Loyd Hall Plantation- Now a bed & breakfast, this beautifully restored Greek Revival-Italianate mansion was used by both Union and Confederate troops. Tales of ghosts dated to those days are included in the house tour. (318/776-5641)
Alexandria National Cemetery-The cemetery was established in 1867 as a burial site for Civil War soldiers. It is the current site of Mount Olivet Church. (318/449-1793)Kent House- Believed to be the oldest standing structure in Central Louisiana, Kent House offers glimpses into the area's rural life during the mid-19th century. See house furnishings, separate kitchen, milk house, working sugar refinery, herb and formal gardens. (318/487-5998)
CREOLE PLANTATIONS OF CANE RIVER
Oakland Plantation (also known as Jean Pierre Emmanual Prud'homme Plantation)- the elegant main house and the 27 outbuildings offer numerous examples of bousilage construction (a mixture of mud and Spanish moss used between the studs). (private)
Melrose Plantation- An outstanding example of Creole architecture, Melrose Plantation, originally known as Yucca Plantation, was established by Marie Thérèze Coincoin, a former slave. She, together with a Frenchman, Jean Claude Metoyer, founded a family which developed into a distinctive group known as "Cane River Creoles of Color." Marie Thérèze and her descendants illustrated how "free persons of color" achieved an equal economic status with white planters in antebellum Louisiana.
Magnolia Plantation- Has one of only two surviving antebellum cotton presses in the United States. The present house was built in 1899 on the foundation of the house which burned during the war. It has fine examples of surviving slave cabins.(318/379-2221)
Bayou Folk Museum- Built by slaves between 1805 and 1813, this typical early-Louisiana house was the home of author Kate Chopin, who made the Cane River and Natchitoches area well known in a collection of short stories, Bayou Folk. (318/379-2233)
Little Eva Plantation- Once known as "The Old Robert McAlpin Plantation." McAlpin is, according to legend, the model for the character Simon Legree in Harriet Beecher Stowe's book, Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was renamed Little Eva Plantation after the book's heroine. (318/379-2382)
BUNKIE
Edwin Epps House- (moved to its present location) Originally built on Bayou Boeuf in Avoyelles Parish, this example of a small planter's home is also the plantation where Solomon Northup, author of Twelve Years a Slave, lived and worked as a slave. (318/346-2161)
CHENEYVILLE
Loyd Hall Plantation- Now a bed & breakfast, this beautifully restored Greek Revival-Italianate mansion was used by both Union and Confederate troops. Tales of ghosts dated to those days are included in the house tour. (318/776-5641)