St. Francisville, Louisiana

Historical information from www.stfrancisville.net--

St. Francisville Louisiana is a quaint historic town located on the bluffs of the Mississippi River.
The town of St. Francisville was established in 1809. Said to be a town "two miles long and two yards wide," St. Francisville is set in a unique location on a bluff along the Mississippi River. Due to the river's slowly shifting course, several of the buildings in the town today were moved up the hill from the town of Bayou Sara, which had been founded on the east bank of the river in 1790 and was once the largest shipping port on the Mississippi between Natchez and New Orleans.
Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of Zachary Taylor and wife of Jefferson Davis, stayed in St. Francisville as a newlywed for three months until her untimely death in 1835. She is buried in St. Francisville.
St. Francisville is home to many houses and plantation homes that are on the national register of historic places. These include The Myrtles Plantation, Rosedown Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, Butler Greenwood Plantation, Oakley Plantation, and many others. Many of the historic homes are open for tours and some operate as Bed and Breakfasts.

Here are my pictures of the day. The first couple of ones are of riding the ferry across the Mississippi River from New Roads, LA to St. Francisville, LA. When it is not operating, you have to go down to Baton Rouge and then back up north on the other side of the river.

Once we crossed the river, we headed straight to The Myrtles Plantation--one of America's most haunted houses. I was a little apprehensive and had tried to go previously, but chickened out at the site of the house. I really wanted to tour the house and off we went to buy the tickets. Our tour wasn't for about 20 minutes, so we toured the grounds. Just walking around the yard, bayou and courtyard had an eerie feeling. I couldn't help but check the windows over and over.

When it was time for our tour, we were taken in to the central hall where our guide pointed out the various antiques in the room; focusing on the large mirror that was hanging on the wall. According to her explanation, mirrors were always covered during the wakes that were held in that particular room. Covering them made sure that when the spirits left the bodies, they wouldn't get trapped in the mirror. So, yes, you guessed it right, they didn't cover the mirror once and the glass is discolored and there is a distinct image of "something" in it. In my picture in the slideshow, you can see the discoloration and a face in the reflection--right under and to the right of the chandelier reflection. Kelsi says she sees a teddy bear wearing a big cowboy like hat. I see a ladies face with a large antebellum type hat. Who knows?? That room was the only room we could take pictures, so that is all I have of inside the house. And I will not be staying overnight to get more!! No way!

The house is full of symbols--pineapples, corn, grapes, leaves in the moldings, cherubs in the form of statues, paintings, carvings, crosses in the glasswork, some of which was colored yellow to hopefully protect against the yellow fever. There were mirrors along the bottom of the larger pieces of furniture so that women could make sure their ankles and feet were adequately covered. Very cool house.

For the haunted stories of the house: The Myrtles Haunted History

We ate lunch there at the Myrtles in their restaurant they built inside the carriage house. Old brick floors and a cool wine collection made it a great unique place to have a quick lunch. Nice selection of seafood and traditional lunch fare with very reasonable prices.

Next we headed to the Greenwood Plantation--the large white columned house in the pictures. It is a very large plantation located in the Tunica Hills north of St. Francisville on the way to the state penetentiary. The owner of the house was very nice, not even charging us to walk around and view the grounds. Like most of these large antebellum homes, there is a large pond, large live oak trees with tons of spanish moss and private family cemetaries. It also operates as a bed & breakfast.

Once we left the Greenwood Plantation we headed to Locust Grove Historic Site. It is the site of an old plantation, but the only thing left is the family cemetary. Buried there is the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who was also the daughter of President Zachary Taylor. She came to Locust Grove right after she married and died there 3 months later of malaria at the age of 21.

We left there and headed back downtown to visit some of the old cemetaries and churches on Main St. Typical afternoon rain showers start so we drive around a little until it stops. The last pictures are of the cemetary and grounds of Grace Episcopal Church, established in 1827.