Field Studies 06 - Felicity and St Joseph

Field StudiesFelicite Plantation andSt. Joseph Plantation

Anthony DelRosario

Studio in Building Preservation

Professors G. Cizek, M. Thomas, and H. Knight

Master in Preservation Studies

Tulane School of Architecture

1 PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – April 6, 2010

On March 26, Studio in Building Preservation made our sixth field trip of the

semester to Felicite Plantation (Fig. 1) and St. Joseph Plantation (Fig. 2) in Vacherie,

Louisiana. Currently, both plantations are owned by the St. Joseph Planting and

Manufacturing Co. Ltd. which is run by the extended Waguespack Family. As with the

previous field trip to Oak Alley and Laura Plantations, the class toured one house of

French Creole design and one house of Anglo influence. Oak Alley and Felicite are

both center hall design with interior staircase while both Laura and St. Joseph are

raised Creole design with exterior staircase.

Felicite Plantation House was constructed in 1846 as a wedding gift to Emma

Félicité Aime from her father Gabriel Valcour Aime who was sometimes called the Louis

XIV of Louisiana. Through Valcour Aime, the stories of Oak Alley and Felicite

intertwine. Valcour Aime purchased the tracts of land that now holds Oak Alley in 1820

and gave it to Jacques Télésphore Roman, his wife’s brother, in 1836 for an old Roman

family home (Bruno). From 1837 to 1839, Roman built a large Greek Revival home at

the end of the alley of oaks from a previous owner. Valcour Aime enjoyed competing

with his brother-in-law according to his diary and wanted to outdo Roman by building

“Le Petit Versailles” on the old Roman tract (Bruno). The forest grove that contains the

ruins of the garden can be seen just downriver from Felicite as the last vestige of estate

since the home burned in 1920.

Félicité Aime lived in the house named in her honor with her husband Septime

Fortier until sometime in the 1860s. Valcour Aime died in 1867 with his business and

property in disarray (Bruno). The property was acquired by the Bank of the Americas

and was eventually purchased in 1889 by Saturin Waguespack, “descendent of one of

Anthony DelRosario – Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture


the original settlers of the German Coast” (Bruno). However, according to an article in

The Advocate, “Joseph Waguespack bought the 1,200-acre Felicite plantation in 1899”

(Hunter).

According to Professor Cizek, Felicite, the wide center hall plantation house is

“as Greek Revival as it gets” with its perfect proportions. “The small scale and simple

elegance of this house is reminiscent of suburban houses of the period in New Orleans”

(Toledano 221). Over the years, the house has seen minor change to the exterior. The

rear gallery has been enclosed in one corner. I am somewhat surprised that the unique

Felicite has not been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places (Felicite has

been added to the National Register since the paper was written).

The house has gone through a great deal of restoration recently by Milton

Freewater Construction, the same company that has worked at Evergreen Plantation

and Laura Plantation (Fig. 7). Stephen Scott of Milton Freewater gave the class an

overview of the extensive work that the company has performed on the sills and rear

porch. The company had to replace over 250 feet of sills that had dry-rotted because

the space below the house had been enclosed with only a few small vents. The

company is working only on the exterior of the house (Fig. 5). Before the house can be

put into any kind of commercial use, the interior will also require much work. According

to Professors Cizek and Thomas, the owners are open to ideas that will generate

income to take care of the house. Possible options include renting the house for events

such as weddings and creating a bed and breakfast.



The situation at Felicite can be compared to that at Homeplace. Both are

wonderful plantation homes that have been virtually unmodified and contain much

potential. With Homeplace, the Keller Family is tending to the house but not financially

able to perform extensive work that would make the property commercially viable for

cultural tourism. On the other hand, with Felicite, the extended Waguespack Family and

the St. Joseph Planting and Manufacturing Co. Ltd. have the finances to have work

done on the house using historic methods and put the house into some tourism use in

the future.

Felicite can also be compared to Oak Alley. The work done by Milton Freewater

Construction at Felicite is quality work that will extend the life of the house. On the

other hand, the repair work at Oak Alley has been inappropriate using Portland cement

(Fig. 8) which has led to other damage in different parts of the house.

St. Joseph Plantation is adjacent to Felicite Plantation and was also part of

Valcour Aime family’s holdings. The house was built by Louis R. Scioneaux in the

1830s (Berteau). In 1842, Dr. Cazimir Mericq, formerly a surgeon in Napoleon’s army,

purchased the home after Valcour Aime summoned him to treat Creole plantation

owners and their slaves during a yellow fever epidemic (Berteau). After Mericq died in

1855, Alexis Ferry and his wife Josephine, daughter of Valcour Aime, acquired the

home and became neighbors with Aime’s other daughter, Félicité. The Ferrys fell into

debt after expanding the plantation and sold the property in 1873 to Edward Gay who

sold the plantation to Joseph Waguespack in 1877 (NRHP).



The Waguespack Family merged St. Joseph Plantation with Felicite Plantation in

either 1901 (Hunter) or 1907 (Bruno). The combined properties formed the St. Joseph

Planting and Manufacturing Corporation. The house at St. Joseph was occupied by

members of the Waguespack Family until the 1970s (Hunter). In 2002, the house was

renovated by 201 ancestors of Waguespack. Joan Boudreaux, great-great-great

granddaughter of Joseph Waguespack, states that “this is really a story of a family

project” and that “a family came together-even second, third and fourth cousins-from as

far away as California, Illinois and Tennessee, to save their heritage” (Hunter). The

house opened to tourists in 2004 and currently features exhibits about sugarcane

farming, noted architect Henry Hobson Richardson, Civil War-era medical practices,

and 19th Century mourning practices (Berteau).

St. Joseph can be compared to other plantations house tours such as Oak Alley,

Laura, and Destrehan. Joan Boudreaux said, “Some other plantations talk a lot about

the antebellum history and their timelines stop there, but our family has been here for

130 years. The timeline for our family had kept going to this day- and we’re proud of

that” (Hunter). The story presented at St. Joseph is not the “magnolias and moonlight”

feel of Oak Alley and Destrehan nor the robust story from personal memoirs of Laura.

Currently, the presentation at St. Joseph is somewhat lack luster. The displays about

sugarcane farming need better layout and more pizzazz. More emphasis should also

be placed on the history of H. H. Richardson who was born on a part of the plantation

that was Priestly Plantation. Richardson is the only American architect to have an

architectural style named for him – Richardsonian Romanesque (Masson). According

to Berteau, “a young architect who recently visited St. Joseph said she found her way



there to pay homage to Richardson.” The house has great potential given the

association with Richardson, the history of sugarcane farming, the fact that members of

the Waguespack Family are often the tour guide, and the current restoration of the St.

Joseph Planting and Manufacturing Corporation’s adjacent property, Felicite Plantation.


i PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – April 6, 2010

Sources

Berteau, Celeste. “Rambling Along the River, 1,000 acres of continuous sugarcane

production: St. Joseph Plantation Offers Look at Creole Life from 1830s.”

Preservation in Print. Volume 36, Number 9. September 2009. Pg. 21.

Bruno, Stephanie. “High Life on the Acadian Coast.” The Times-Picayune. August 6,

2005.

Hunter, Marc H. “’Family Project’ restores plantation.” The Advocate. April 18, 2005.

Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey Collection.

<http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/>

St. Joseph Plantation documentation, <http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/la0382>

Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation's National Register Website.

<http://crt.louisiana.gov/hp/nationalregister/historicplacesdatabase.aspx>.

Felicite Plantation House National Register document.

<http://crt.louisiana.gov/hp/nationalregister/nhl/document2.asp?

name=47021001.pdf>

St. Joseph Plantation House National Register document.

<http://crt.louisiana.gov/hp/nationalregister/nhl/document2.asp?

name=47020001pdf>

Masson, Ann. History of Architecture in the Americas II class notes. April 8, 2009.

Matrana, Marc R. Lost Plantations of the South. Jackson: University Press of

Mississippi, 2009.

Toledano, Roulhac B. "Louisiana's Golden Age: Valcour Aime in St. James Parish."

Louisiana History. 10. 3 (1969): 211-224.


ii PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – April 6, 2010

Images

Figure 1: Felicite Plantation house Figure 2: St. Joseph Plantation house

Figure 3: Felicite Plantation front elevation Figure 4: Felicite Plantation side elevation

Figure 5: Felicite Plantation, 2009 Figure 6: Felicite Plantation, 2010


iii PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – April 6, 2010

Figure 7: Felicite Plantation House repair work Figure 8: Oak Alley Plantation improper repair work

Figure 9: St. Joseph Plantation House front elevation Figure 10: St. Joseph Plantation House side elevation

Figure 11: St. Joseph Plantation company store Figure 12: St. Joseph Plantation House rear

All photographs were taken by the author. All drawings are by the author.


Field Studies 06 - Felicity and St Joseph

Documents

Transcript of Field Studies 06 - Felicity and St Joseph