Overview

The picturesque beauty and architecture of the Louisiana plantations are a “must” for any visitor to New Orleans. Many of these breathtaking homes are within an hour’s drive from the city. Your tour will begin with a comfortable ride out of New Orleans where your guide will share with you the origin of the Louisiana plantations, along with the effect they had on the city of New Orleans, and its residents. Along with discovering beautiful buildings, luscious gardens and historic artifacts, these homes also represent some of the darker chapters of Louisiana history. Many of the plantations will provide a focus on the lives of the slaves that brought these homes to life, and share some of the realities of the rural south during this time in our nation’s history. Upon arrival, each plantation home has its own guide to bring you through the main house, and share its specific story. Following your home tour, we will escort you around the grounds and answer any questions that may arise.

Description

Pass By: Oak Alley Plantation, 3645 Highway 18, Vacherie, Louisiana 70090

"The Grand Dame of River Road"

Perhaps the most photographed plantation in Louisiana, this home was built in 1839 and was originally named Bon Séjour (pleasant sojourn).

Because of the quarter-mile avenue of 28 giant, live oaks leading up to the house, steamboat passengers dubbed it “Oak Alley.”

Stop At: Laura Plantation: Louisiana's Creole Heritage Site, 2247 Highway 18, Vacherie, Louisiana 70090

Laura: A Creole Plantation offers a 70-minute tour that is based on 5,000 pages of documents from the French National Archives related to the free and enslaved families who lived here.

Guides will share the compelling, real-life accounts of 7 generations of Laura Plantation’s Creole inhabitants.

With 11 structures listed on the National Register, Laura Plantation offers guests the chance to explore its newly restored Manor House, the formal and kitchen gardens, Banana-Land grove, and its authentic Creole cottages and slave cabins.

Laura Plantation is best known for the West-African stories the home’s former slaves related to folklorist Alcée Fortier. Recorded at the slave cabins here in the 1870s, they were later popularized in English and became the “Tales of Br’er Rabbit.”

Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Pass By: Evergreen Plantation, 4677 Highway 18, Edgard, Louisiana 70049

"The South's Most Intact Plantation Complex"

Evergreen Plantation has an astonishing 37 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, including 22 slave cabins in their original, double row configuration.

Pass By: St. Joseph Plantation, 3535 Highway 18, Vacherie, Louisiana 70090

According to the Live Oak Society of Louisiana, the company has 16 registered live oak trees on its property, some named after family members, with the largest boasting a girth of 23 feet. Officials estimate the trees are about 300 years old. Four of the huge live oaks shade the St. Joseph home’s backyard well, and iron syrup kettle 10 feet in width, several week-framed slave quarters, a detached kitchen and the remnants of a narrow gauge railroad that carried sugar cane from the fields. Double-wide French doors provide cross-ventilation for the home’s 16 rooms and cypress plank floorboards shine from decades of waxing.