Nottoway Plantation Trip

Yesterday, some of friends and I took the short road trip south of Baton Rouge to White Castle, Louisiana to visit the Nottoway plantation. The house, built in 1859 is one of several large plantation homes on the River Road extending between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. To our readers in the Lafayette area, I would highly recommend a day trip down to White Castle for a fascinating jaunt into Louisiana history (especially if you are interested in the antebellum and Civil War eras). The mansion is now a B & B, so you could also spend the night there. There are regular guided tours of the house. Kudos to the tour guides! They share with you detailed information regarding the Randolphs (the family who built the house -- the family cemetary is there on site), life at the plantation, and historical/cultural information regarding the objects in the house. Only a few pieces of furniture are original to the house, as when the master died, Mrs. Randolph sold the mansion and the furniture and moved away. However, all the furniture is period. The house sits only yards behind the Mississippi River levee. You can see the main river shipping channel from the upstairs porch. In the study, framed in a shadow box, is some grapeshot fired on the house from a Yankee gun boat. The shot became embedded in a front column of the house, and fell out of the wood to the porch some time in the early 1970's. Here are some pictures:

A live oak on the grounds

The round side porch

The front porch

The garden

The music room: 2 forte pianos, a melodia, and a harp