St. Emma Plantation House, Donaldsonville Louisiana
St. Emma is a large mid-19th-century Greek Revival Plantation house. This can be seen in its full two-story height, its articulation, and in its central hall plan which is three rooms deep rather than the usual two. It amounts to a larger version of the standard five-bay, central hall plan, raised plantation house.
In addition, of the many plantation houses of the Bayou Lafourche area, St. Emma is above average both in terms of size and pretention.
St. Emma Plantation was owned from 1854 to 1869 by Charles A. Kock, one of the leading sugar planters and large slaveholders in Louisiana. It played a role in a series of Civil War skirmishes in the Donaldsonville-Bayou Lafource area.
Born in Bremen, Germany in 1812, Charles A. Kock by 1860, had become one of the largest sugar producers in Louisiana and had 300 slaves, of which 124 were at St. Emma. His two sugar plantations were Belle Alliance in Assumption Parish and St. Emma in Ascension Parish.
St. Emma and the nearby plantation Palo Alto were the scene of a Civil War skirmish in the fall of 1862. Union forces marching from Donaldsonville to Thibodaux were checked by the Confederates in the vicinity of St. Emma and lost 465 men. The sugar houses of St. Emma and Palo Alto were used to quarter Confederate troops.
Building Description
St. Emma Plantation house is set just west of Bayou Lafourche approximately four miles south of the town of Donaldsonville.
The house has a brick lower story and a circular sawn frame upper story. Although the upper story is the main floor, there are rooms on the ground floor as well which appear to be original to the house. The building is five bays wide and three rooms deep with a great central hall that runs from the front to the rear. Both the front and rear facades have five-bay galleries which are formed of brick posts on the lower story and paneled wooden pillars on the upper story. There are no interior stairs. Both staircases are set within the galleries.
The exterior doors have three vertical panels rather than the usual two. They are encompassed within ear-molded frames with pediment-shaped tops. Side lights are separated from the doors by full pilasters rather than molded strips. The front facade has heavy tongue and groove boards which are designed to resemble rustication. Major windows are of the 6 over 9 sliphead variety. The cast iron balustrades feature Gothic arches and foils. The interior features. two black marble mantels and one cast iron mantel. Three mantels have been removed. Other changes include the addition of a side balcony, a semioctagonal bay, and a bathroom-dressing area. In addition in the 1920's the hip roof was reworked.
Side view of house (1979)
