Southdown Plantation

Southdown Plantation
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The restored plantation house as it appears today.
Location	Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
Area	less than one acre
Built	1858 (1858)
NRHP reference No.	74002188
Added to NRHP	January 18, 1974

Southdown Plantation is a historic Southern plantation in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana.

Founding and early history

Southdown Plantation was founded in 1828 by Stephen Minor, former secretary to the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, Manuel Gayoso de Lemos. The land had first been a Spanish land grant and was later owned by brothers Jim and Rezin Bowie, who began planting and harvesting indigo there. Minor purchased the land, approximately 1,020 acres, together with James Dinsmore. In 1831, sugarcane became the principle crop, and the first sugar mill was built in 1846. By 1852, Southdown was home to 233 slaves, most of whom lived in family units on the property.

The first plantation house was built by Minor's son, William J. Minor, in 1858, and was named for a breed of sheep that the family raised. The house was built of hand-fired brick and wood from cypress and pine trees that grow in the area.

The original one-story brick home was expanded in 1893, when a second story and Virginia style colonnaded walkways were added. In the same year, Favrile glass panels depicting the plantation, palmetto leaves, magnolia branches, and sugar cane stalks were installed in the house. The plantation consisted of over 10,000 acres of sugar cane fields, a sugar mill, and a race track. Southdown Plantation was instrumental in launching and sustaining the sugar industry in the area, ensuring the survival of the crop by developing a variety of sugar cane that was resistant to mosaic disease.

The Minor family was known for frequently entertaining guests and hosting many extravagant balls and receptions.

Modern era

During the Great Depression, the Minor family lost ownership of the house. In 1979, the Southdown sugar mill was closed, and its parts were shipped to and reassembled in Guatemala, where it continued operation. It was the last of the 86 sugar mills that had operated in Terrebonne Parish during the sugar boom of the 19th century.

In 1974, the plantation was added to the National Register of Historic places, and in the following year, the property was donated to the Terrebonne Historical and Cultural Society by Valhi, Incorporated, a subsidiary of Southdown Sugar. While the plantation house was being renovated, the original 1893 pink and green paint scheme was discovered and restored to the walls. Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, the plantation house and servants' quarters were open to the public as a museum.

References

Books

• Butler, Anne (1971). The Pelican Guide to Plantation Homes of Louisiana. Pelican Publishing Company. ISBN 9781589806313. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• De Bachelle Seebold, Herman (1941). Old Louisiana Plantation Homes And Family Trees. Pelican Press. ISBN 1-58980-263-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Federal Writers' Project (1947). Louisiana: A guide to the state. US History Publishers. ISBN 1603540172. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Patton Malone, Anne (1996). Sweet Chariot: Slave Family and Household Structure in Nineteenth-Century Louisiana. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807845906. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Web

• "National Register of Historic Places". National Park Service. Retrieved 4 November 2012. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• "Southdown Museum". Terrebonne Historical & Cultural Society. Retrieved 30 March 2013. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Media related to Southdown Plantation at Wikimedia Commons
• Official web site