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Assumption Parish, Louisiana, 1938. "Woodlawn Plantation, Napoleonville vicinity. Built 1835 by Col. W.W. Pugh, first superintendent of schools in Louisiana." 8x10 inch negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.
My great-grandfather was born into U.S. slavery on Woodlawn Plantation.
A few cool interior shots like this one can be found here.
I once remarked to an elderly lady that the shed in her back yard looked like it was about to fall over. She said that it had been that way for years but it was still standing because the "termites were holding hands."
A couple of shirts between the two left columns.
That actually looks like a lightening rod, missing its fragile glass ball. Its two other friends on the roof ridge are a bit worse for wear.
[Lightening: what happens when you diet or bleach your hair. Lightning: electricity from sky. - Dave]
The word "rickety" must have been coined with this place in mind.
Interesting how some of these old plantations are like Hollywood sets, all facade.
Looks like the place was turned into a stable.
My desktop copy of The History of Louisiana's Plantations tells me that much of Woodlawn's wood (probably a pun in there somewhere) as the structure moldered into the ground was used for firewood by cane field laborers. The property had 2,300 acres, 800 of them planted with sugar cane, so there were lots of folks looking for something to burn.
But in its day, the place was something:
According to Dr. Thomas Boyant Pugh of Napoleonville, Woodlawn was built by his father, William Whitmell Pugh, in 1840 and the wings were added after a second marriage to Josephine Nicholls in 1850. Woodlawn was not only modern in its planning, but we are told that the first installation of gas in Louisiana was in this house, as also a speaking tube from the dining room to the upstairs bedroom, and a bathroom, which was still a rarity at the time. More here.
If a porch falls and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?
What a grand old home this was. Thanks Dave!
This place looks so haunted you wouldn't want to go near it in broad daylight.
It looks like loose hay spilling out of the windows of the smaller bookend buildings, so there must be at least one farmer unafraid of ghosts.
Wouldn't you love to look inside of this to see what remained after all those years?
More likely, being 1938, a lightening rod.
[Or a darkening rod. Radio had been around a long time in 1938. - Dave]
It looks like a Star Duster™ CB antenna on the ridge of the weathered centermost building. Obviously it's not, but I wonder what it really is?
[A radio antenna. - Dave]
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