This was a 2000 acre Sugar Plantation in LA

Woodland Plantation, LaPlace Louisiana

Date added: October 23, 2024

Exterior view of plantation house (2016)

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Jazz pioneer Edward "Kid" Ory, who was born at the plantation in 1886 and spent the first 23 years of his life there working and developing his musical career. The property is a rare surviving example of bousillage construction in St. John the Baptist Parish, and it is notable in particular for its three distinct phases of the technique ranging from c. 1793 through c. 1840s.

The Andry Plantation (now Woodland) was the site of a historic slave uprising that took place on January 8^th, 1811, an event that has come to be recognized as the largest such uprising in the history of the United States. Although the property, and in particular the plantation house, is no longer recognizable from this period, this important event warrants mention here.

On the night of January 8^th, 1811, Charles Deslondes, an enslaved driver of Haitian descent who sometimes worked for Colonel Manuel Andry, led a group of about 200 slaves to stage an uprising against the slave owners of St. John the Baptist Parish all the way down to New Orleans. Records indicate that the event was the result of years of preparation and secret meetings; Deslondes would have been familiar with the successful revolt that occurred in his native Haiti about a decade earlier and knew that, with careful planning, they had a chance to succeed. Armed with cane knives, hoes, and some guns, the rebels headed first for Andry's plantation (later named Woodland), where they stormed the colonel's house and killed his adult son, Gilbert. Colonel Andry, who served as head of the local militia, was known for being particularly cruel to his slaves. They took his weapons and, from there, they marched down River Road, burning plantations as they went and growing in number until they were more than 500 strong. Near present-day Kenner, however, a few miles upriver from New Orleans, the rebels were confronted by federal troops and local militia led by Colonel Andry, who blocked their retreat. The battle that ensued killed dozens of slaves, and dozens more were brutally executed at Destrehan Plantation, their heads mounted on poles along the Mississippi River.

While it did not succeed, the uprising made a significant impact by raising awareness of the brutalities of slavery. Prior to that time, much of the United States somehow believed that slaves were satisfied with their lot. Deslondes's revolt parted the curtain on the harshness of the slave system and ultimately helped to fuel the abolitionist movement. Yet for many years afterwards, the extent of the rebellion was suppressed, and a "historical amnesia" set in, according to historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall. For a long time, says Hall, history books avoided discussion of the violence and exploitation that slaves were forced to endure, often opting instead to paint a more idyllic picture of the happy slave and his stern but tolerant master. Not until recently has the event begun to receive the attention it deserves, through academic study and museum exhibitions, including a special bi-centennial exhibit at Destrehan Plantation in 2011.

New Orleans is widely accepted as the birthplace of jazz, which originated there in the first decade of the 20^th Century and is largely credited to the city's remarkable ethnic diversity. Jazz grew out of musical traditions such as ragtime and blues, which reached New Orleans in the 1890s, and other local influences such as the call and response of the black Baptist Church, the city's long-time "mania" for music and dancing (according to the local newspaper), and the city's trained black Creole musicians, who often performed in ensembles at venues and private parties around town. While it incorporated other musical genres, jazz grew to become something new and different, a distinctly "hot" style that was defined by its varying degrees of improvisation, polyphonic ensemble playing, and propulsive syncopated rhythms. It was considered both irresistible and obscene.

One of the chief pioneers of this new New Orleans sound was cornetist Charles "Buddy" Bolden, who dominated the emerging form in the first decade of the 20^th Century. In 1907, he was committed to the Insane Asylum of Louisiana at age 31, and his playing was never recorded. Other pioneers include Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Joe "King" Oliver, and Edward "Kid" Ory, among others. These musicians were playing jazz all over the city in the 1910s, in places like dance halls, saloons, clubs, and theaters, at picnics and lawn parties, on steamboats, and in the streets. They played in the "back of town" area around South Rampart Street known as "black Storyville," in the saloons of Storyville proper, at private homes, in the social halls of Treme, and in Milneburg's resorts on Lake Pontchartrain.

In the late 1910s, thousands of African Americans, including a number of New Orleans jazz musicians, left the South in search of a better life in Northern cities like Chicago and New York. This era, later known as the Great Migration, spurred the spread and evolution of jazz music and resulted in its first recording in 1917 in Chicago (of a white New Orleans band, ironically). From there, the new music form invaded American homes, thanks in large part to the recordings and performances of New Orleans's pioneering musicians, and finally grew so popular that the 1920s came to be defined as the "Jazz Age." Today, jazz is recognized as one of America's major contributions to the world of music.

Despite the tremendous importance of this cultural heritage, very few jazz landmarks remain in Louisiana due to lack of recognition, neglect, or mid-century urban renewal. John Hasse, curator of American music at the National Museum of American History as of 2014, observed that "there are precious few structures still standing today that document the powerful explosion of creativity and innovation that became jazz."

Tragically, very little survives in New Orleans of the literally hundreds of early jazz venues, not to mention homes of jazz pioneers. Jazz enthusiasts, of course, are drawn like a magnet to the city, from all over the world. But typically they spend their time visiting "site of" this or that. Both Louis Armstrong's birthplace and his childhood home were torn down by the city in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Modern government complexes occupy the site as well as the rest of "black Storyville." The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park occupies Armstrong Park, created in the 1970s to honor the city's famous son (rather ironically). The park has one building with a jazz association, Perseverance Hall. Once flourishing South Rampart Street is now a sea of surface parking lots, with the exception of a handful of buildings that have managed somehow to survive. Four buildings in the 400-block are particularly important because they form the greatest concentration (one being the Iroquois). Lincoln and Johnson parks have long been redeveloped, as has lakefront Milneburg. Storyville, closed in 1917, was torn down to build a housing project in the 1930s. And the picture is not particularly bright when you look at the status of surviving buildings. Most are vacant and threatened in one way or another. Loyal jazz scholars and enthusiasts sound the alarm periodically as a new threat emerges.

In 2002, the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans began a "Jazz Houses" initiative to save the surviving homes of famous jazz musicians and "create more community awareness of the rich musical heritage in New Orleans." The program marks the homes with plaques, and in some cases the PRC purchases and stabilizes them. Their inaugural house was Kid Ory's first New Orleans residence at 2133-35 Jackson Avenue, which was on the verge of collapse. According to Kid Ory biographer and jazz historian John McCusker, "it was the first time a building in our city was saved from demolition, renovated and marked with a plaque simply because it was the home of a jazz musician." The plaque reads:

Edward "Kid" Ory (1886-1973) trombonist, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, lived here at 2135 Jackson Avenue from 1910 until 1916. He led the Woodland Band in LaPlace, and his own band in New Orleans. He recorded in Los Angeles with his Sunshine Band in 1922, and in Chicago with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, Joseph "King" Oliver, and Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers. His hit composition Muskrat Ramble has gone through many reincarnations. He was at the forefront of the jazz revival in the 1940's and 1950's, and continued performing into the 1970's.

The Musical Career and Contributions of Edward "Kid" Ory

Jazz pioneer Edward "Kid" Ory was one of a handful of prominent musicians who spearheaded the development and dissemination of jazz music in the first decades of the 20 century. As a trombonist, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, he led numerous ensembles in the heyday of New Orleans jazz, composed several jazz standards, including the world-famous "Muskrat Ramble," made landmark recordings in Los Angeles and Chicago, and played all over New Orleans, from posh lawn parties to black social halls in Treme.

According to Ory's biographer, John McCusker, Ory has been described as "a bridge between the earliest jazz pioneers, like Buddy Bolden, whom Ory knew, and the ultimate jazzman Louis Armstrong, who got his start in Ory's New Orleans band." Ory played a role in helping the music cross over "the racial and cultural threshold" by netting gigs for both white and black audiences, a shift that demonstrated the growing acceptance of "hot" music in the 1910s." His band became "an incubator for the development of black jazz talent," leading such future greats as "Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Johnny and Warren Dodds, and Jimmie Noone," according to the National Park Service's history of New Orleans jazz. In addition, Ory was the first black New Orleans jazz bandleader to make a recording, "Ory's Creole Trombone," in 1922, and his 1944 recording of "Creole Song" is the first documented performance of a jazz-inspired song sung in Creole patois.

Despite his pivotal role in jazz history, however, Ory's importance was long overlooked, and only in the past twenty or so years has his true legacy come to be appreciated by historians and jazz enthusiasts alike. The definitive biography of Ory's life and career, Creole Trombone: Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz, was published in 2013.

Ory was born on Christmas Day, 1886, at Woodland Plantation to Ozeme Ory, a white plantation owner's son and relative of the Ory brothers who bought Woodland in 1898, and Marie Octavie Devezin, a woman of mixed race who worked at the plantation as a washerwoman. The couple produced several children and for most of their 30-year relationship lived together as a family in a cabin behind the "big house." Ory self-identified as a "Creole," a complex term that has been used to distinguish Americans from those of European blood born in the colonies, both white and black, but has also been used to refer to French-speaking Catholics of mixed race. According to one of the descendants of the white Orys, the children of both sides of the family played together in the backyard of the big house, often with Marie watching over them. Ory attended the Fourth Ward Colored School in LaPlace until about the 5^th grade and grew up speaking French at home. He also worked on the plantation doing a variety of jobs, such as fetching water for the workers in the fields and helping his mother in the washhouse.

Ory was exposed to a variety of musical styles in and around the plantation during his two-plus decades there (1886-1910). Members of the John L. Ory family had a band that played regularly at local theaters and functions. The parish's annual musical high point, according to McCusker's biography, came at grinding season, when bands came to play at the Woodland sugar mill and the workers danced and partied. Traditional French Creole folk songs were sung on front porches in summertime, a custom Ory was familiar with based on his recordings of such songs in the 1940s. Ory and his friends traveled by mule to social halls in nearby Reserve to attend dances and listen to string bands, and sometimes professional bands from New Orleans came through the parish. Altogether, these musical influences created "a diverse canvass for Ory to take in."

Although he had no real instruments, young Ory "acted on his musical impulses early and deeply." He began by gathering a group of friends who also lived on and around Woodland to practice vocal harmonizing, which helped to develop his ear and leadership skills. Soon after, he and his friends constructed homemade instruments using items they found lying around the plantation, such as cigar boxes, buckets, soapboxes, and fishing line. Ory made himself a rudimentary banjo and the boys taught themselves to play. With that, Ory formed his first band.

Ory's first real gig, for which he served as "bandleader, promoter, bookkeeper, treasurer, and fish fryer," according to his notes for an unpublished autobiography, took place in an abandoned house on the plantation. In 1901, he bought his first real instrument, a banjo, at the Woodland store, and later picked up his first slide trombone, which would become his signature instrument, there as well. He was miserable working on the plantation, which was thankless and backbreaking work, but he never relented in his pursuit of music. He composed songs, sought out traveling bands, and played every chance he could, including at Woodland's baseball games. In his late teens, he began taking the train to New Orleans. In 1905, outside of Werlein's music store on Canal Street, Ory met Buddy Bolden, who overheard Ory playing the trombone and complimented his abilities. After that first trip, Ory and his "Woodland band," as they were known, often visited the city together to listen and learn.

In 1906, the Woodland band was hired to play for a wedding reception back home at the plantation house, where John L. Ory was in the audience. John L. had taken a paternalistic interest in Kid since Ozeme's death in 1904, and he often criticized the boy's interest in music, which he thought showed a lack of ambition. At the reception, however, John L. apologized for his years of disapproval and finally recognized Kid's talents. "You know," John L told him, "everyone is good for something in this world. If there's anything I can help you with, let me know."

Ory had promised his parents that he would remain in St. John Parish until he turned twenty-one, which he did."? In 1910, he moved to New Orleans, where he lived on and off with a cousin at 2133-35 Jackson Avenue, and with him came some of his Woodland bandmates. According to Wellman Braud, future bassist for Duke Ellington's band, "The Olympia was the best band at the time until Kid Ory and his band from LaPlace came to town, taking New Orleans by storm. The Ory band was smoother and more polished than the New Orleans bands." From that point on, Ory played as many gigs as he could, usually serving as bandleader and seeking out the best talent New Orleans had to offer. During the week, they played mostly for white audiences at venues like the New Orleans Yacht Club and upscale hotels like the Roosevelt, and on weekends and on Mondays they booked dances and fish fries for black audiences at places like Economy Hall in Treme.

In 1919, Ory moved to Los Angeles, where he was the bandleader for the first jazz recording of black musicians in 1922. They recorded one of Ory's original compositions, "Ory's Creole Trombone." He moved to Chicago in 1925, where, according to jazz historian Ted Gioia, "he participated in several of the most important studio dates in jazz history, working not only with [Jelly Roll] Morton on the seminal Red Hot Pepper dates, but also recording with Louis Armstrong and King Oliver, among others."

The jazz craze died out during the Great Depression, and for a time Ory stopped playing, instead making a living as a chicken farmer and a postal sorter in California. In the 1940s, he returned to music at the forefront of the "New Orleans Revival" movement, which sought "authentic New Orleans jazz as an antidote to the popularity of swing and the emergence of bebop." During that time, he made the first-ever recording of a jazz-influenced Creole folk song sung in patois. At what was perhaps the pinnacle of his fame, Ory and his band performed weekly on broadcasts with Orson Welles, who wanted a New Orleans-style band for his shows." Later, in his years as a "jazz elder statesman," Ory briefly ran a jazz club in San Francisco called On the Levee, played occasional gigs around the country, including a performance in 1971 at the second annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and was visited by jazz fans from around the world. He died in 1973 in Honolulu.

While Ory lived and played in many places over his long life, his upbringing and experiences on Woodland Plantation uniquely shaped his music career. His Creole heritage and French language skills; his exposure to traditional Creole folk songs; his resourcefulness and creativity in the face of limited opportunity; his leadership skills; and his facility with both white and black audiences as the result of his mixed heritage and familial relationships with the white Orys were all key elements of the career that would make him one of the most important figures in jazz history.

Very few sites specifically associated with Kid Ory's life and career in Louisiana remain standing. As previously described, a vast number of jazz venues in New Orleans have been lost, including Storyville, which was demolished in the 1930s to make way for public housing; most of "back of town," which was razed for a municipal government complex; Economy Hall and Cooperators Hall in Treme; the resorts at Milneburg; and Lincoln and Johnson Parks, which were redeveloped. The few remaining jazz venues, such as the Eagle Saloon on South Rampart Street, are associated with several jazz musicians but have not been documented as playing a prominent role in Kid Ory's career specifically. Some of the less traditional extant venues where Ory was known to play regularly, like private residences on St. Charles Avenue or the Roosevelt Hotel, have not been demonstrated as individually important in Ory's career. The only major documented extant site associated with Kid Ory in New Orleans is his first residence on Jackson Avenue.

In St. John Parish, the only documented site that still stands and remains recognizable from Ory's era is Woodland Plantation, which played a central role in his life and career. Although the cabin where he lived with his family has been lost, the plantation house remains as the preeminent building on the site embodying its history as a plantation. More minor sites, such as the Bonsecours Benevolent Society in Edgard and the Planters Social Club in Reserve, where a young Ory sometimes attended dances and listened to bands, are allegedly extant but represent only a small part of Ory's formative experience in St. John Parish.

Found in French Colonial, Creole, and Acadian buildings, bousillage is a nogging material composed of a mixture of tempered mud or clay and Spanish moss. The mixture is formed into loaves and packed over wood barreaux, or staves, that are slotted or wedged into timber framing. The material generally fills the space between framing members and dries hard to create a flat, solid wall surface, which is then typically plastered over or directly coated with limewash. This technique is formally known as bousillage entre poteaux (bousillage between posts) or colombage bousille, and the French heavy-timber framing technique that was typically employed is colombage (half-timber framing). The more common shorthand for this technique is bousillage construction.

According to Laura Ewen Blokker and Heather Knight, combining some type of earth, plant fiber, and wood is an ancient building tradition found all over the world. Bousillage construction as we know it in Louisiana is the product of several distinct cultures. Evidence of bousillage construction in North America in areas of French Colonial, Creole, and Acadian settlements, including Louisiana, implies a strong connection to the French version of the wattle-and-daub technique, which the colonists brought with them to the New World. In Louisiana, the Native Americans, such as the Bayougoula tribe, introduced the French colonists to their own wattle-and-daub techniques, which incorporated local materials such as Spanish moss, an epiphyte abundant throughout the state. The colonists soon combined their own framing techniques with this native daubing recipe to create a unique colonial building method. In addition, the skills of the many West Africans, enslaved and free, who arrived in Louisiana in the 18^th and 19^th centuries would have influenced this evolution as well. There are several variations of the wattle-and-daub technique associated with West Africa, and many of the men who came from that region worked as artisans and builders in the New World. It is quite possible that they would have applied their own native techniques to the bousillage buildings they constructed. This synthesis of a variety of cultural traditions-French, Native American, West African, and possibly others-in a new environment led to the creation of something entirely new; as such, bousillage construction is a true "Creole" building tradition.

Although examples of bousillage construction exist throughout North America, Louisiana possesses the highest concentration of extant examples and the most enduring tradition on the continent. In other parts of the continent the technique died out by the early 19^th Century, but in Louisiana it persisted well into the 19^th Century, with peak use occurring in the 1830s and 1840s.

As of 2017, over 100 examples of bousillage construction in Louisiana have been documented. Most of these examples are located in more rural areas of the state, where bricks were less available (in New Orleans, bricks replaced bousillage as an infill material in the early 18^th Century, when the first brick manufacturers were established). However, this number represents just a fraction of the buildings that would have existed during the colonial and antebellum eras, when many hundreds of plantations were established along the banks of the Mississippi River and elsewhere. Bousillage construction was the dominant rural building technique in these areas and was used for all types of structures, from grand plantation houses to modest buildings such as cottages and kitchens.

Bousillage Construction in St. John the Baptist Parish

St. John the Baptist Parish is part of a historic regional settlement known as the German Coast, which, despite its name, was dominated by French Creole settlers who established plantations cheek-by-jowl along the Mississippi River. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the parish was home to hundreds of plantations, according to A. Persac's famous 1858 map entitled "Chart of the Lower Mississippi River," and many, if not most, of the buildings on these plantations would have been constructed using the bousillage technique. Today, however, there are only 6 documented examples of bousillage remaining in the parish:

• Godchaux-Reserve Plantation House, Reserve, LA (c.1760s?-1850)

• Bacas House, Edgard, LA (1840-50)

• Glendale Plantation, Lucy, LA (c. 1802)

• Montegut Plantation House, LaPlace, LA (1815)

• Sorapuru House, Edgard, LA (1825)

• Woodland Plantation, LaPlace, LA (1793-1898)

The area which became St. John the Baptist Parish was fairly well settled by the end of the eighteenth century. Created in 1807, the parish grew to become a prosperous sugar planting area. Although St. John was part of the so-called German Coast, its dominant cultural influence was French Creole. Presumably there were once a few hundred Creole residences of various sizes in the parish. Today, out of a total of over 1,100 buildings identified in the parish survey as being fifty years of age or older, the Sorapuru House is one of only about ten which remain to portray the area's Creole environment and lifestyle.

Creole houses such as the Sorapuru Home represent St. John's earliest architectural development and are the primary representatives of its well-known Creole cultural heritage. It should be noted that in any given French parish in Louisiana, the Creole buildings are generally considered the most important. This is because the French Creole heritage is the major element distinguishing Louisiana from other southern states and in many ways forms its cultural identity.

Use of Bousillage at Woodland Plantation

Woodland Plantation is not only a rare surviving example of bousillage construction in St. John the Baptist Parish, but the plantation house is also notable in that it exhibits three distinct eras of the technique. Bousillage was first used in the building's original construction c. 1793 when Louisiana was still a colony. The hewn-timber colombage framing is mortised and tenoned and pegged together and infilled with densely packed bousillage. In c. 1810s, it was used again in the enlargement of the building's footprint and closely resembles the original walls in materials and technique. Inc. 1840s, it was used yet again when the footprint was further enlarged. During this remodel, the bousillage was less densely packed and the colombage framing method was abandoned for more modern techniques that included saw-cut lumber and nails.

This layered condition attests to the remarkable longevity of the bousillage technique in Louisiana's areas of French Creole heritage in comparison to other French settlements in North America, where the technique did not last beyond the early 19^th Century. In addition, the use of bousillage in the c.1840s remodel is notable because the owners at the time, the Hollingsworth family, were Americans who had recently moved to Louisiana from Baltimore. The fact that they built with bousillage, an undoubtedly very unfamiliar French Creole technique, underlines its pervasiveness in the region during this period.

Site Description

Woodland Plantation is located at 1128 LA Highway 628 on a 3.61-acre property in LaPlace, St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. The buildings and structures on the site include a French Creole plantation house constructed c. 1793 and remodeled in three phases during the 19^th Century, a carriage house (c.1900), a shed (c. 1840s), a cistern base, and a shed/stable. Historically a sugar plantation occupying an estimated 2,000 acres, the bulk of the acreage was subdivided and sold off in 1923, spurring the growth of modern-day LaPlace. The property is oriented southwest to face the Mississippi River and is bounded by residences on either side and by railroad tracks to the rear.

Woodland Plantation is located at 1128 LA Highway 628 in LaPlace, St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, in a low-rise residential development consisting of early to mid-20-century homes set back on sizeable lots. The Woodland property sits approximately 0.5 miles northeast of the Mississippi River, which is obstructed from view by a levee and a dense stretch of woodland along the batture. When the plantation was first established c. 1793, the property measured 40 arpents wide (facing the river) by an unspecified depth, and for most of the 19^th Century it measured 14 arpents wide by 80 arpents deep, or approximately 2,000 acres (1 arpent = ~192 feet). In 1923, all but a few acres were subdivided and sold off in 100-acre plots, which spurred the development of LaPlace from a rural community into a small city. The property has been vacant for at least 10 years.

There are 3 buildings and 1 structure on the property: a large 1.5-story plantation house and the two outbuildings behind it (a carriage house and shed), and a brick cistern base located at the southeast corner of the house.

The plantation house is 1.5 stories raised on approximately 5'-O" brick piers. The majority of the house is bousillage construction, which is described more fully below. The facade is covered with smooth stucco and the sides and rear are clad with wood clapboards. The side-gable roof has a broken pitch at the rear covering the rear gallery and is covered with wood shakes under corrugated metal. There are two gabled dormers on the front slope. There is a full-width front gallery, a rear gallery that was originally full width but gradually enclosed over the course of the 20^th century, and partial-width side porches. A detached rear ell dating to the mid-19^th Century appears to have been moved forward and connected to the building, probably c. 1898. An octagonal bay on the north side of the house was added c. 1898.

The interior consists of two hall-less ranges of rooms that are asymmetrically sized in the French Creole fashion. The 2^nd range of rooms is notably narrower than the front range and, based on this as well as additional physical evidence, was likely a rear open loggia dating to c. 1810s that was enclosed c. 1840s. The current rear gallery was enclosed over the course of the 20^th Century and partitioned into a kitchen, 5 bathrooms, and part of a dining room. It was recently reopened save for one bathroom and kitchen on the south end of the house and the dining room on the north end, and 4 bathrooms were demolished.

The plantation house as it appears today is the result of four major phases of construction that took place between c. 1793 and c. 1898. Phase I is the original c. 1793 core; Phase II is c. 1810s; Phase Ill is c. 1840s; and Phase IV is c. 1898. These phases are approximate and are based on archival records and an analysis of the visible historic fabric. Throughout most of the house, the framing and any infill material (i.e., bousillage) are covered with beadboard; removal of this material would undoubtedly provide additional clues as to the evolution of the building, but it is being preserved as a significant feature of the interior and will remain in place. The beadboard in the parlor was removed to allow for some analysis to take place. Phases I-IV are described in detail below.

- Phase I: c. 1793 (Manuel Andry). Archival records indicate that Colonel Manuel Andry likely constructed the original 2-room core of the plantation house c. 1793. These two rooms, which are supported by approximately 5'-0" brick piers, follow the traditional salle-chambre plan, which comprises a larger parlor-like room (19'-10" x 19'-3") and smaller private chamber (16'-1" x 19'-3"). (A very similar arrangement has been identified as the core of the Godchaux-Reserve Plantation House, located a few miles upriver in Reserve.) A front gallery may have been included in the original plan as well, although to date no traces of it have been identified. Removal of the c. 1898 wall covering in the salle/parlor revealed that the wall framing of these two rooms consists of hand-hewn cypress members joined by mortise and tenon and pegged together (based on the French colombage framing method). The spaces between the members are infilled with bousillage (a mixture of clay and Spanish moss) to create a solid wall surface. The walls were coated with lime-based plaster, as indicated by closely spaced hatch marks covering the exposed surface of the framing members and trace remnants of the material on the bousillage. The framing was also coated with limewash to protect it from insects and decay.

There are infilled window and door openings in three of the four walls of the salle/parlor: one door opening with an arched lintel on the front wall, one door opening on the north wall, and two window openings on the rear wall. These openings were infilled with a less densely packed bousillage that resembles the c. 1840s bousillage (see Phase III) and likely dates to that period. There may be similar infilled openings in the adjacent chambre/private chamber, but the c. 1898 finishes in this room have been left intact and the framing is not visible. The presence of lopped-off mortised ceiling joists in the abandoned original top wall plate in the parlor indicates that the ceiling was raised in these rooms, likely c. 1840s, to accommodate taller facade openings (see Phase Ill). To date, 3 repurposed beaded ceiling joists have been identified in the attic.

The original c. 1793 foundation consists of 4 L-shaped brick corner piers that line up with the corners of the two core rooms. These piers support hand-hewn cypress sills, one of which extends the full length of the two rooms and measures approximately 35' long. The floors in the smaller chambre are 12"-wide cypress planks. The floors in the parlor were replaced with 5 ½" tongue-and-groove wood flooring, probably c. 1840s. There is one large chimney between these two rooms with a massive base that measures approximately 7' x 8'.

In January 1811, a historic slave revolt originated on Andry's plantation, and Andry's son was killed at the house.

A few months after the revolt, Andry sold the property to Francois Norbert Boudousquie.

- Phase Il: c. 1810s (Francois Norbert Boudousquie). In May 1811, Francois Norbert Boudousquie, a French Creole entrepreneur from New Orleans, purchased Andry's plantation, which by that time was operating as a sugar plantation, and 30 slaves for $65,000. He owned the property until his death in 1831, and his widow and heirs retained it until 1837.

At the time of Boudousquie's death, the plantation consisted of "a large master's house, two other small houses, a kitchen, a hospital, a corn house, negro cabins, a corn mill, horse stables, [illegible], a sugar mill with an animal-powered mill, a draining house, etc. There is on this plantation about 200 arpents of planted cane this year and about 120 arpents of stumps." This description tells us that the house was considered "large" by early 19th-century standards, indicating that Boudouqsuie enlarged the original 2-room footprint during his period of ownership.

Physical evidence shows that Boudousquie made several modifications to the house, including the addition of a front gallery finished with simple cypress posts, exposed ceiling joists, and a tall baseboard along the length of the front wall in typical French Creole fashion; the addition of one large room and fireplace to the left/north of the original parlor; a rear gallery extending nearly the full width of the house with a cabinet (small room) with attic stair added at the north end; and a side gallery to the south/right of the original chambre. This resulted in a 4-room house with front, side, and rear galleries. The 10-lite paneled French doors throughout the house also likely date to this period.

These conclusions are based on the presence of hand-hewn cypress framing members and bousillage infill similar to the c. 1793 construction in at least one location (the exterior north wall of the cabinet); the presence of hand-hewn cypress framing members with brick-between-posts infill in one visible location (between the added front room and the cabinet); the shorter width of the 2^nd range of rooms (12'-2") compared to the front range of rooms (19'-3"), which strongly implies that this section of the house was originally outdoor living space; and the presence of a hand-hewn heavy-timber sill with Roman numeral markings that runs virtually uninterrupted from the south end of the house to the exterior north wall of the cabinet. Additional evidence that these rooms were originally open is found in the shorter height of the piers supporting the rear wall of the 2^nd range of rooms compared to those supporting the middle and front walls. Scrap wood was later used to adjust the height of the joists and hand-hewn heavy-timber sills to create a flat (rather than sloped to shed water) interior walking surface.

- Phase Ill: c. 1840s (Hollingsworth family). In 1839, Jacob Hollingsworth of Baltimore, Maryland, purchased the sugar plantation. At some time in the early 1840s, Jacob's adult son Samuel moved from Baltimore to St. John the Baptist Parish to assist with plantation operations, and from that time until 1870 he and his growing family lived at the house. On July 15^th, 1862, Samuel's 16-year-old daughter, Nina, etched her name and date into a pane of glass in one of the French doors at the front of the house, a message that remains in place today.

The Hollingsworth's are responsible for several major modifications to the house. These include the Greek Revival stylistic updates, most notably the simple crossette-frame (or "Greek key") casings along the facade, the grander battered surrounds in the parlor, and the introduction of double-hung sash windows; and changes to the building footprint, which consist of the addition of two new rooms and a new chimney at the far north end of the house; the enclosure of the c.1810s rear loggia and side gallery with saw-cut studs and bousillage infill; the addition of a corner chimney in the enclosed side gallery; and the addition of a new full-length rear gallery. Based on the age and rough circular-saw marks on the majority of the roof rafters and some joists, the roof was likely reframed at this time to accommodate the layout modifications. The 1-story rear ell, which was originally a detached side-gabled structure, appears to date to this era as well, although its original purpose is unknown.

- Phase IV: c. 1898 (Ory family). The Hollingsworth family lost the plantation in 1870, when it was transferred in a sheriff's sale to John Chaffe. The Chaffe family operated the plantation, which it named Woodland Plantation, until the mid-1890s. It was acquired in 1898 by the Ory family, who owned the property until 2016.

Ory brothers John L. Lezin, and Emydge, who purchased Woodland as an investment with Augustin Lasseigne and Leon Keller, are responsible for the final major phase in the building's evolution. John L served as on-site manager and made the house his primary residence; according to the 1900 U.S. Census, he lived there with his wife, seven children, and one female servant. He remained at Woodland until his death in 1920.

Modifications dating to this era include the remodel of the front gallery, namely the addition of decorative brackets, a tongue-and-groove wood ceiling, and a decorative front railing with sawn balusters; the addition of side porches on the north and south sides of the house; the connection of the detached rear ell to the main house; the addition of an octagonal bay to the north side of the ell; the addition of gable dormers on the front slope of the roof; and the addition of a more formal rear entrance consisting of diamond-pane sidelights and a multi-lite transom. The single-beaded tongue-and-groove wall and ceiling finishes, chair rails, triple-bead baseboards, hardware, 9-over-6 double-hung sash windows, and paneled interior doors date to this era as well.

- Other modifications (c. 1920s-onward). A few additional modifications were made to the house c. 1920s after Ory's death and coincide with its conversion into a rooming house leading into the Great Depression. These changes include the application of double-beaded board wall finishes in a few rooms, including in the attic bedroom; the relocation and reconstruction of the attic stair; expansion of the rear ell to create the existing kitchen; screening of the side porches; gradual enclosure of the rear gallery to create multiple bathrooms (most of which were recently removed); and the introduction of some closets (all recently removed). Around mid-century, jalousie windows and metal awnings were installed in a handful of locations (all recently removed or planned for removal).

The 1-story carriage house is located behind and to the north of the plantation house and dates to c. 1900. It is wood-frame construction and has a front-gable roof clad in corrugated metal. The front gable is decorated with scalloped vergeboard (or "bargeboard" as it is known outside of Louisiana). The walls are clad in a mixture of wood siding and corrugated metal. There are 3 bays in total: the central bay is enclosed and secured with wood garage doors and the side bays are open. The walls and ceiling on the interior of the central bay are finished with unpainted single-bead tongue-and-groove boards. There is a hand-painted note on one wall that reads "Notice - No Loafers Allowed in Here. -J.L. O. John L. Ory."

The shed is located behind the plantation house approximately 35 feet from the rear wall of the ell. Likely dating to c.1840s, it was originally a roughly square 1-story, 1-room wood-framed structure with a pyramidal roof. Its original use is unknown, but its distinctive form was commonly used for a wide variety of outbuildings on 19th-century plantations, including smokehouses, tool/garden sheds, coal gas houses, and privies, among others. The walls are clad with wood clapboards. The original floors are wide cypress planks on sills and joists that rest on grade. The ceiling joists are limewashed. The footprint was enlarged c. 1940s to serve as a 1-bedroom apartment, at which time the ceiling of the original structure was lowered and small additions were added on the sides and rear. The walls and ceilings throughout are finished with gypsum board and the floors are primarily carpeted; all of these finishes are severely damaged by water intrusion.

On the south end of the rear gallery about 2 feet from the exterior wall of the plantation house is a brick cistern base about 10 feet in diameter. The wood body of the cistern was dismantled at some point in the early 20^th century, as indicated by the reuse of some of the boards in the framing of the c. 1940s additions to the shed.

Approximately 130 feet behind the main house is a 1-story, rectangular wood-frame shed and stable with a corrugated-metal roof. It appears to date to the mid-20^th Century.