OAK ALLEY PLANTATION-1841

30 MINUTES OUTSIDE NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

DECEMBER 2, 2006

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We were staying in the French Quarter at the Maison Dupuy, a boutique hotel, from November 30-December 4, 2006. We had been baby sitting for Lauren and Justine while Connie and Troy vacationed in Hawaii for 11 days and decided to tack-on a vacation of our own before heading home. On Saturday, December 2 we drove out of New Orleans about 30 minutes to tour the "Oak Alley" plantation. When we first saw it, we were amazed. This was undoubtedly the most spectacular antebellum mansion on a plantation that we had seen to date. The canopy of 300-year-old oak trees was magnificant and the mansion was breathtakingly beautiful! The story of this gorgeous property follows below:

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Located on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Oak Alley Plantation has been called the "Grande Dame of the Great River Road". The quarter-mile canopy of giant live oak trees, believed to be nearly 300 years old, forms an impressive avenue leading to the classic Greek-revival style antebellum home. The plantation was sold to Jacques Telesopore Roman and his wife Celina in 1836, when they began plans to build Oak Alley. It was completed in 1941. Mrs. Roman called it "bon sejour" or "Pleasant Sojourn", but travelers along the Mississippi, impressed by the avenue of mighty oaks, called it "Oak Alley", and so it remained.

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The Roman family resided at Oak Alley throughout the Civil War. Jacques Telesphore had died in 1848, a victim of tuberculosis, and so was spared the tragic series of events that were to affect all concerned. His widow, typical of the upper class woman of her day, was totally inexperienced in business matters and, to her, the productive part of the plantation had no function other than as a source of revenue for her and her participation in the heights of Creole society. Her only surviving son, Henri, assumed manhood and responsibility for family affairs in 1859. His valiant efforts to preserve the position and holdings of his family failed against the overwhelming social and political turmoil resulting from the War and Reconstruction, and the Roman empire, already weakened by Celina's incessant spending, joined the evergrowing tide of once powerful and proud Creoles caught in a downhill slide toward oblivion.

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In 1866, Henri was forced to sell the plantation and all but their most personal belongings at auction for a mere $32,800.00, thus ending 30 years of Roman joys and sorrows at Oak Alley.