November 2010

The Assumption Parish Courthouse was built in 1896, while the nearby jail is an earlier building that was in place by at least 1885. The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a time of revival styles in architecture, recalling Greek, Roman, and Romanesque styles of earlier periods. The Assumption Parish Courthouse and Jail stand as the singular examples of Italianate architecture in the parish. The land on which the buildings now stand, along the West Bank of Bayou Lafourche, was donated by Maxill and Caroline Bourg in 1818, to serve as the permanent location for the courthouse. It was at this time that Napoleonville (today, with a population of 802) became the county seat. An earlier courthouse probably stood here, and some of its decorative features may be those that appear in the present courthouse, such as the earlier Federal and Greek Revival style mantels.

The museum offers tours given by guides dressed in the traditional 18th century garb. Additionally, the museum orchestrates daily demonstrations of cooking, military drills, musket firings, and more.

One of the oldest Episcopal churches west of the Mississippi River, Christ Episcopal Church is located on Bayou Lafourche in the Napoleonville Parish. An excellent example of Gothic Revival architecture, the church was designed by Frank Wills. Wills, architect for the New York Ecclesiological Society, is also credited with the design of Trinity Church in Natchitiches. The mission of the Ecclesiological Society was to encourage church design in the style of English parish churches of medieval times. Christ Church was consecrated on May 10, 1854, by the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk, first Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, later a general in the Confederate army.

In 1985, a Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence was found in the Ladd-Gilman House. This amazing discovery is now a major focus of the museum’s collections and programming. The museum was founded in 1991 to display this rare document and teach visitors our nation’s founding principles.

Museum collections include two rare drafts of the U.S. Constitution as well as an original Purple Heart, awarded by George Washington to soldiers demonstrating extraordinary bravery. Exhibits highlight the Society of the Cincinnati, the nation’s oldest veterans’ society, and its first president, George Washington. Permanent collections include American furnishings, ceramics, silver, textiles and military ephemera.

The Judge Poche Plantation House is significant in the areas of architecture and local history. Architecturally, the Judge Poche Plantation House stands as a fine example of a raised plantation house built under the influence of the Victorian Renaissance Revival. This can be principally seen in its large front dormer with its oeil-de-boeuf motifs and in its arcaded front gallery. This decorative treatment is unusual because most plantation houses were characterized by Greek Revival styling. Poche built the house around 1870 and maintained it as his residence until 1880 when he moved to New Orleans. It served as his summer house from then until 1892, at which time he sold the property. Poches Civil War diary is regarded as an important source for scholars, especially those studying the war east of the Mississippi in the waning months of the conflict. Poche, who was bilingual, kept his journal in French. It has since been translated and published and is one of the few Confederate diaries describing the war in Louisiana that is in print.

The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture at the College of Charleston was established in 1985. From its inception, the Center has served as a source of community outreach on African-American issues. Between 1700 and 1800, at the height of the Atlantic Slave trade, 40% of Africans who were forcibly shipped to mainland North America, came to the shores of Charleston, South Carolina. The unparallel impact of the skill, talent and leadership of enslaved and free blacks, have produced an unprecedented history in Gullah and Sea Island culture, slavery, civil war and reconstruction, civil and women’s rights, education, business, and the arts. It is Avery’s mission to preserve this legacy.

The Center maintains an archive of primary and secondary source material of nearly 4,000 holdings that encourage scholarship, research, and presentations by scholars, researchers, and students. The Center also operates as a small museum, a national historic site with a listing on the National Register of Historic Sites, and a cultural center. Avery’s mission is intended for a diverse array of constituencies.

The opulent San Francisco Plantation House is a galleried house in the Creole manner that has been pictured in American, British, and Swedish periodicals as one of the major sites of the New Orleans area. Constructed between 1849-50, the San Francisco Plantation House is one of the most ornate of Louisiana's plantation houses. The exterior of the home resembles a layer cake, with a simple ground floor where brick columns support the gallery across the front and halfway back the sides. A double stairway leads from this gallery to the second floor gallery where fluted wood columns with cast-iron Corinthian capitals support an overhanging deck. The main living area is on the second floor instead of the ground level. The attic is a Victorian construction that gives the house a unique look with the hip roof pierced by tall dormers with diamond-paned, Tudor-arched windows.

The Museum collects and preserves artifacts relating to, or associated with, all eras of South Carolina military history for exhibition, to educate and engage its visitors. Conducting research, developing educational programs, and publishing scholarly writings using specific elements of this collection in order to educate, enlighten and engage its community of patrons and those interested in the material cultural history represented by this collection are primary ambitions of the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.

A nationally known Civil War flag collection, a significant South Carolina uniform collection, and a growing weapons collection are complemented by a historical archives collection and a 19th and 20th century textile collection, allowing the museum to interpret the political and social influences on South Carolina's military history.

In 1992, in a bold and courageous move, driven by a passion to fulfill her vision, Kathe Hambrick approached the owners of the Tezcuco Plantation and with great conviction asked the owners if they would let her use a vacant room at Tezcuco to start a museum. The museum was later moved to Donaldsonville.

With over 300 years of history, the legacy and importance of Africans in America to the growth of the South, the United States and the world is evident through the collection and exhibits of rare artifacts found at the museum. Most of the items in the museum’s collection have been donated or loaned by families from the surrounding parishes including St. James, Iberville, Assumption, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, East and West Baton Rouge.

The museum tour takes visitors through the archives which contain historical documents, books, rare photographs, and videos. The collection includes artifacts, newspaper ads for runaway slaves; obituaries; certificates of midwives and rural black doctors; photos and sketches of inventors such as Leonard Julien and Madame C. J. Walker in addition to politicians, soldiers, artisans, and entrepreneurs.

In 1893-1894, this site is where C.C. Duson sold the first land sites and named the town for his wife, Eunice. The conversion of this old depot into a museum was completed in 1984. The collections within this depot museum include Cajun Music, Old Toys, Railroad Items, History of Cajun Mardi Gras, Pioneer Farming, LA Indian Life, History of Newspaper, Caboose, Loom & Spinning Wheel, Video Tapes, and Cajun Life. Items for sale at the museum include: Cajun and Zydeco music, souvenirs and Cajun Crafts.