Francois Cousin House (Slidell, Louisiana)
Francois Cousin House (Slidell) | |
 | |
| Location | Slidell, Louisiana |
|---|---|
| Built | 1789 |
| Architect | unknown |
| Architectural style | French Creole |
| NRHP reference No. | 01000008 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | January 26, 2001 |
| mpsub = Louisiana's French Creole Architecture MPS
| governing_body = Private }} The Francois Cousin House is located on Bayou Liberty in eastern St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, west of the City of Slidell, Louisiana. The house is a French Creole Cottage, likely built between 1778 and 1790, by Francois Cousin. Cousin, born in 1745 in New Orleans, managed his father's lumber and brick making business interests on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. He built this home facing Bayou Liberty which has direct access to Lake Pontchartrain. Behind the home are the pits used to mine the clay. Cousin also owned property in Lacombe, Lousiana. .[2]
The core of the home, built c. 1790, was is constructed with briquette entre poteaux walls (bricks between posts). The front gallery, running the length of the home, has chamfered gallery columns. Behind the gallery are two rooms of equal size, with one large additional room behind, all served by a central chimney with wrap around mantels. There is a dormer located above this section of the home.
In the late 19th century or early 20th century, an additional three rooms were added to the rear of the home, along with side galleries.
In 2005, the home was flooded with four feet of water from Hurricane Katrina, and again in 2008 to a much lesser extent by Hurricane Ike. The current owners are working with historic prevervation offices and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to save the home by raising it while at the same time preserving the home's historic architecture.
Hurricane Katrina also wore away some of the top soil on the property, exposing brick molds and discarded bricks from the Cousin brick business. With the Great New Orleans Fire(1788), followed by the Great New Orleans Fire (1794), destroying most of the building in the City of New Orleans, bricks made from the clay on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, were much in demand. The brick company operated six schooners to carry its products across the lake.
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-09-30.
- ^
Division of Historic Preservation (January 2001). "Francois Cousin House". State of Louisiana. Retrieved October 2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help)