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| Houmas
House is one of the most outstanding
plantations in the New Orleans area.
Photo courtesy of Steve Bergsman. |
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|
An
animated guide
explains the history
of Houmas House to
visitors. Photo
courtesy of Steve
Bergsman. |
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|
A
visitor comes down the
ornate staircase at
Houmas House near New
Orleans. Photo
courtesy of Steve
Bergsman. |
|
12-01-15
By Steve Bergsman
Visitors to New Orleans generally want to see two things: the
French Quarter and a plantation. Unfortunately, there are no
plantations in the city itself, but there are plenty open to
visitors who are willing to venture outside the city.
My wife had never been to New Orleans, so when we went there
for a cousins reunion, she was able to check these two items off
her to-do list. The first was easy because our hotel was located
in the heart of the district. For the second, I turned for help to
Bonnie Warner, a local journalist and sometimes publicist who has
lived in the city for decades and knows just about everyone and
everything.
My wife and I first met Warner over breakfast at Brennan's
Restaurant, a traditional New Orleans morning eatery. After we
feasted on turtle soup, oysters Benedict and a crabmeat omelet, we
drove for 55 minutes to the Houmas House plantation, one of nine
between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
What makes Houmas House unique is that it is privately owned by
a local entrepreneur, Kevin Kelly, who actually lives in the
house. Kelly restored the home to its former glory and stocked the
23-room mansion with original furnishings, period antiques, objets
d' art and an extensive collection of paintings, especially those
of Louisiana and other Southern artists.
He also added wonderful gardens and a restaurant/banquet hall
and turned one of the property's garconniere, or bachelor's
quarters, into a small bar where visitors could cool off from the
long walks with a fine mint julep.
The setting is most remarkable — across the levee where the
Mississippi River makes one of its 180-degree loops before heading
southeast once again. Looking one way from the levee reveals the
Mississippi spread out in picturesque glory; the picture the other
way is of a corridor of ancient oak trees at Houmas House.
Houmas House boasts a long, grand history, and Kelly realized
people wouldn't be able to comprehend it all on the house tour, so
he created a short film on the history of the property that
encapsulates centuries and helps explain the plantation's reason
for being.
The house is named after the tribe of Americans Indians who
originally lived in the area. As settlers moved into what is now
Louisiana, the smallish tribe moved farther west. The first house
on the property (now the rear wing) was built in the 1770s.
Grandeur was attained in the 1820s, when Wade Hamilton, the
largest sugar producer and slave-holder in Louisiana, bought the
property and built the present house, making it one of the first
columned mansions on the Mississippi River.
The peak of elegance came with the next owner, John Burnside,
who purchased the house in 1858 as part of his vast sugar-cane
plantation acquisitions. Burnside eventually became the largest
sugar planter in America, boasting more than 300,000 acres and
earning the title of "the Sugar Prince of Louisiana."
Today Houmas House is called the Sugar Palace: Crown Jewel of
Louisiana's River Road. Only 38 acres remain, and they are managed
by a staff of about 50 instead of the 8,000 slaves who once toiled
there.
"Plantations are our palaces and chateaus," Kelly said, clearly
proud of Houmas House, an ongoing project that keeps getting
grander.
Kelly first invested in New Orleans warehouses and then
renovated an old flophouse in the French Quarter into a lovely
home. One day when he was driving in the Louisiana countryside
with a friend, he saw a plantation being renovated for a new
owner. He was so shocked that it was in private hands that he
exclaimed. "What! You can buy these things?"
When Houmas House came on the market, he did, indeed, buy it.
The plantation is a popular wedding venue, and some couples who
don't get married there come to have their pictures taken. Also,
in a region of epicurean delights, Houmas House has garnered a
reputation as one of the area's up-and-coming fine restaurants.
Kelly brought in a young chef, Jeremy Langlois, who has put
together a menu of Cajun specialties all done to his own vision.
It was here that I began to regret my breakfast at Brennan's
because when I sat down for lunch, I realized I still wasn't
hungry. The menu began with crab-cake appetizers and interesting
soups, but all I ordered was a salad. I even had to pass on the
bread pudding dessert.
There are many other things to do outside the city of New
Orleans, too. One of them is the less-grandiose bayou or swamp
tour. I took one in the Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve,
where flat-bottom boats float down old canals that have been
dredged through the bayou. The day I was there alligators were
everywhere along the journey, sometimes following very close
behind us. I had wondered if we would see any, and I wasn't
disappointed.
WHEN YOU GO
I stayed at the Bourbon Orleans (www.bourbonorleans.com) in the
heart of the French Quarter and at the Hotel New Orleans, near the
Warehouse District and Convention Center (www.hotelneworleansconventioncenter.com).
Almost anywhere you eat in New Orleans serves good Cajun
dishes. Brennan's Restaurant is most well-known for its unique
breakfast offerings: www.brennansneworleans.com.
If you only have time for one plantation, Houmas House is the
one to visit: www.houmashouse.com.
There are many swamp tours. I used Gray Line Tours in New
Orleans: www.graylineneworleans.com.
Steve Bergsman is a freelance travel writer. To read features
by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the
Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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