Michel Doradou Bringier, one of Emmanuel Bringier’s sons, married Louise Elizabeth Aglae duBourg de Sainte-Colombe in 1812. She was fourteen years old  when she married, was born in Jamaica, and was educated in Baltimore by nuns. She was also the niece of the Bishop of New Orleans, Louis William Valentin duBourg.

The War of 1812 took Michel Doradou away from the plantation. He nobly served with General Andrew Jackson and returned in 1815, at about the time construction was being completed on his manor house. He named it The Hermitage after General Jackson’s Tennessee home, to honor his much-admired commander. To his French Louisiana relatives and neighbors, the home, of course,  immediately became “l’Hermitage.”

Elizabeth outlived Doradou by thirty years; he died in 1847. She had grown from a child bride to a self- confident plantation mistress, managing the business successfully through the Civil War times. The house was fired upon by Federal troops but survived intact, being hit by only one cannonball.

After the war, Louis Bringier, one of Michel and Elizabeth’s sons who had served as a Confederate army colonel, took over the plantation’s operation. Against all odds and with the help of Some of the former slaves who now worked as free persons, he successfully produced profitable sugarcane.

Eventually Duncan Kenner of Ashland, who had married into the Bringier family acquired the property. In the 1880′s it was acquired by the Maginnis family, then by the Duplessis family, then by the LaSalle family, and in 1959 by Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Judice of New Orleans. The Judices have completed a faithful and beautiful restoration.

Designed with splendid simplicity The Hermitage is built of thick “brick-between-post” construction and  smoothed over with plaster. Massive Doric columns and wide galleries sweep around the house. Two dormer windows are perched on a typical hipped roof. The interior is beautifully furnished with decor and furniture in the pre-Civil War style.

Evidence suggest that the house had been remodeled in 1849, probably by the noted New Orleans architect James Gallier Sr. The encircling galleries originally had brick pillows below and wooden colonettes above, typical of the time of its construction. They were replaced by the well-proportioned pillars as seen today.

The Hermitage is open by appointment for group tours. For more information on The Hermitage Plantation visit the Hotel Monteleone.

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 settling in the Feliciana country. They prospered in Louisiana, probably building more large plantation homes than any other single family.

Greenwood, with the exception of the twenty-eight brick columns, was built of lath and plaster. The Doric columns, thirty feet tall, rise from an elevated porch to hold a large roof entablature unusually decorated with triglyphs and other designs. Within the four corner columns, roof drains feed below-ground brick cisterns. A belvedere straddles the roof. Originally about forty outbuildings and 100 slave cabins were on the grounds.

Judah P. Benjamin, the noted Confederate statesman and a close friend of Barrow, advised his friend to sell the property because of the approaching Civil War. At a great loss Barrow sold the plantation intact to the Reed family. Federal troops did overrun Greenwood, destroying most of the outbuildings, but sparing the main house for use as a hospital. The Reed family retained the property, living there and maintaining the home until 1906. Greenwood was then sold to Mr. and Mrs. Frank S. Percy, who restored it and eventually opened it to the public.

In 1960 tragedy struck: A huge fire destroyed the house, leaving only the twenty-eight columns standing. Greenwood remained a ruin until 1968 when the charred remains and 300 acres were purchased by Baton Rouge attomey Walton J. Barnes and his son Richard.

The two men then began a most ambitious project: a reconstruction of the house as it originally was. Since no plans existed, the Barneses duplicated the structure by researching hundreds of old photographs and by interviewing those who had visited and lived at Greenwood.

Greenwood once again lives! Its twenty-eight majestic white columns are reflected in the original pool, dug to provide the clay for the columns’ bricks. The interior once again boasts an impressive central hall that is seventy feet long, with a curved wooden stairway at one end. Its furnishings reflect the style of the 1830s. Silver doorknobs and other hardware, ruined in the fire, have been remade.

The house has been used as a locale for several movies. The most notable to date is “North and South,” a televisian miniseries about, a family during the Civil War.

Greenwood is open to the public daily for tours. For more information on the Greenwood Plantation view the Hotel Monteleone listing.