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1938. Iberville Parish, Louisiana. "Belle Grove. Vicinity of White Castle. Greek Revival mansion of 75 rooms. Built 1857 by John Andrews, who sold it to Stone Ware. Occupied by Ware family until circa 1913." What was left of Belle Grove, reputedly the largest plantation house in the South, burned to the ground in 1952. 8x10 inch acetate negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.
Oh, what I would give to have had the opportunity to poke through this incredible home before it's demise! Something about this magnificent photo....got me wanting to see if there were other pictures of the place. Not many, but found a few here (thanks, Mary!). Such a sad story behind it, really.
I'm always curious at what point a person or family walks away from a house, especially a mansion. When does it go from livable to abandoned?
Did she ever photograph the inside of these homes? Granted, in many cases it may not have been safe, but other than the one photo with the odd door at the top of the staircase (and a couple others around that time, iirc), I don't think we've ever seen inside any of these homes. I would so love to go poking around in some of these!
I took a cross country car trip and stopped in at White Castle to look at the old Belle Grove plantation just yesterday. The adjacent fields still grow sugar, but the house is completely gone, replaced by dozens of brick tract homes.
Reminds me of Nottoway Plantation, also in White Castle. Nottoway was built in 1859 for John Hampton Randolph.
Stone Ware! It has a solid ceramic sound to it.
is the weed growing out of the chimney.
For the curious, there are more photos and information about the house here:
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