Revealing Lost Histories in Southeast Louisiana
The Southeast Louisiana landscape and its Mississippi River basin reflect the diverse cultures and settlement patterns of Indigenous peoples, French, English, and Spanish settlers, and African Americans that identify this region of the state. Over the centuries the special character of this landscape has also attracted naturalists, artists, and conservationists. John Jay Audubon (1785-1851) spent significant time in the area where he developed his passion for ornithology and began his pioneering work, Birds of America. In 1775, the American naturalist, painter, and writer William Bartram (1739-1823) explored the land east of the Mississippi River that would become the Feliciana Parishes of the State. He ended his expedition by traveling west across the river and arriving at Pointe Coupée.
The two sides of the great river could not have been more ecologically distinct—Bartram discovered the geomorphological histories that belie those differences. On the east side, loess soils blown in over the millenia from the Great Plains shaped the distinctive rolling hills and deep ravines of the area and generated its unique vegetative character. In contrast, to the west, annual flooding of the river scoured the land and deposited some of the continent’s richest soils. Lowland plant communities and crops populate the pervasive flat, low-lying land. The agricultural heritage of this area is legendary.
The three sites selected for the excursion by èƵ (TCLF) exemplify the natural and cultural characteristics of these two diverse landscapes: LeJeune House, west of the river, and Live Oak and Afton Villa, east of the river. In this lesser known region, which possesses a high level of integrity, TCLF Board Members Doug Reed, FASLA, Jeff Carbo, FASLA, Susan Turner, FASLA, and Victor “Trey” Trahan III, FAIA, have curated the itinerary to illuminate the significance of these remarkable places in the context of the region’s history, including some of the lost and suppressed narratives that have been unearthed in recent years.
One astonishing feature common to the landscapes east and west of the river is the massive, majestic, and awe-inspiring live oaks, many of which are hundreds of years old. These stately sentinels will be found at each of the three privately-owned destinations. According to , the Southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) is native to the southeastern and southern regions of the United States and “known for its longevity—the trees can live for over a thousand years—and for its signature limbs, with their sinuous, gangly quirkiness. Southern live oaks get their name because, unlike oaks that lose their leaves in the winter, live oaks regrow their foliage throughout the year, so their leaves are unfailingly lush, adorning the Southeast from Virginia down the East Coast and through the South to Texas and Oklahoma.”
The day begins on the west side of the river, at LeJeune House, the oldest dwelling in the small town of New Roads, the parish seat of Pointe Coupée Parish. Originally, the early nineteenth-century Creole house sat within 500 acres facing False River, an oxbow lake that was once connected to the Mississippi River. Following the Civil War, much of the land was sold and developed into the town of New Roads. Today’s three-acre site features the 400-year-old Samson live oak (28.5-foot circumference), which informed the location of the 1807 house, several nineteenth-century trees and contemporary gardens that incorporate numerous native and cultivated plants associated with nineteenth-century gardens of Southeast Louisiana. LeJeune House is the first structure in New Roads to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and the Samson Live Oak, named for the plantation’s first owner, François Samson, is a member of the Live Oak Society.
Next, the excursion continues east over the Mississippi to Weyanoke at the aptly-named Live Oak plantation, a 250-acre site established in 1802 in the Tunica Hills of West Feliciana Parish. Live Oak is unique because it possesses a high level of integrity from the era of its founding by the Barrow family, and indeed, from prior inhabitation by Indigenous peoples, as evidenced by the ancient trade route that weaves through the property. Known as the Tunica Trace, it was later used for travel and the transport of goods by planters and the enslaved. Today the early-nineteenth-century house and the corresponding spatial pattern of cropland and woods and Bayou floodplain are intact. Considered as a sacred site, the authenticity of the place is palpable. Live Oak has local, regional, national, and possibly international significance.
Following the Barrow ownership, the site’s use was modest, operating as a small school and post office under the LeSassiers (1923-1974), and enjoyed as a family retreat until 2020, when Victor Trahan III acquired the property. The site and the house are the subjects of transformational research, planning, and design efforts that will be discussed during the course of the tour. Attendees will walk along the site and hear from Trahan, Reed, and the design team about the findings from the research and preservation planning process, the progress of priority improvements, and future plans for restoring and interpreting the property. The group will reconvene to enjoy a catered al fresco luncheon.
The final destination, the gardens at Afton Villa, is located in the nearby town of St. Francisville. Once the site of an antebellum Gothic Revival style mansion that burned in 1963, Afton Villa Gardens today encompasses more than 25 acres of classically derived and romantic gardens that date from its development in the 1830s.
In 1972, concerned that the property would be purchased and redeveloped, Genevieve and Morrell Trimble decided to purchase the estate and restore its gardens and landscape. The Trimbles took up residence in the pool house, and began work to restore the overgrown gardens according to plans developed with landscape architect Neil Odenwald, professor emeritus at Louisiana State University, and with the help of a crew of groundskeepers.
For fifty years until her passing in 2023 Genevieve Trimble worked tirelessly to restore and interpret the gardens. The formal boxwood parterre terraces that extend from the south side of the former house are complemented by sweeping earthen landforms that step down to define a music room and engage a ravine and pond. There is also a small cemetery walled by tall hedges that contains members of the Barrow family. The Trimble’s rehabilitation adheres to the early scheme developed under David Barrow’s tenure, who purchased the site from his father, and his wife Sallie, in 1839, with one exception: The Trimbles introduced a series of gardens within and around the villa’s original foundation walls, a romantic nod to the former building.
Space is strictly limited, and this event will sell out.
The following day TCLF will host a reception in New Orleans. This is a separately ticketed event to learn more, click here.
LA CES™ professional development hours will be available to attendees, pending approval.
Refund Policy
Cancellations and Refunds will be granted according to the following schedule:
Up to days (30) weeks in advance: 50% (Deduction represents administrative processing fees)
No refunds will be made for cancellations twently-nine (29) days prior to event
No refunds will be made for “No Shows” (a person who registers for a program but who does not cancel registration or attend the program).
Refunds will be processed as they are received or after the conclusion of the program, depending on the program date and when cancellation occurs. Refunds may take five (5) to seven (7) business days to process.