Houmas House

Sunday
The last plantation of our trip was the Houmas House. The plantation was originally established in the late 1700s, while the current main house was completed in 1840. It was named after the native Houma people, who originally occupied this area of Louisiana. In 1857, the more than 10,000-acre estate was sold to John Burnside, a native of Belfast, Ireland. Within two years, Burnside had increased the acreage to 12,000 acres, and built four sugar mills to process his crop. With approx 750 slaves, and Burnside's many surrounding plantations, it was the center of the largest slave holding in Louisiana prior to the American Civil War. It has been the filming location for a variety of motion pictures, television series and commercials, particularly associated with the Bette Davis movie Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). Whilst the setting and gardens are beautiful, the tour of the house I found disappointing. Not much was said about the history, and as far as the furnishings etc, little seemed very authentic, more a random and quirky collection according to the taste of the current owner, who does live there. It seemed much more about bringing in the dollars rather than portraying authentic history. I wish we’d just paid for the gardens. After lunch at the plantation, we drove into Baton Rouge, the state capitol, for a wander along the river, where we were pleased to see the American Queen was in port, the largest paddle steamer ever built. We also saw the old state capitol building and the current one. I have put another shot of Houmas, and some photos from Baton Rouge in as extras.