Plantation Life along River Road: Driving Tours

A drive along River Road is not only relaxing, but also offers a landscape of massive oak trees, beautiful antebellum homes, fields of sugarcane and pastures, all set against the Mississippi River levee. Both northern and southern West Baton Rouge driving routes are provided, and historic homes and buildings are noted with road markers. Here's some of the beauty and history you'll encounter.

NORTHERN ROUTE:
Depart the West Baton Rouge Tourist Information Center traveling north to Rosedale Road, then go east across LA Hwy. 1 to the River Road to begin this tour.

Homestead Plantation
The plantation includes the original house, dating from the late 1700s, the Homestead overseer's cottage and garden, and a two-story columned house built in 1915 in a Greek Revival style with wide galleries wrapping around the home. The site is considered a local landmark, with the original home serving as a home, a temporary school, and a place of worship. Reminiscent of a mid-19th century Creole cottage garden, the garden was designed by renowned landscaper Michael Hopping. Created in 1995, it has since been featured in Southern Living, Garden Design and Southern Accents magazines. The garden includes a privy made of cypress and square nails that dates from the early 1900s. The cottage was the original overseer's house and dates from the Civil War era. John Hill, the first planter to revive the sugar industry in West Baton Rouge after the Civil War, owned Homestead. (Private)

Poplar Grove Plantation
Originally built as the Banker's Pavilion for the 1884 World's Fair in New Orleans, Poplar Grove was later moved by barge to its present site on River Road. An elegant Victorian style home, it also reflects Chinese, Italianate, Eastlake and Queen Anne Revival elements. Designed by noted architect Thomas Sully, its unique oriental details, Queen Anne windows, and 60 panes of stained glass are unique in Louisiana. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Open by appointment for group tours, private parties and meetings.
(225) 344-3913.

St. Delphine Overseer's Cottage
Nestled behind a wall of bamboo, this circa 1850 cottage was once the overseer's home on St. Delphine Plantation near Addis. It was moved to its present location on River Road in 1978 and restored. Renowned landscaper Steele Burton designed the gardens around this Creole cottage. (Private)

Monte Vista Plantation
Built in the Greek Revival style, Monte Vista was constructed in the late 1850's by early French colonialist Louis de Favrot. Featuring heart cypress, bricks made by slaves, handsome two-story exterior galleries, and transom and side-lighted doors, it has a clapboard exterior and a two and a half story central hall. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Private)

Cross under Old Mississippi River bridge (U.S. Hwy. 190)

Catherine Plantation
This circa 1790 home has been moved three times because of levee setbacks made necessary by the swift current of the river. Last moved in 1933, it is a French plantation cottage built of cypress and bousillage (a mixture of mud and moss used in construction during that period). (Private)

Allendale Plantation Historic District
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its status as a rare surviving plantation complex, the district includes 13 residences, a church and an office. The main house was burned by federal troops during the Civil War. Unlike earlier slave quarters, the circa 1870 to 1900 cabins are four-room cabins occupied by a single family. The circa 1930 church is a plain frame sanctuary with a pitched roof and exposed rafters. The 1890 plantation office has prominent side gables featuring Queen Anne Revival shingles. Allendale takes its name from Henry Watkins Allen, who served as governor of the state from 1864 to 1865. Allendale remains a working sugar plantation, though the "big house" and sugar mill are gone. (Private)

Orange Grove Store (circa 1850)
Once the gathering place of area plantation residents, the store was the authentic country store, complete with supplies, food and household needs. Orange Grove Plantation was named for the deckhands' call when sighting the Osage orange (Bois d'Arc) trees growing along the levee. The store was built in 1850 by a "free man of color", as a part of his sugar cane plantation, and with time, evolved into a general country store serving local folk until the 1960's. It now stands by the Mississippi River levee near Solitude Point and represents a rare and authentic building of the South. (Private)

Smithfield Plantation House
Originally constructed in 1875, Smithfield was remodeled in 1900 and includes features from both periods. While it is primarily a pretentious Eastlake style home, it also incorporates Queen Anne and Italianate styles. The home is also noted for its elaborate interior staircase and its size as one of the largest residences in West Baton Rouge. It is a National Register listing. (Private)

Schoonmaker Home
Situated in the midst of moss-draped live oaks that arch across the road, the home was the location for the Japanese film Solitude Point. (Private)

SOUTHERN ROUTE:
Depart the West Baton Rouge Tourist Information Center on Interstate 10 traveling east. Take Exit 153 onto LA Hwy. 1. Cross over the Intracoastal Waterway and travel about one mile. Turn left on LA Hwy. 988 (Beaulieu Lane). The road curves at the levee. Turn right on LA 988 (River Road).

Sandbar Plantation Home
Sitting amidst live oaks and azaleas on South River Road, Sandbar dates to Brusly's earliest settlers. Constructed circa 1837 in the Greek Revival style, it is a National Register property. It was the home of Ethel Claiborne Dameron, who played a leading role in the establishment of West Baton Rouge's first public library and the West Baton Rouge Museum and Historical Association. Built of heart cypress, it includes five mantels, elaborate moldings and cornices. Two antebellum structures remain outside the house - a brick kitchen and a cistern with a brick base. (Private)

Take a right on Antonio Road, traveling back to the service road of LA Hwy. 1. Turn left on the service road.

Cinclare Sugar Mill Historic District
Cinclare is not only a rare surviving example of a sugar town of the late 1800s and early 1900s, it is the only sugar mill still in operation in West Baton Rouge. The complex of 197 acres and 46 buildings includes a sugar mill with two historic turn-of-the-century boilers and three historic steam pumps, water tower, cotton oil mill, dairy barn/stable, wash, ice and fire houses, a "big house," housing for workers, management facilities and a mule barn. The buildings date between 1855 and 1945. Four of the one-story workers' cottages are pre-fabricated units purchased from Sears Roebuck & Co. and constructed on site in 1906.

The oldest building, the original plantation house, is a Greek Revival dwelling. One of the most important innovations adopted by Cinclare was the use of railroad cars to carry cane from the fields to the Cinclare Central Factory. Eventually, truck trailers replaced the railroad, but a train engine remains a fixture at the front of Cinclare. The sugar mill operates from October until December or January, producing raw sugar from sugar cane grown in nearby fields. The Cinclare complex, which can be seen from LA Hwy. 1 just five miles south of the Mississippi River Bridge, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Private)

The Lockmaster's House
This house, extremely significant to the historic Plaquemine Lock, was moved to its present site off LA Hwy. 1 in Brusly in 1966. Originally the home of the lockmaster, it is a huge two-story home with wrap-around porches that is sheltered by a grove of trees. Built circa 1900, the raised Creole plantation-style home took four months to be moved along the levee and down LA Hwy. 1 to its new location. The Plaquemine Lock, where the home was built, played a prominent role in water commerce in the early to mid 1900s. It was replaced by the Port Allen Lock in 1961. (Private)

Continue traveling south to East Main Street. Turn left on East Main and proceed toward the levee.

Hebert House
This charming French Creole home on East Main Street in Brusly is snuggled under a huge pecan tree just yards from the River Road and Mississippi River levee. Listed on the National Register, the circa 1835 one and a half story home includes a gabled umbrella roof, a pegged roof system, interior bousillage (moss and mud) walls, exposed ceiling beams on the gallery and three sets of pegged French doors. (Private)

Take a right on River Road (La. 988). At right is South Kirkland Drive.

The Bourgeois House
Now the office for St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, the Bourgeois House once was the home and office of Dr. Eugene Bourgeois, one of the first mayors of Brusly.

A 1901 dwelling with Eastlake architecture, it is located at 402 South Kirkland Drive. (Private)

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church
This Gothic Revival style church was built in 1907. Today it is the home of an active Catholic congregation, and is just yards away from the Bourgeois House. The adjacent church cemetery dates to the 1830s, when descendants of Acadian exiles first established the church. A rectangular wood frame church, it features Victorian influences in the mixture of lancet and Tudor-type openings, along with the use of shingles at the central door pediment and brackets to support side door sheds.

River Road in Brusly. Open daily - (225) 749-2189. Leaving the church, turn left onto River Road, and take a left on Main Street, traveling back to LA Hwy. 1. Continue on Main Street; crossing LA Hwy. 1, to end of Main Street.

Back Brusly Oak
Long described as the community "bulletin board," the Back Brusly Oak is perhaps the most well known landmark in West Baton Rouge. The cherished oak is believed to be more than 400 years old. A majestic live oak with moss-laden branches and massive roots rising above the ground, the tree has become the town's symbol. Some 25 feet in circumference, it was the first West Baton Rouge member registered with the Louisiana Live Oak Society. It has long been a meeting place for residents, and the once old practice of posting community news on the tree has been relegated to a nearby bulletin board. North LaBauve Avenue, west of LA Hwy.1.

Travel back to LA Hwy. 1; turn right and continue on LA Hwy. 1 to Addis. Turn right on Hwy. 990 Service Road, and then left on Harris Street. Follow signs to Addis Museum. Call town hall for tour.

Addis Museum
Located in the old Bank of Addis building, the museum houses a collection of photographs, memorabilia and exhibits of Addis' history as a railroad town. Addis was a railroad junction on the transcontinental route connecting New Orleans with the West Coast. Built in 1920, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is the only original central business district structure remaining. The museum includes exhibits on the importance of the railroad to Addis, Mardi Gras and military history with items from local veterans.

Located at 7821 Ray Rivet Street west of LA Hwy. 1, the museum has limited hours. By appointment: (225) 687-4844 or (225) 687-6333.