Destrehan Plantation
Destrehan Plantation (French: Plantation Destrehan) is an antebellum mansion, in the French Colonial style, modified with Greek Revival architectural elements. It is located in southeast Louisiana, near the town of the same name, Destrehan.
Location
13034 River Road, Destrehan, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana
Atlanta Georgia
1787–1790
Charles Paquet
March 20, 1973
During the 19th century, the plantation was a major producer of indigo and then sugarcane. The home is most commonly associated with its second owner, Jean-Noël Destréhan, who served briefly as the first United States Senator from Louisiana in 1812. He was influential in the transition of the Orleans Territory to statehood.
The house is a unique example of a plantation home outliving the oil refinery that had been built around it. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural quality and association with important people and events in Louisiana history.
History[edit]
Robert Antoine Robin de Logny ( -1792)[edit]
One of the oldest homes in Louisiana, Destrehan Plantation was constructed beginning in 1787 and completed in 1790, during the period of Spanish rule. Robert Antoine Robin de Logny contracted with Charles Pacquet, a mulatto carpenter, to build a raised house in the West Indies or Creole style, with outbuildings to support his indigo plantation. Pacquet was given the use of six slaves to construct the home. When the work was completed, Charles Pacquet received the following remuneration: "one brute negro," a cow and a calf, 100 bushels each of corn and rice, and $100 in cash.[2] The building contract, still on file at the St. Charles Parish courthouse in Hahnville, makes the Destrehan Plantation house the oldest documented house in the lower Mississippi River Valley.