City: Darrow, LA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (225) 473-9380

Address: 40136 LA 942

Description: In its heyday more than 20,000 acres of surrounding sugarcane fields made fortunes for men like Ireland native John Burnside, who bought Houmas and 12,000 acres for $1 million in 1858. The British subject saved his home from the ravages of the Civil War by declaring immunity, thus avoiding occupation by Union forces. The move helped Houmas flourish as the greatest sugar producer in Louisiana in the late 1800s under Col. William Porcher Miles.The house was built in 1840 by John Smith Preston, and movie buffs will recognize the blinding-white three-story, 14-columned home as the setting for the classic film Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, starring Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland. The Greek Revival masterpiece has also been featured in national magazines including Life, House Beautiful, and National Geographic. Preston purchased the house from his wife’s father, Revolutionary War hero General Wade Hampton of South Carolina, who had acquired the property in 1812.The original four-room dwelling at the rear of the house, characteristic of both Spanish and rural French architecture, was built in the late 1700s by Alexander Latil after he purchased this tract of land along the Mississippi River from the Houmas Indians. The structure was later attached to the great house by a porte cochere, or arched carriageway.The grand old home fell into disrepair after the Depression and was purchased and restored in 1940 by Dr. George Crozat of New Orleans for his country estate. Today the home, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is furnished with the late Crozat’s collection of 1840s-era museum pieces of early Louisiana craftsmanship. The formal gardens have been returned to their former beauty beneath magnolias and 200-year-old moss-draped oak trees.Plantation tours are open Mon and Tues 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wed through Sun 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Cost is $20 for the mansion and gardens and $10 for the grounds only.