Belle Grove Plantation: Attempts to Preserve
a Doomed American Landmark
Jonathan Sargent ARHA364 J. Siry May 15, 2009
1
In 1948, Clarence John Laughlin’s images of Belle Grove plantation appeared in
his book, Ghosts Along the Mississippi; timeless photographs of a porticoed mansion
battered under the effects of time and the harsh Louisiana climate. As “the greatest
ruined house in the entire Mississippi valley,” the plantation stood as a doomed entity
“haunted by misfortune” yet tragically beautiful. Through his nine images of the
building, Laughlin presented to the world a marvel of the Old South desperately in need
of help [Fig. 1]. It was certainly not the first time attention had been drawn to the site but
it would be one of the last since the effects of nature and fire would turn the building into
a mere pile of bricks within four years of the book’s publication.
Frequently, Belle Grove has served as a symbol of the post-war South, a remnant
of a past and distant culture. However, the building more accurately tells the story of
economic collapse and a nation’s undying pursuit of progress instead of preservation.
The collapse of the Louisiana sugar industry in the 1920’s sent the house into a period of
neglect in turn exposing structural flaws in the building that led to its steady
deterioration. Despite the rise of the preservation movement in America, the house’s
impractically large size, its precarious location near the river, and the inability to gain
funding or public support during a period marred by economic struggles and world wars
doomed the building.
The hulking mass of Belle Grove provides an intriguing glance into the
extravagant lifestyle of the sugar plantation owners who composed one of the most elite
communities in America prior to the Civil War. The mansion, positioned on a plantation
of seven thousand acres at is peak, was home to the family of John Andrews who had
made a fortune in Virginia and moved to Louisiana to try his hand in the sugar cane
2
industry. Andrews curiously commissioned Henry Howard, a relatively young and
inexperienced architect working out of New Orleans to construct the seventy five room
house in 1857.1 Composed primarily of elements in the Greek Revival style, a style
popular in Louisiana and across the entire South at this time, the house also utilized
Gothic and Italianate elements to create a truly unique design. The two story structure
was mounted atop high foundations with two huge colonnades along two sides of the
main block and two additional wings extending out from the central rectangular block
[Fig. 2]. The structure’s asymmetrical layout works to provide the illusion that the
building is even more immense than it truly is since it dominates one’s view both
vertically and horizontally.
Andrews was clearly not satisfied with building himself a mansion; he wanted his
to be a display of wealth and technology unparalleled in the United States. Atop the
thirty foot columns on the exterior were capitals consisting of six foot blocks of
intricately carved cypress wood, the size of which was unprecedented in Louisiana.2
Descriptions and photos of the home’s interior further reveal why the house was
constructed at the astronomical cost of seventy-five thousand dollars. Twelve onyx
mantels imported from Europe were installed in the house along with silver keyhole
guards and doorknobs in each room, and elaborate plasterwork carried out by expert
European craftsmen.3 For dining purposes, there was a great dumbwaiter in the house
which some believed to be one of, if not the largest, in the South.4 However, the
crowning technological accomplishment of the design was what has been said to have
been the first bathtub in the South, made possible by two water cisterns in the attic
capable of capturing up to ten thousand gallons of rainwater.5
3
The house’s splendor soon made it a renowned location for lavish parties and the
courting of Andrews’ five daughters, although this all came to a halt upon the outbreak of
the Civil War. Following the war, the financially-pressed Andrews was forced to sell the
house to Henry Ware in 1868 along with 1809 adjoining acres of plantation land.6 Like
Andrews, the Wares shared a great affinity for entertainment and life in the spotlight.
The house became an entertainment landmark and a symbol for the recovering South as it
slowly stepped out of Reconstruction into a period of growing prosperity. Two
racetracks and accompanying stables were built on the property and a collection of
furnishings later estimated at five hundred thousand dollars was accumulated at the
house.7 The home remained in the Wares’ possession until 1925 when they too were
forced to sell the property under financial stress.
Despite its lavish beginnings, Belle Grove has become better known for its
twentieth century identity, as a site that progressed steadily into ruin. By 1908, this
process had already begun with the race tracks, stables, and possibly even the sugar
refineries having ceased operation [Fig. 3].8 The plantation continued to produce sugar
and it is unclear whether sugar was sent to other plantations in order to be refined or
whether there was a refinery on the site that continued to be operated. The greatest
deterioration at the site occurred after the house was sold in 1925, after which point
nobody resided there. In fact, the Wares had abandoned the home in 1924 a year prior to
selling it since they simply could not afford for its upkeep. A 1927 description of the
structure mentions that there was much damage in the upstairs due to leaks in the ceiling.
The intricate plasterwork had fallen in many places, the woodwork was battered and
discolored and bottles lay on the floor of the home indicating its use by trespassers.9
4
Although the hope of restoration was sparked in the 1930’s by the site’s change in
ownership, the plantation continued to deteriorate. The effects of nature began to become
too much for the structure to handle for as one author noted “while the soft air of the
Deep South builds quickly, it quickly destroys.”10 By 1936, large portions of the roof had
fallen in allowing massive amounts of moisture to penetrate the structure. The great
mahogany spiral staircase, once lauded for its beautiful contours, had been destroyed and
many of the windows shattered.11 Within a year, all of the doors, balustrades and
windows had been removed by greedy looters and poor neighbors in search of materials.
It was reported that already the elements were beginning to compromise the structure of
the building, with some of the rafters sagging under the weight of the collapsed slate
roof.12 Within a few years, the entire wing in which the spiral staircase was located
collapsed. Belle Grove, “grandiose even in its wreckage,” began to take on a new
persona as the romanticized ruin that would characterize it for its remaining years.13
Throughout the 1940’s, the structure began to draw more and more attention with
many sources comparing it to the ancient ruins of Rome. By 1945, only seventeen acres
remained of the once noble plantation and animals grazed in and around the gaping mass
of the house. It had become “as much a wreck as it was the perfection of colonial
construction” in its earlier days.14 On March 15, 1952 the structure once known as the
grandest house in all of the United States was consumed by flames and reunited “with the
ghosts of the past.”15 Since the house had been in such a neglected state before the fire
and since ninety percent of the house was made of brick, the blaze did not actually
drastically change the appearance of the ruined mansion. However, the fire did consume
the rafters, the frontal pediment and all of the remaining plaster leaving the remaining
5
brick structure dangerous and subject to collapse.16 The burned remains of the building
were bought in 1955 and razed in order to make way for a housing development that now
stands where the mansion once loomed. The only remnants of the site that exist are a few
great oak trees that once surrounded the house.
Belle Grove’s condition prior to the fire was a direct reflection of the deteriorating
economic state of Louisiana as a whole. Formerly one of the richest states in the Union
prior to the Civil War, Louisiana subsequently became the poorest.17 Sugar production
had represented the most profitable industry in antebellum Louisiana and had relied
entirely upon a large amount of slave labor. Following the war, Belle Grove and the
other mansions located along the stretch of the Mississippi River known as “the River
Road” crumbled under the financial demands of employing a paid work force.
Following the post-war struggles of Reconstruction, sugar plantations did manage
to rebound, reaching record production numbers by 1904. However, this period of
prosperity was short-lived. The following period from 1906 to 1926 became known as the
“Great Decline” due to huge decreases in sugar production that devastated the Louisiana
economy. In 1912, heavy freezes and damaging floods lead to a disastrous crop. In
addition, several diseases that attacked sugar cane appeared and quickly spread
throughout the unhealthy crops within the next few years.18 Desperate planters continued
to plant diseased cane which only precipitated the problem.19 Some plantations resorted
to importing and refining Cuban and Mexican sugar, operating as mere refineries rather
than producers.
The difficult economic conditions forced planters to make decisions that yielded
greater short term gains but which also continued the downward spiral in terms of
6
production. For instance, funding previously devoted to strategies such as crop rotation,
fertilization and drainage infrastructure were cut. Obviously, this led to further problems
in the coming years as soils became depleted and overused. As a result, the plantation
system witnessed a process of consolidation throughout this time period as smaller
plantations were gradually bought up and reorganized into larger plantations. In the first
quarter of the twentieth century, the number of operating sugar cane plantations went
from three hundred to fifty four.20
During this period of struggle, the planter’s were presented with a little hope with
the outbreak of World War I. One might think that the sugar demands brought about by
the war would have led to greatly increased production and thus provided wealth for the
plantation owners and their homes. However, the various factors that had depleted cane
production in years prior prevented any vast growth to occur in the industry. In addition,
the plantations struggled to find workers as more and more Black workers migrated to the
cities, having been drawn by the prospect of higher paying industrial jobs to fuel the war
effort.21 The end result of these factors was the bankruptcy and sale of many plantation
homes such as Belle Grove in the 1920’s. Much of this was occurring even prior to the
national economic downturn of the Great Depression, which further worsened conditions.
Belle Grove relied solely on the money made through the sugar cane industry for
its upkeep. Several sources attest to the fact that the cane crops failed completely in
1924, at which point the Wares abandoned the house.22 Storms, droughts, and the mosaic
disease which attacked the cane have all been attributed to participating in the crop
failure at the site.23 Based upon the accounts of the house’s greatly deteriorated state as
early as 1927, it is evident that necessary repairs may not have been carried out for the
7
last few decades that the Wares owned the plantation. The period of the house’s apparent
neglect coincides with the near collapse of the Louisiana sugar cane industry.
Integrally connected to agriculture was the Mississippi River and plantations’
access to it as a means of transporting goods. From the advent of the steamboat era on
the Mississippi in 1812 up through the peak of the era in the 1870’s, greater access to the
river allowed for greater publicity, greater access, and thus greater opportunities for
business.24 This began to change as railroads and trucks began to replace steamboats as
the primary source for transporting goods. Plantations located along the River Road such
as Belle Grove no longer held such a great advantage over the larger consolidated
plantations which could be established away from the riverfront. Furthermore, the
decrease in steamboat traffic led to decreased exposure among people who would have
witnessed Belle Grove’s steady deterioration.
As Louisiana agriculture fell into decline, new industries developed that further
threatened the existence of Louisiana plantations and their grand homes. The discovery
of oil in southwestern Louisiana in 1901 revealed one of the largest oil fields in the
United States, positioned under Louisiana and eastern Texas.25 Throughout the area of
the River Road, refineries were needed to process the petroleum being extracted from the
nearby oil wells. Naturally, the Mississippi River stood out as an ideal location for these
refineries since oil could easily then be transported down its waters to New Orleans and
beyond, just as planters had traditionally transported sugar and other agricultural
products. The first step towards the development of an oil industry in the region was
taken by Standard Oil, now ExxonMobil, which opened one of the world’s largest oil
refineries in Baton Rouge in 1909, roughly thirty five miles upstream from Belle Grove.26
8
The outbreak of World War I may not have fostered too much success in the
sugar cane industry but it did greatly promote the petroleum industry. It was not until
later; however, during the 1920’s that companies began to capitalize on the relatively new
field of petrochemicals. These chemicals are made from the waste generated in the
petroleum refining process and are found in such modern materials as rubber, plastic,
film and fiberglass as well as countless other synthetics. The area between Baton Rouge
and New Orleans continuously attracted petrochemical companies seeking to utilize the
readily available oil, natural gas, salt and sulfur in the area. Within several decades, the
region had developed into the so-called “Chemical Corridor” as the largest petrochemical
complex in the world.27
Old plantation land along the riverfront was commonly bought up and developed
to accommodate these petrochemical plants leading occasionally to the demolition of
plantation homes such as at Welham plantation. Although two petrochemical complexes
are now located within four miles of Belle Grove’s site, it is fairly clear that such
industrial development did not threaten the mansion.28 The plantation was always under
private ownership and was never sold to any oil companies.
Yet another threat to consider toward Louisiana plantations during the mid 1900’s
was that of housing development as developers capitalized on cheap plantation lands no
longer under agricultural use. Since Belle Grove’s site was ultimately developed into a
subdivision four years after the house was consumed by fire, this threat may be conceived
as a possibility upon first observation. However, little growth or development was going
on in the town of White Castle, Louisiana where Belle Grove was located. The
population of Iberville Parish to which White Castle belongs actually decreased from
9
1920 and 1930 and again between 1940 and 1950, and the town itself has a population of
less than two thousand even today.29 Furthermore, aerial photographs of the town today
reveal that revived agricultural land still dominates the riverfront and the housing
development on Belle Grove’s site is actually an isolated occurrence.30
Provided that Belle Grove was not presented with threats of commercial and
industrial development, the question arises of why the building was allowed to progress
so far into ruin. In other words, which obstacles still existed that inhibited the
preservation of the house? In speaking of the idea of “preservation” during the early
years of Belle Grove’s decline, it is first important to note that the motives behind
preservation and its process in general were much different than they are today. The
conception of preserving a site in order to protect a component of a region, culture or
nation’s history was somewhat foreign. The process was much more about restoration
than preservation; to restore homes to their previous grandeur so that they might continue
to function as they had in the past.
Regardless of the motives behind the restorations of plantation homes, a
newfound interest in restoring them appeared in the 1920’s and 1930’s around the same
time that Belle Grove was abandoned. As countless Louisiana plantation homes lay
abandoned and in extreme disrepair, a man named Andrew Stewart and his wife,
Josephine, purchased the Oak Alley plantation in 1925 and conducted a full restoration.31
Their efforts were some of the first in the region towards this goal and many
contemporary authors were quick to laud them for providing a model for preservation
that quickly spread. Although the condition of plantation homes often depended
primarily on the economic success of their respective plantations, as was the case at Belle
10
Grove, some wealthy owners such as the Stewarts were able to restore the buildings
independent of any agricultural success. Several other individuals followed this pattern
and carried on the trend of preservation on into the 1930’s and 1940’s. Oftentimes
former sugar plantations were transformed into retreats for the elite, leading some
historians such as Richard Sexton to call the period of the late 1930’s “the rehabilitated
country estate era.”32
Prior to the preservation of Oak Alley, the majority of plantation homes that
remained in decent shape were homes that had been kept up by descendants of their
original owners. Not only did these owners have strong incentives to preserve their
family heritage but they also benefited from the support of the communities to which
their families belonged; connections which in some cases went back centuries in time. In
speaking of a similar situation in Charleston, South Carolina, historian Robert Weyeneth
summed up the idea of preserving a community’s identity when he said, “the first
stirrings of the preservation impulse were stimulated by the destruction—or threatened
destruction—of landmark buildings, structures closely linked with community history
whose presence on the cityscape often fostered a sense of civic identity for residents.”33
At places such as the plantation house named Shadows-on-the-Teche, this was exactly
the case, where not only the building but the family associated with it was seen as an
integral part of the civic identity.
The preservation trend among Louisiana plantation homes was part of a national
push to preserve parts of the nation’s history which were rapidly disappearing in the
name of progress. Much of the impetus towards preservation derived from national
programs such as the Historic American Buildings Survey or HABS, which was formed
11
as part of the New Deal’s job creation program in 1933. Richard Koch, the architect who
performed the restoration of Oak Alley, was very active with HABS, helping to produce
measured drawings and photographs of historic sites and serving as head of its
Louisiana’s division [Fig. 4].34 Although the survey had no power to fund restorations or
actively promote them, it was instrumental in providing greater publicity for the
structures by recording the houses’ details. As Koch carried out valuable preservation
projects in Louisiana, other individuals and organizations worked towards preserving
landmarks elsewhere in the U.S. The first historic preservation ordinance was put into
place in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931 with New Orleans serving as the next U.S.
site to follow suit.35 Later, in 1947, the first historic preservation conference was held in
Washington D.C. which led to the formation of the National Trust for Historic
Preservation and the National Council for Historic Sites and Buildings in 1949.36
As national interest in preservation grew and as images of dilapidated and
seemingly forgotten Louisiana plantation homes continued to emerge, several attempts
were made to save the Belle Grove mansion. In fact, nearly every owner after the Wares
shared similar ambitions of restoring the property. A 1927 study of Louisiana plantation
architecture recalls that Belle Grove had been recently purchased with the “promise of its
restoration.”37 The new owner, John Wheeler may well have had such intentions to
restore the grand mansion but apparently lacked the resources to do so under the difficult
economic climate surrounding the Great Depression. The following owner N.G. Huth
also considered renovations and went as far as getting an estimate as to how much the
restorations would cost.38 The hundred thousand dollar cost must have again proved too
great a financial burden. In 1943, Frederick Nehrbass also had plans for restorations after
12
purchasing the house and its accompanying sixteen acres for two thousand dollars.39
However, Nehrbass failed to take any action before the building finally went up in flames
in 1952.
Individual owners were not the only ones who showed interest in reviving Belle
Grove. The State Planning Commission was in negotiations to obtain the site in 1940;
however, the outbreak of World War II prevented the commission from supplying the
needed funds to gain the site and it was not pursued further.40 In addition, some
publications which revealed visual and textual descriptions of the decaying mansion
helped generate publicity and interest in the site. John and William Wickes, two
landscape architects from Michigan, claimed that they had purchased Belle Grove after
having seen its picture in a 1939 article in House and Garden.41 In that same year, the
publication, Louisiana Conservation Review, published a unique article among the
literature on Belle Grove that called for readers to take action to save the plantation.
The article in Louisiana Conservation Review presents an interesting proposition
not found in other literature on Belle Grove: the idea that the site could be made into a
park that would serve as a recreational tourist site. The article envisioned a house which
would hold a vast library and serve as “a dream house this time for writers, artists and
composers….” while the grounds would be reserved for recreational activity.42 The idea
of reusing the structure for a purpose other than a private country residence or as a
traditional center of a sugar plantation was a very promising one and one which had been
entertained at a few sites in Louisiana already. Magnolia plantation was maintained and
used as a supper club, religious retreat and a training school for mentally challenged
13
children.43 In another instance, the Destrehan plantation house was utilized as a school
for blacks and for other uses by the oil company that later owned the site.44
Even in Belle Grove’s later years when its structural flaws seemed to undermine
its ability to ever function again as a livable house, possibilities existed for the site’s re-
use. Given the site’s high amount of lure and intrigue as a ruin, the house held incredible
potential to attract visitors had there been a way to preserve it in its ruinous state.
Preserved ruins have proven to be successful tourist sites at such locations as Port
Gibson, Mississippi in which twenty-nine columns, balustrades and foundations are all
that remain of the former Windsor plantation house overlooking the Mississippi River.
At another site, the Seven Oaks Plantation, a similar “ruins park” was proposed in which
a ruined plantation home would have been stabilized in order to serve as the central
element of a park just outside of New Orleans.45 Although this proposal was made more
than two decades after Belle Grove had disappeared, it provides a very interesting idea in
hindsight that perhaps could have been carried to fruition at Belle Grove.
Knowing the possibilities that may have existed to revive the Belle Grove site, it
is clear that the primary obstacle preventing any action from taking place was insufficient
funding. Unfortunately, the period of peaked public interest in the site coincided with the
outbreak of World War II. During the war, it was nearly impossible to find the labor or
materials needed to restore the building due to the national push to channel all resources
towards the war effort. There was also little hope in reviving the sugar industry since
black workers which had made up the majority of field hands were steadily moving to
cities drawn by the prospect of higher paying industrial jobs. In addition, the industrial
war boom changed the nation’s landscape and the priorities of the American people as
14
increased industrialization prompted by the war continued to be of foremost importance
in the post-war society.
With sugar operations at Belle Grove having failed, an alternative source of
funding was needed for a restoration project. Since nobody wealthy enough to repair the
building ever came forward, the answer may have lay in somewhat revolutionary
thinking such as the Conservation Review’s suggestion of the site’s development as a
recreational park. Ironically, the oil companies that were bulldozing some of the
plantation houses on the River Road could possibly have provided a means of survival for
Belle Grove. Local organizations or the individual owners of Belle Grove may have been
able to strike a deal with an oil company in which the lands could have been leased or
sold in exchange for a partial restoration of the building. Such a situation occurred at the
San Francisco plantation in the 1970’s when the house was acquired by the Marathon Oil
Company under the agreement that they would restore and maintain the main building.46
Alternatively, Belle Grove could have also functioned as a company’s administrative
building as was the case briefly in the case of Destrehan plantation.
Belle Grove’s position in the small town of White Castle may have also hurt its
case for survival. As a small rural town based around agriculture, land values were cheap
especially following the struggles of the sugar industry. Thus, the sale of lands to oil
companies or other buyers could not provide enough capital to pay for the restorations of
the house. The town’s small population and somewhat isolated position as compared to
the major city of New Orleans meant that Belle Grove also received limited exposure and
lacked a strong base of supporters who could rally for its preservation. Such conditions
create doubts of whether the house would have been able to generate enough revenue to
15
sustain itself in the event that it had become a tourist attraction. After all, a large portion
of the cost would have to have been devoted to maintaining the house once it was initially
repaired. Most of the cost estimates that were conducted over the years consisted only of
restoration costs but the costs for upkeep must also be considered.
The reason Belle Grove’s upkeep would have been so costly was due to its
impractically immense size that may have deterred many potential buyers and restorers.
A historian in 1941 commented that nobody had resided in the house since 1925 because
“no one could feel at home in this big house.”47 In his 1934 article entitled “Vanished
Paradise,” Lyle Saxon also commented on the fact that the house’s seventy five rooms
were basically unmanageable without a number of servants working to maintain them.
From Saxon’s viewpoint, the antebellum mansion was a form that was inappropriate and
impractical; a remnant of a very distant past.
Several authors have pointed to the fact that the building also lacked the structural
support needed for a building of its size. This was made immediately visible in the ruins
where large cracks and holes in the foundations appeared, as shown in photographs
dating to the 1930’s. Questions remain of whether these cracks were caused by the house
settling, design failures in the foundations themselves or more likely a combination of
these two factors. The fact that an entire wing of the house collapsed within ten years of
the building’s abandonment speaks to the gravity of these issues. In his dissertation,
Robert Rudd hypothesizes that the building may have had fatal design flaws in its
structure that may have doomed the building regardless of whether the funding was
available for its later restoration. Other writers speak of similar flaws, claiming Belle
Grove was an early step in its architect’s development evidenced by the increased success
16
of his later design at Nottoway plantation which does not exhibit the same structural
inadequacies.48
In times when the flow of the Mississippi River remained unpredictable and a
constant danger for the homes and farms near its banks, Belle Grove’s close location to
the river’s banks may have been a further deterrent for those looking to restore it. Over
the course of time that the Wares owned the property, the distance between the river and
the house decreased from a quarter mile to a hundred yards.49 As the river continued to
eat away at the earth supporting the house, fears were fueled by the great flood of 1927
which affected much of the sugar cane country. The impacts of this flood and the later
New Deal led to increasing federal control over levee setbacks.50 In 1941, many oak
trees in front of the house were removed during one of several levee setbacks. Such
setbacks had forced the demolition of other plantation house complexes such as Uncle
Sam Plantation in 1940.51
In much of the literature involving the river’s threat to the house, the river is
portrayed as an unstoppable force which would inevitably consume the house one day.
The last resident at Belle Grove, Stone Ware, said “Maybe it would be the proper way for
it to go, that way….If they would only let the river take it one day, pillars and
everything.”52 It is very likely that such individuals saw the river as an easy solution for
the removal of the house, without having to watch the painful decay of the building and
the paralleled disappearance of the culture it embodied. Such comments which
dramatized the threat of the river may have worked against Belle Grove’s chances for
preservation in implying that Belle Grove was not worth attempting to save since it was
doomed by the forces of nature.
17
Many of the same individuals that called for the river to take Belle Grove viewed
the mansion as a symbol of a grand past. From their viewpoint, a full restoration of a
house like Belle Grove also would require a restoration of the landscape and lifestyle that
was associated with the original building in order to be considered complete. In a land
that was dramatically and irrevocably altered by the effects of the Civil War, this goal
could clearly never be achieved. Many of these individuals seemed to have believed in
allowing the building to die alongside the culture it represented. Although many people
may have looked to the era of the building’s early days with nostalgia during the 1930’s,
they likely also recognized that such structures were a bit out of place in contemporary
Louisiana society. In speaking of plantation homes in 1934, historian Lyle Saxon says,
“In twenty years they will all be gone…Their day is done.”53
A final obstacle to Belle Grove’s potential restoration was the lack of publicity
and support for the site that could have been provided by historical and preservation
societies. Although the preservation movement was gaining momentum in America
during the house’s lifetime, many organizations were just coming into being or yet to
come. The National Trust for Historic Preservation was only three years old when Belle
Grove burned down and it had only just begun to obtain and operate historical sites at the
time of the fire. Organizations closer in proximity such as the Louisiana Landmarks
Society, the Foundation for Historical Louisiana and the River Road Historical Society
were not founded until 1950, 1963 and 1972 respectively. With extremely few historical
publications out during the building’s lifetime (save for maybe the aforementioned
Louisiana Conservation Review), Belle Grove relied on newspaper articles and accounts
in periodicals for exposure. Besides the fact that many of these displayed the plantation
18
as a doomed romanticized ruin, they also lacked the political backing that a publication
by a preservation organization could provide.
The more recent story of the Seven Oaks Plantation illustrates how difficult the
preservation of a Louisiana plantation house can be even provided the support of such
organizations. At Seven Oaks, the Louisiana Landmarks Society combined with many
different preservationists and local organizations to battle the Missouri Pacific Railroad
in an attempt to preserve one of the oldest plantation houses in Louisiana [Fig. 5].54
Located just outside the city limits of New Orleans, the site held enormous potential for
tourist appeal which local officials failed to recognize. Years of lobbying led to an
installation of a temporary roof and plans for the stabilization of the ruins; however, a
lack of support eventually led the city to condemn the building and authorize its
demolition in 1976. Only recently has the nearby community expressed open regret over
the destruction of what would likely be its main attraction today.55
The story of Seven Oaks paints a grim picture and makes one doubt whether Belle
Grove was in fact “doomed” from the beginning as many people claimed. If
organizations so close to New Orleans were unable to save an historic building then
surely a home three times its size in a rural area had no chance at survival. Still, one has
to wonder how even minor restorations to Belle Grove could have prolonged its life. Had
it survived into the 1970’s and 1980’s when preservation societies became very active in
Louisiana and across the country, it may have been salvaged.
Perhaps, just as the lifestyle of the Old South faded from the landscape it was
appropriate for Belle Grove to disappear as well. After all, one characteristic that held
true throughout its lifetime was its removal from reality; a certain quality to the building
19
that led countless people to question whether the house was real. As one author said even
before it decayed into ruins, “There was in the atmosphere about it a vague something
difficult to convey in words – a splendid indifference to the affairs and the doings of the
rest of the world; a stately self-sufficiency; a grandiose aloofness.” It can also be seen as
only fitting that the house’s fate should be tied to the industry from which it owed its
origins. Wealth made from the crops of so-called “white gold” had allowed for the
construction of a house as big as any in the United States and later led it down a path of
neglect; wherein the images of its ruined walls would be permanently cemented in
American history. Unfortunately for Belle Grove, it disappeared before it could benefit
from the more current rise in preservation. However, perhaps the words of a former
resident of Oak Alley can be accurately applied also to Belle Grove in saying that “when
these pillars and trees have crumbled, as all things must crumble, the legend will be
stronger than the actuality.”56
20
1 Lane, Mills. Architecture of the Old South: Louisiana. New York: Abbeville Press, 1990, p. 92. 2Seebold, Herman be Bachelle. Old Louisiana Plantation Homes and Family Trees, Volume 1. New
Orleans: Pelican Press, 1941, p. 189. 3 Laughlin, Clarence John. Louisiana Plantation Houses. Magazine of Art, Oct. 1948, p. 213. 4 Walker, Ewing. “Fabulous Belle Grove.” Holland’s Magazine of the South, May 1939, p. 38. 5 Rogers, Bob. “Subdivision to Rise on Belle Grove Site.” State Times, May 30, 1958. 6 1868 Belle Grove Sale Document. 7 Kane, Harnett T. Plantation Parade: The Grand Manner in Louisiana. New York: William Morrow and
Co., 1945, p. 245. 8 Price, Charles. "Belle Grove--A History from the Progress in 1937." White Castle Times. March 21,
1952, p. 1. 9 Spratling, William P. and Natalie Scott. Old Plantation Houses in Louisiana. New Orleans: William Helburn Inc., 1927. 10 Walker, p. 38. 11 "Belle Grove, Called Finest of Old Homes, Doomed by Desertion." Morning Advocate. Sept. 20, 1936. Pg. 12. 12 Price, Charles W. "Belle Grove, a Decaying Relic of a Vanished Time: Louisiana Castle, Once State's
Finest, Is Now in Ruins." The Progress. August 20, 1937. pg 12. 13 "Belle Grove, Called Finest of Old Homes, Doomed by Desertion." Pg. 12. 14 Grace, Albert. Heart of the Sugar Bowl: The Story of Iberville. Baton Rouge: Franklin Press, 1946, p.
75. 15 Clement, William. Plantation Life Along the Mississippi. New Orleans: Pelican Publishing, 1952. 16 "Belle Grove Is Fire Victim." White Castle Times. March 21, 1952. Pg. 1. 17 Saxon, Lyle. Old Louisiana. New Orleans: Robert L. Crager and Co., 1950, p. 38. 18 Sitterson, J. Carlyle. Sugar Country: Cane Sugar Industry in the South, 1753-1950. Lexington, KY:
University of KY Press, 1953, p. 343. 19 Conrad, Glenn R. and Ray F. Lucas. White Gold: A Brief History of the Louisiana Sugar Industry, 1795-
1995. Lafayette, LA: University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1995, p. 66. 20 Butler, W. E. Down Among the Sugar Cane: The Story of Louisiana Sugar Plantations and Their
Railroads. Baton Rouge: Moran Publishing, 1980, p. 14. 21 Sanson, Jerry Purvis. Louisiana during World War II : Politics and Society, 1939-1945. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1999, p. 199. 22 Lynn, Stuart. New Orleans. New York: Hastings House, 1949. 23 Clement, William. Plantation Life Along the Mississippi. New Orleans: Pelican Publishing, 1952. 24 Sexton, Richard. Vestiges of Grandeur: The Plantations of Louisiana’s River Road. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999, p. 22. 25 Taylor, Joe Gray. Louisiana: A Bicentennial History. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1976, p. 147. 26 Sternberg, Mary Ann. Along the River Road: Past and Present on Louisiana’s Historic Byway. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1996, p. 85. 27 Rehder, John B. Delta Sugar: Louisiana’s Vanishing Plantation Landscape. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1999, p. 280. 28 Iberville Parish website along with GoogleMaps. 29 United States Census information. http://www.census.gov/population/cencounts/la190090.txt 30 Aerial satellite photographs of White Castle, LA on GoogleMaps. 31 Kane. Plantation Parade, p. 57. 32 Sexton, p. 238. 33 Weyeneth, Robert R. “Ancestral Architecture: The Early Preservation Movement in Charleston.” In Page, Max and Randall Mason ed. Giving Preservation a History: Histories of Historic Preservation in the
United States. New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 257
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34 Cullison, William R. “Tulane’s Richard Koch Collection: A Visual Survey of Historic Architecture in the Mississippi Delta.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Autumn 1977): 454. 35 Weyeneth, p. 257. 36 Murtagh, William J. Keeping Time: The History and Theory of Preservation in America. Pittstown. NJ: Main Street Press, 1988, p. 42. 37 Spratling, p. 63. 38 Price, 1952. 39 "Noted Mansion In Iberville Is Sold for $2,000." State Times. Dec. 16, 1943. 40 Mims, Sam. "Our Dream House: Beautiful Belle Grove." Louisiana Conservation Review. Serial: Winter
1940/41. State Planning Commission. p. 9. 41 "Two Landscape Architects Buy Historic Belle Grove to Stop Further Dilapidation." Morning Advocate.
July 23, 1940. 42 Mims, Sam p. 10. 43 Kane, Harnett T. and Willard R. Culver. “Land of Louisiana Sugar Kings” National Geographic
Magazine, April, 1958, p. 537. 44 Allen, Barbara L. “The Making of Cancer Alley: A Historical View of Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor” in Davis, Donald, ed. Southern United States: An Environmental History. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Inc., 2006, p. 236. 45 Matrana, Marc R. Lost Plantation: The Rise and Fall of Seven Oaks. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2005, p. 111. 46Sexton, p. 26. 47 Seebold, p.189. 48 Kane, p. 248. 49 Rivers, Bill. “Pink Mansion Gutted by Fire.” State Times. March 17, 1952, p. 1. 50 Butler, W. E. Down Among the Sugar Cane: The Story of Louisiana Sugar Plantations and Their
Railroads. Baton Rouge: Moran Publishing, 1980, p. 29. 51 Laughlin, 1948. 52 Kane, p. 247. 53 Saxon, p. 106. 54 Cable, Mary. Lost New Orleans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1980, p. 71. 55 Matrana, p. 131. 56 Smith, J. Frazer. White Pillars: Early Life and Architecture of the Lower Mississippi Valley Country.
New York: William Helburn Inc., 1941, p. 192