Highland Plantation House, St. Francisville Louisiana

Date added: August 10, 2023 Categories: Louisiana House Plantations & Farms

Highland was the first house built in Louisiana by the Barrows, a family that created and reigned over one of the largest plantation empires in the antebellum South. It was the first of many magnificent antebellum homes associated with this immensely wealthy and prominent family. The house has remained in the Barrow family down through the years. The house was built for William Barrow III in 1805 and he resided there until his death in 1823.

When the United States purchased Louisiana in 1803, West Florida (the present Florida parishes of Louisiana) was not included. It had been since 1779 under Spanish control; however, its inhabitants were anxious to be annexed to the Louisiana Purchase and eventually become part of the United States. This dissatisfaction came to a head in 1810 when a meeting was called at Egypt Plantation on June 23 to set up a revolutionary government. This meeting was attended by more than 500 citizens. The leaders submitted a plan which called for the election of four "responsible and influential" individuals to be elected from each district of West Florida as representatives to a common council. William Barrow III of Highland was among the four representatives elected from Feliciana.

In September 1810, the insurrectionists marched on Baton Rouge, captured the town, and proclaimed West Florida a free and independent state. A republic was set up, a constitution drafted, and President James Madison was petitioned to annex the area to the United States. William Barrow III was one of the five members of the provisional government of the new nation. The Republic of West Florida was short-lived because soon after its creation it was added to the Louisiana Purchase and in 1812 became a part of the new state of Louisiana.

The West Florida Rebellion of 1810 made possible the annexation of the region (5,084 square miles) to the United States and consequently its addition to what in 1812 became the state of Louisiana.

Highland is one of the earliest residences in West Feliciana Parish. Like many of its fellows, it exhibits the Anglo-American influence through its Federal and Georgian architectural features. This is important because the Feliciana Parishes are known as citadels of Anglo-American culture in French Louisiana. Among this group of eight essentially pre-Greek Revival houses, Highland is conspicuous because of the high style quality of its surviving architectural features. The Adams-style mantels are unsurpassed in the parish both in elaborateness and workmanship. Both of the main doorways on the interior of the hall feature multiple paneled pilasters, reeding, punchwork, and tiny modillions. These too are thought to be unique in the parish. The surviving interior dado surpasses all other examples in West Feliciana Parish. Instead of the usual rectangular panels, the dado in the lower hall features unusual panels with quarter-round corner cuts. In addition, the hall dado is surmounted by a frieze with a unique combination of triglyph cuts and diaper patterns. Moreover, most of the dado retains its original false graining, which is very rare. Finally, the upper hall features the parish's only Georgian Palladian window.

Building Description

Highland (1805) is a two-story frame plantation house with Georgian and Federal style details. The house is located one-fourth mile west of Little Bayou Sara northwest of the town of St. Francisville amid rolling farm country. It is set in a randomly planted copse of eighty-seven live oak trees which also encompasses a family cemetery, two c.1900 board and batten barns, two c.1900 board and batten shotgun houses, two small c.1930 sheds, and a c,1930 carport.

The surviving 1804 building contract describes the original house in detail. It began as a Carolina I house with a wide central hall, a large room each side, three rooms set in a rear shed, and an enclosed staircase. The shed area consisted of a long central room and two small end rooms. The upper story had a central hall with a single room each side.

A relatively short time after the house was built, a low second story was added over the rear shed. This rear second-floor area was set several feet below the level of the main second floor. Consequently sets of steps had to be built from the main second story to the lower second story in the rear.

The house remained in this form until after the Civil War. Then, in about 1875, the original single-story front gallery was raised to a full two stories. The shed roof of the original gallery was raised to the cornice line and supported on new two-story posts that sprang directly from the ground. The gallery floor was supported independently. The new two-story posts were braced at midpoint by horizontal members which gave the effect of a balcony from a distance.

In the late-nineteenth century, a new front gallery balustrade was built and an Italianate mantel was installed upstairs.

In the twentieth century, one of the chimneys was lost and the rear and sides of the house were fitted with aluminum siding. Four of the original mantels were lost and three windows were installed in the rear. In addition, the rear was fitted with a shed roof porch and some exterior steps. Finally, a small shed addition was built on the north side.

The house is mainly noteworthy for its Federal and Georgian woodwork. On the exterior, the front door frame features pilasters with reeded bases and carved egg and dart capitals and triglyphs flanking the transom. Above the central front door is a Palladian window that lights the upper hall. It features heavily reeded pilasters with triglyph tops.

The interior retains most of its six-panel doors. The central hall and the east parlor feature walnut false-grained paneled dado with pilasters between the panels. The chair rails protrude over the pilasters to suggest capitals. Some of the door frames feature elaborate patterns of decorative reeding. The front and rear doorways of the lower hall feature multiple paneled pilasters. All three of the remaining original mantels are of the Adams type and feature reeding, fluting, complex moldings, and incised "X" shaped diaper patterns. Highland's most elaborate mantel, which is located upstairs, appears to have been moved there from another location in the house.

Other noteworthy features include the twelve over twelve windows, the original floorboards, and the original brass locks which survive on some of the doors.

Included within the site are the family cemetery (earliest tomb dating from 1803), two c.1930 sheds, two c.1900 shotguns, two c.1900 barns, and a c.1934 carport.