Parlange Plantation House | |
.jpg) Parlange Plantation House, 1936 HABS photo | |
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| Nearest city | Mix, Louisiana |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 30°37′49″N91°29′15″W / 30.63036°N 91.48763°W /30.63036; -91.48763 |
| Built | c. 1750 (disputed) |
| Architectural style | French Colonial |
| NRHP reference No. | 70000258[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 15, 1970 |
| Designated NHL | May 30, 1974[2] |
TheParlange Plantation House (French:Plantation Parlange) is a historicplantation house atLouisiana Highway 1 andLouisiana Highway 78 inPointe Coupee Parish,Louisiana. The plantation is a classic example of a largeFrench Colonialplantation house in theUnited States. Its construction date is disputed. Oral history indicates a date of c. 1750 for both establishment of the plantation and construction of the house. Scholarly works accept the establishment date only, having found strong evidence for a construction date from 1830-1840.[3][4]
The home exemplifies the style of thesemi-tropical Louisiana river country house, the Parlange Plantation home is a two-storyraised cottage. The main floor is set on abrickbasement with brickpillars to support theveranda of the second story. The raised basement is of brick,manufactured by enslaved people on the plantation. The walls, both inside and out, were plastered with a native mixture ofmud,sand, Spanishmoss and animalhair (bousillage), thenpainted. The ground story and second floors contain seven service rooms, arranged in a double line. The walls and ceiling throughout the house were constructed of close-fittingbald cypress planks.
There is an octagonalpigeonnier near the house. The home was once surrounded by a formal garden, but the garden was destroyed during the Civil War and never rebuilt.
Vincent de Ternant, known as the Marquis of Dansville-sur-Meuse, received the plantation grounds in a Frenchland grant and developed the 10,000 acres (40 km2) into an active plantation facingFalse River. When de Ternant's son Claude inherited the plantation, he changed thecash crop fromindigo tosugarcane andcotton.
When Claude de Ternant died, his second wifeVirginie remarried. (By her first husband, Virginie was the maternal grandmother of Parisian socialiteVirginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, who was the subject ofJohn Singer Sargent's portrait "Madame X".) Virginie's second husband, another Frenchman, was Colonel Charles Parlange, from whom the plantation took its name.
During theAmerican Civil War, Parlange alternatively served asUnion headquarters forGeneral Nathaniel Banks andConfederate headquarters forGeneral Richard Taylor.
Colonel and Mrs. Parlange had one son,also named Charles, who survived the Civil War to begin a distinguished career as aState Senator,United States District Attorney,Lieutenant Governor,federal judge, and finally justice of theLouisiana Supreme Court.
After Virginie Parlange died in 1887, her son and his wife moved toNew Orleans. Judge and Mrs. Charles Parlange leased the plantation to tenants for the next twenty years, until their son Walter Parlange returned to Pointe Coupée Parish to take up the life of a plantation farmer.
Today Parlange retains 1500 acres (6 km2), which are still used as a cattle and sugarcane plantation. It is owned and operated by descendants of the original owners. The plantation house remains largely intact and is occasionally available for private tours by appointment only. It is located near the intersection ofLouisiana Highway 1 andLouisiana Highway 78.
The Parlange Plantation and the history of Virginie de Ternant was the inspiration for the Bagatelle Plantation and the heroine Virginie Tregan in the novelLouisiane byMaurice Denuzière.[5]
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromParlange Plantation House.National Park Service.
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