Beech Tree News Network

Near the town of Vacherie, Louisiana, is a road that runs along the Mississippi River.  It is referred to as Plantation road.  Along that road are several historical plantations, most built before the Civil War.  While visiting our daughter, Nikki, last week, Garey and I got the opportunity to visit the plantation called Oak Alley. 
    Oak Alley is named for the 300-year-old Virginia live oaks that border the walk way up to the Big House.  They were planted around 1700, long before the house was ever built.  Someone, the person’s identity has been obscured by time, had the foresight to plant the trees—twenty-eight in all—in two equal rows, spaced eighty feet apart.  The largest of the oaks has a girth of 30 feet and a 127-foot spread of limbs, which actually touch the ground in places.  It is a breath-taking sight. 
    The mansion on the property was a gift from a wealthy French-Creole sugar cane baron, Jacques Roman for his bride, Celina.  Construction on the mansion began in 1837 and took three years to complete.  It was built by the slaves who lived on the plantation.  Most of the materials for the construction came from the immediate area.  The bricks were made on site, which is remarkable when you consider the scope of the project.  The roof is seventy feet on each side—the house is a square—and there are twenty-eight columns (corresponding to the 28 oak trees) all made of brick then finished with stucco.  The walls are 16 inches thick, all made from brick, and finished with plaster. 
    The slave quarters, located behind the mansion, are reconstructions built with old photographs from the time as guides.  There are placards at the entrance of each one of the buildings telling the stories of the slaves who were an integral part of the plantation’s daily operation.  The story that caught my attention was that of a gardener by the name of Antoine.
    In 1846, Antoine successfully grafted 16 pecan trees on the plantation with shoots from trees at a neighboring plantation.  His goal was to create a pecan with a thinner shell, one that would be easier to crack than the traditional pecan.  By 1848, Antoine had succeeded, having grafted 110 ten trees in an orchard on the plantation.  The tree is known today as the Centennial Paper Shell Pecan.
    There are much sadder stories of plantation life for the slaves at Oak Alley.  A local doctor was kept on retainer in order to amputate any arm or leg mangled or infected beyond saving.  Work in the sugar cane fields was brutal and dangerous.  During those days, raising sugar cane was an arduous task.  It was a year-long ordeal from planting to harvesting to juicing to producing sugar.  Many slaves succumbed to injuries they sustained while working in the fields and during production.
    1861 marked the beginning of the end for Oak Alley, as it did for many Southern plantations.  The American Civil War brought with it carnage and destruction, but also freedom for the slaves who had been the backbone of the wealth accumulated by their masters.  Over time, the house and surrounding acreage at Oak Alley was bought and sold many times, with buyers more interested in the sugar cane fields than in maintaining the Big House, which was boarded up and allowed to fall into disrepair.
    In 1925, Josephine Stewart saw the house while on a boat in the Mississippi River.  She had the money and the inspiration Oak Alley needed for reconstruction.  She and her husband, Andrew, restored the mansion to its former glory.  After Andrew’s death, Josephine continued to live there.  She and her husband were childless, and Josephine feared the place would fall into disrepair once again after she was gone, so she created a foundation to oversee the house and twenty-five acres in order to share the historic site with the community and other visitors after her death (she passed away in 1972).
    The grounds at Oak Alley have been the site for various films, most notably “Twelve Years a Slave” and “Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.”  The star of the latter film was Bette Davis, who was always a handful for producers and directors alike.  Bette was used to throwing her weight around, so she approached Josephine Stewart about filming inside the mansion.  Josephine told Bette what she had already told the director.  They were welcome to film anywhere on the grounds of Oak Alley, but the house was her residence and she didn’t want a film crew in her residence.  Bette set Josephine down and told her she was prepared to offer her all the money she needed to live on for the rest of her life if she would just allow her to film inside the mansion.  Josephine replied, “Bette, I already have all the money I need to live on for the rest of my life.”  The film crew remained outside on the grounds.
    If you ever get the chance to see Oak Alley or any of the other mansions on the road, it is well worth the trip.  Vacherie is approximately an hour and a half from New Orleans.
(Information for this article came from the tour guides at Oak Alley, as well as accompanying literature given to guests upon arrival.)