous. It managed somehow, to combine vastness with delicacy; titanic proportions with grace and warmth....

References

External links

* *{{HABS , survey=LA-36 , id=la0099 , title=Belle Grove, White Castle, Iberville Parish, LA , photos=21 , dwgs=36 , data=23 , supp=yes
Friends of Belle Grove Plantation of Louisiana Website
Historic American Buildings Survey in Louisiana Houses completed in 1857 Sugar plantations in Louisiana Demolished buildings and structures in Louisiana Houses in Iberville Parish, Louisiana Greek Revival houses in Louisiana Italianate architecture in Louisiana Plantation houses in Louisiana Burned houses in the United States 1857 establishments in Louisiana Gilded Age mansions 1952 disestablishments in Louisiana

History

See also

References

External links