Hurricane Katrina is 5 Years Old0
Sunday, August 29th is the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Five years ago a hurricane called Katrina devastated New Orleans like no other hurricane before. This hurricane caused the breach of the levees and the flooding of the city. Thousands died and hundreds of thousands lost their homes. It was the costliest disaster in our [...]
Read MoreL’Hermitage Plantation0
The prominent French Louisiana family of Emmanuel Marius Pons Bringier practiced an interesting tradition. They gave a plantation, complete with manor house, as a wedding present to each child. The Hermitage was one of those presents. Michel Doradou Bringier, one of Emmanuel Bringier’s sons, married Louise Elizabeth Aglae duBourg de Sainte-Colombe in 1812. She was [...]
Read MoreGreenwood Plantation Felicianas0
Greenwood, the largest plantation house in the Felicianas, is a restructure. William Ruffin Barrow built the original in 1830 on the 12,000-acre sugar and cotton plantation he purchased from Oliver Pollack, who had acquired the land by grant from the Spanish government. The Barrow family, originally from England, had emigrated first to the Carolinas before [...]
Read MoreDestrehan Manor0
Destrehan Manor overlooks the east bank of the Mississippi River several miles above New Orleans. In a contract, translated from French and still on file at the local courthouse, it is written that in 1787 “Robert Antoine Robin de Longy and Charles [Pacquet], free mulatto, have agreed … that the said Charles, carpenter, woodworker and [...]
Read MoreMagnificent Chretien Point0
In 1776 a Spanish land grant awarded Pierre Declouet a rise of ground about eight miles from what is now the city of Opelousas. Hippolyte Chretien, one of three brothers from France, purchased the property in about 1800 to raise cotton, the popular crop of the area. Stories mention the friendship that Hippolyte had a [...]
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