Oak Alley Plantation - History

History

The Bon Séjour ("good living") plantation, as it was originally named, was established to grow sugar cane. The present mansion was built by George Swainy between 1837 and 1839 for Jacques Telesphore Roman. Roman's father-in-law, Joseph Pilie, was an architect and probably designed the house. The design is Greek Revival architecture, with some facets of French Creole architecture, which was heavily influenced by Caribbean plantation architecture. The mansion has a square floor plan, organized around a central hall that runs from the front to the rear on both floors. The exterior features a free-standing colonnade of 28 Doric columns on all four sides, a common feature of antebellum mansions of the Mississippi Valley.

The house has high ceilings, large windows, a symmetrical facade and interior plan, and a second-floor gallery for viewing the surroundings. The original flooring was marble (since replaced by hardwood flooring), the roof was slate, the exterior walls and columns were of brick painted white to resemble marble.

The most noted slave who lived on Oak Alley Plantation was a field slave named Antoine. He was listed as "Antoine, 38, Creole Negro gardener/expert grafter of pecan trees", with a value of $1,000 in the inventory of the estate conducted on J.T. Roman's death in 1848. Antoine was a master of the techniques of grafting and, after trial with several trees, succeeded in the winter of 1846 in producing a variety of pecan that could be cracked with one's bare hands; the shell was so thin it was dubbed the "paper shell" pecan. It was later named the Centennial Variety when entered in competition at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where it won a prize. The trees may be found throughout southern Louisiana, where the pecan was once a considerable cash crop. Although Antoine's original trees were cleared for more sugarcane fields after the Civil War, a commercial grove has been planted at nearby Anita Plantation.

The plantation was not physically damaged in the Civil War, but the economic dislocations of the war and the end of slavery made it no longer economically viable, and it was sold at auction in 1866 for $32,800. Successive owners could not afford the cost of upkeep; by the 1920s the buildings had fallen into disrepair. In 1925 the property was acquired by Andrew and Josephine Stewart, who commissioned architect Richard Koch to supervise extensive restoration. The Stewarts were the last owners to live in residence. Josephine Stewart left the historic house and grounds to the Oak Alley Foundation, which opened them to the public. The main house is fully restored, and the Foundation is in process of restoring the slave quarters, the historic gardens, and other buildings.

The Plantation's street address is 3645 Highway 18 (Great River Road), Vacherie, LA 70090, USA.

Oak Alley Plantation is adjacent to St. Joseph Plantation on Louisiana Highway 18, the Great River Road. Both plantations are listed on the National Register of Historic Places of the United States.