Hazelwood Plantation, Laurel Hill Louisiana

Date added: September 27, 2023 Categories: Louisiana House Plantations & Farms

Exterior right gable end and rear porch; view from northeast (1975)

Although the exact date of construction of this house is not known, structural evidence and stylistic details indicate that it was probably built shortly after the property was acquired by Stephen Windham in 1832.

When Windham purchased the property from Anthony Doherty (Daugherty), the plantation then contained 600 arpents that had been patented to Robert Munson by the Spanish Government of the Province of Louisiana, confirmed by the United States in 1813.

The property appears on a survey of Township 1 South, Range 2 West, signed by James P. Turner, Principal Deputy Surveyor and Dated November 5, 1827, and then contained 948.54 acres, Section 27 claimed by Anthony Daugherty. A survey of the same township signed by R. W. Boyd, Surveyor General of Louisiana and dated April 24, 1851, shows the areas of this section, now numbered 77, as 1021.45 acres. This latter survey, compiled from earlier ones, shows the plantation traversed from north to south by the West Feliciana Railroad, one of the earliest railroads in Louisiana. Copies of these surveys are in the State Land Office in Baton Rouge.

A survey of the property as sold by Doherty to Windham dated October 30, 1832, is signed by Samuel M.D. Clark, Parish Surveyor of West Feliciana and recorded in the Parish Courthouse. It was sold by Windham to John N. Evans who sold his undivided half interest to Frank Eugene Evans in 1867. The property had by then been reduced to 500 acres and when sold by Frank Evans in 1885 to Sidney H. Lemon it was further reduced to about 400 acres. It was from the wife of Sidney Lemon that the family of the present owners acquired Hazelwood, the name it probably had since the house was constructed in the 1830s.

Building Description

Hazelwood Plantation house is a one-story frame house, raised about three and a half feet above the ground on brick piers. The large roof, sloping to front and rear, with gable ends, extends over a six-column gallery across the front. There are no dormers, but windows in the gable ends admit light to the two finished bedrooms in the attic. Two large, red brick chimneys extend from the rear slope of the roof, each serving three fireplaces on each side of the house. The rear slope of the roof extends down over a rear gallery that might possibly be a later addition and is partially enclosed. Both front and rear galleries are now screened and a front and side extension of the roof has been added over the front gallery as a sort of permanent awning.

The front wall of the house on the gallery is of flush boards. A wide center entrance door is surmounted by a horizontal transom, the door and transom being flanked by glazed sidelights having wood panels beneath them. The present door has a large single glass with a curved top, with two panels in the lower part of the door. It apparently replaces the original door that was probably similar to the unusually wide interior doors which have three horizontal panels in the upper part and two vertical ones in the lower. The transom bar as well as the mullion, sidelight sills and exterior trim of the entrance doorway are unusually thin and delicate with a simple half-round moulding. The glazed sash of the transom and sidelights are divided by delicate muntins into an interesting pattern of squares and rectangles. The rear entrance doorway is similar to the one in front except that it has double doors that appear to be original but with the upper panels replaced by single glass lights. Two double-hung windows open to the front gallery on each side of the entrance.

These windows, like the three in each of the first-floor gable ends, have sash divided by thin muntins with 12 over 12 lights. The front windows have shutters with fixed louvers; the side windows have batten blinds which may be later replacements. The two attic windows in each of the gable ends are smaller than those of the first story and have 4 over 4 light sash that may be of a later date, judging by the larger size and scale of the lights.

The plan of the house is simple with a wide central hall and two rooms on each side. The front rooms are large and nearly square, each with two windows on front and side. The rear rooms are smaller and have each only one window on the side. Between the two rooms on each side of the hall is a chimney serving a fireplace in each of the rooms and one in the attic bedroom above the front room. Mantels of each of these fireplaces are well designed and detailed, in wood. That in the living room has slender, engaged, turned columns; the others have moulded pilasters. The door and window trim in the front room and hall of the first floor is similarly moulded, with plinths and bull's eye corner blocks. These rooms all have moulded base and chair rails. In the dining room there is an interesting cupboard beside the chimney with two doors, separated by a wide mullion and having the same trim and corner blocks. Trim in the rear and attic rooms is mitered. Wall plaster in some rooms has been replaced with tongue and groove beaded boards.