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Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, 1938. "Labatut. New Roads vicinity, built by Don Evariste de Barra, Spanish grandee, 1800. His descendants, the Labatut and Pugh families, still living here." Photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.
I'm a Labatut. My grandfather grew up in this house. I haven't seen it in a long time. Good to see it restored.
that the house is still there and is being restored. Thanks Minot, for the info.
To the right of the house is the foundation formerly holding a wooden cistern. These were common South Louisiana plantation houses of that era; they collected rainwater from the roof. (Rainwater was preferred to water from the muddy Mississippi which had to be let settle.) Most of the old cisterns are long gone; an exception is the San Francisco Plantation between Baton Rouge and New Orleans which has a beautiful pair of cisterns rebuilt in the original style.
Thank you Minot for the additional info on Labatuts. Really interesting then and now. This house has seen alot of history! It must've been built well. Any ghost stories? Looks worthy of being registered as a historical site.
Try and imagine the racket when a hailstorm collided with the galvanized roofing on the original home!
After picking through Google maps and street view, I noticed that the house is right across the road from the Mississippi River levee. I wonder how many floods this house has endured over the past 210 years.
couldn't Tom get some help whitewashing that picket fence after Aunt Polly told him to do it?
Beyond that, the house (in 1938) looked abandoned, what with a few of the windows being broken. Quite a beauty now, however.
I've looked all over the internet for a translation of Labatut ... as far as I can tell, it means "hidden away." Can someone let me know if I am right? I am so in love with FBJ's work, I can't wait to load Shorpy every day to see if there is something new from her archives!
[It's a family name. According to the caption, the Labatuts are descendants of Don Evariste. - Dave]
When 138 years old look this good we will not!
The dog, the chicken, the orphan shoe. I know they're there somewhere, I just can't find them.
Looks like a good place for vampires to hang out during the day!
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