"Glendale Pltn"

Plantation owners of Louisiana prospered enough to allow landowners to construct houses that reflected their economic status. Such buildings were large, constructed of quality materials by skilled craftsmen. Aesthetics was a prime consideration. Most were in the Greek Revival Style; a two-story wood frame or brick structure capped with an overhanging roof and dormers to light the attic.

The plantation house evolved during the colonial era, the result of a sensible use of materials and technology that satisfied the needs of the occupants. The roof was supported by a colonnade from the ground to the roof with a balcony on the second story, sometimes circling the structure and a balastrade between supporting columns. A hall ran down the center of each floor, separating magnificent rooms on each side. Rooms were heated with back-to- back fireplaces. Variations had four to eight columns and 3 side-by-side sets of back-to-back rooms instead of a hallway. The front rooms opened onto the gallery. All rooms were interconnected.

Basements were not practical in a land with a water table a few feet below the ground and frequent flooding, so the solution was to built them aboveground. The ground floor was a structure of brick walls 7 feet to 8 feet high on heavy footings. The low-fired bricks could not withstand the elements, so the outside was whitewashed. The house frame rested on this structure.

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