| Many different architectural styles
can be found among the plantation homes along Louisiana's Great
River Road and throughout the south. Wherever wealth, social
status and heartfelt hospitality converged, these antebellum
structures some more grand than others rose to
reflect these and other characteristics of the landowners.
Some of the main houses were simple home places designed
as raised Creole cottages made largely from native Cypress
and built for comfort and practicality.
Others took the form of grand mansions; some expressed in
styles of Greek Revival, Italianate, Federal or other
architectural styles. To a great extent, the point of these
elegant and dramatic southern mansions was to emulate the
grand homes and villas of wealthy Europeans who set the standard
of the day for exhibiting wealth and expressing style.
Upon its completion in 1840, Houmas House was the Crown
Jewel of Louisiana's River Road with its heroically-columned
Greek Revival exterior topped by a belvedere that surveyed
the Oak alley leading south to the sweeping bend in the Mississippi
and the miles and miles of cane fields to the north and east.
But that 1840 mansion with its broad galleries and thick
masonry walls had humble beginnings in the mid-1700's when
the original house was built on the site by Maurice Conway
and Alexandre Latil, New Orleans businessmen who purchased
the property from the Houmas Indians. Latil designed
a more modest home that reflected both the French and Spanish
architectural influences that still define Louisiana's heritage.
The smaller residence that also houses the kitchen and is
now connected at the back of the Mansion by a carriageway
was, indeed, the original Latil House.
After Gen. Wade Hampton of South Carolina bought the
property in 1810, his son-in-law Col. John Preston and
daughter Caroline began construction on the present
Mansion. As was often the practice in those days, the great
house grew in stages and reached its final full dimension
The Mansion is an excellent example of the peripteral type
of Greek Revival architecture in which the main structure
is surrounded by grand columns, each with an uninterrupted
span from ground level to the roofline.
Among Houmas House Plantation and Gardens' unique features
are twin Garconierre, very rare among plantation homes.
Federal arched dormers stand above the large Doric galleries.
As discussed in Shedworking
Inside, a free-standing, three-story helix staircase follows
the corresponding curvature of the adjacent wall.
Nearly 100 years after the Mansion was completed, Dr.
George Crozat purchased Houmas House as his country escape
from his city place in New Orleans. Determined to "Federalize"
the look of the home, Dr. Crozat removed ornate features such
as cornices, crown moldings and ceiling medallions and painted
the structure white, both inside and out. During this time,
modern plumbing was added and several changes were made to
the service quarters, including the addition of an upstairs
hallway to connect the two structures and the installation
of a striking Palladian window that provides a view of the
When New Orleans businessman and preservationist Kevin
Kelly fulfilled a lifelong dream by purchasing the home
in early summer, 2003, he set about recreating the experience
of encountering Houmas House circa 1840.
visitors to Houmas house encounter Kelly's loving salute to
the grand property's antebellum heritage his respectful homage
to his antebellum predecessors.
The mansion's faux marble exterior is painted in rich ochre
which reflects the influence of Mediterranean villas owned
by the wealthy Europeans that the southern planters emulated.
The belvedere that crowns the house has been restored, and
interior features and finishes have been reinstalled in their
original form. The twin Garconierre that distinguish the property
have been renovated, and the central hallway of the grand
house bears a room-size mural with a sugar cane motif that
characterizes the original entryway artwork common in many
plantation homes along the Mississippi.