Rare Greek Revival Plantation Home in Tensas Parish LA

Lakewood Plantation House, St. Joseph Louisiana

Date added: August 22, 2024

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Lakewood is a Greek Revival plantation house. It is one of the few remaining examples in Tensas Parish, where once they must have been quite numerous. Also, among the half dozen or so that have survived, Lakewood is noteworthy.

The importance of Lakewood, within the context of Tensas Parish, as a Greek Revival plantation house can be graphically illustrated by examining the census schedules of 1860. On the eve of the Civil War, the population of the parish was 91% slaves and there were 118 large slaveholdings (i.e., fifty or more slaves). Of these 118, the average size of a slaveholding was 100. The absentee ownership rate was 34%. Hence, of the 118 large slaveholdings in the parish, 78 of them involved individuals who resided there. Given the above, it is clear that there must have been numerous Greek Revival plantation houses in Tensas Parish on the eve of the Civil War. However, as far as the State Historic Preservation Office can determine, there are only about a half dozen or so remaining examples.

In addition, Lakewood is distinguished among the surviving examples because it has a perfectly symmetrical floor plan with two rear wings. This configuration is unique in the parish. Moreover, Lakewood is the only Greek Revival house in the parish in which the front and both the sides are encompassed by a continuous columnar gallery. It is therefore the example which most nearly approaches the grandeur of the Great River Road plantation houses.

Building Description

Lakewood (c.1854) is a large frame single-story provincial Greek Revival plantation house located about four miles north of the town of St. Joseph on the shore of Lake Bruin. The house has been somewhat altered over the years.

The symmetrical plan house is raised a full story above the ground on brick piers. The ground level area is, and has always been, largely open. A small service area in the northwest corner is enclosed by brick walls. It contains a fireplace which has led some to suggest that it might have been a kitchen at one time, although the fireplace seems rather small for a plantation kitchen. The house has a central hall plan, two rooms deep, with a pair of rear wings which are set so that they protrude beyond the main block on each side. Between the rear wings is a "U" shaped rear gallery. The front and sides of the house are encompassed by a continuous fifteen bay gallery. The main block is surmounted by an enormous pitched roof with an unfinished attic. Chimneys are set between the front and rear rooms. Each rear wing also has a chimney set against the back wall.

Noteworthy Greek Revival details include:
(1) The front gallery posts with their ogee molded capitals.

(2) The heavy clapboard entablature surmounting the front gallery.

(3) The ogee molded aedicule motif mantels.

(4) The doorways in the central hall With their entablature and heavy drip cornices.

(5) The front and rear hall doorways with their drip moldings and fretwork style transoms and side lights. The side lights are unusual in that they extend to the floor.

(6) The window and door frames in the two front rooms which feature moldings and pediment shaped tops. (The woodwork in the other rooms is of a similar style but without moldings.)

(7) The plaster acanthus leaf ceiling medallion in the parlor with its broad encompassing wreath.

(8) The rear gallery columns with their simple molded capitals.

Other noteworthy features include:
(1) The six over six windows. (The windows which open onto the front gallery have jib doors.)

(2) The four-panel doors with their transoms.

(3) The tongue and groove siding on the facade which is cut to resemble coursed stone.

(4) The fixed louver shutters.

(5) The four-inch floor boards.

(6) Louvered shutters which are attached to the rear gallery posts. It is not known if these are original or not.

Since construction the following changes have been made in the house:
(1) In about 1900 a false gallery was added in the rear.

(2) Also at that time a beaded ceiling was installed above the front gallery.

(3) Sometime later a set of glass doors were placed at the midpoint of the central hall.

(4) Also, the house received a new roof surface and asbestos siding on the rear wings.

(5) Since 1950 several closets and bathrooms were installed between the front and rear rooms of the main block of the house. Walls were furred out, leaving the mantels set in little recessed areas.