I used a my regular lens to start off with. Mike and I started out searching for unusual shots. Most people just take pictures of the beautiful Rotunda at the top of the second story. So the lady from the front desk kindly came over to explain to us that the best shot of the stained glass windows would be from the 7th or 8th stair up the staircase. We thanked her, and told her we would get to it when we were ready.
Then I turned and took this shot of the reflections of the staircase in a mirror.
And then up - to get this shot of the Flag
Upstairs there were two large rooms, one empty and the one below. Not sure which is the House and which the Senate.
A close up of the stained glass window.
Then Mike requested the lens I was using - so I took the fish eye he had been using. A very different take on the same window.
And the same room.
Then back into the rotunda. I had great fun trying different angles.
Just the floor - and my shoes.
Some famous Louisiana guy. Almost looks like he is on 1960's TV!
This is the ceiling of the empty room. The chandeliers looked like spiders.
A simple staircase.
And back to the grand staircase.
Back to the empty chamber.
A historical room.
They had set up a couple of spots for photo ops. See the hat at the bottom. You were to put on the hat and act political in front of the flags and Madelon and have your photo taken.
Then on to what we had planned for today. A meandering drive along River Road to pass all the great plantations between Baton Rouge and New Orleans situated along the Mississippi river.
A friend of ours had suggested this route and pointed out 2-3 plantations that would be fun to visit. If you look at the map 2nd photo down, you can see how many plantations there were. I was expecting a quaint drive with river views on one side and many mansions on the other. It was nothing like that!!! We drove by many, many fields of sugar cane. We passed by a couple of sugar refineries. The river side had a built up levee to keep the water from the Mississippi from flooding the area - we never saw the Mississippi! What we did see was more and more refineries with huge pipes over the road and the levies to carry their product to the waterfront for loading onto ships. If there wasn't a sugar cane field - it was some kind of factory one after another. We finally came to one of the plantations, Oak Alley, it looked very nice from a distance.
But we had squandered our time at the Old Capitol, and needed to keep going until we reached Laura Plantation. They don't let you do self-guided tours. As we were a little late for a scheduled tour - they caught us up with a large group. You really can't take good pictures as there are always too many people around. But you exchange that for a lot of information. Our young guide, Stephen, talked a mile a minute. Some of the people were complaining that he talked to fast - but he seemed determined to give us all the history he knew, which was a lot. He could have been an auctioneer!
If you blow up this photo you can see how narrow each plantation ended up being. This is because the first owner (like in New Mexico along the Rio Grande) would divide up his land between his children, and as this continued to happen, in each generation each section of land got narrower and narrower because all wanted the river front access.
The front porch of the Laura Mansion. As Stephen explained it, the trees in the front yard were planted in a way to cause the breezes from the Mississippi to be funneled towards the house. The house had many doors and window which could be opened and closed depending on where the family was at a particular time of the day to cause a pleasant breeze to flow into the area. So at night a different set of doors/windows were open to bring the breezes into the bedrooms.
This was the original couple who build up Laura Plantation.
They got very, very rich off the sugar and also sold cedar logs. All of the buildings on the plantations were built with cedar.
Because of the fire danger, it was a law in Louisiana at that time, that the kitchen could not be attached to the bedrooms. So the kitchens were always separate buildings. Apparently the lives of the cooks were not long lived - because of the dangers of fires.
This was the back of the Laura mansion
Then on to the slaves quarters. The sample we went into was a double or duplex as we would now say. Each single room would house 5-6 people. The room would be about 16 x 16 ft. That is not a lot of space for people. But they would not spend much time there. The food would be provided elsewhere - usually from those separate kitchens. Of-course they used outhouses. Most of the day they were working in the sugar cane fields.
After the Civil War most of the blacks were freed, but had no where to go. So they ended up continuing to work at the same plantation. Now they would be paid for their work. They were free to purchase more amenities for their homes. But, they were paid in tokens which they could only redeem at the company store. The stores would also (generously) give them lines of credit. So most of the time the freed slaves would end up deep in debt to the company store and could never leave the plantation. The notice below lists the freed slaves by name, and how much they would be paid.
Some of the supplies in a home.
The house below was build for Laura's mother when she retired. She always wanted to get off the plantation, but ended up running it for a very long time. At the end she divided the plantation between her two children. The daughter got sugar cane fields and the sugar cane factory. The son got the big house and some sugar cane fields. They hated each other So the daughter would not process her brothers sugar in her factories. He eventually had to build his own factory, after he lost a lot of money. Sibling rivalry!!
They have not restored this building yet.
After our visit here we headed for our airBNB in New Orleans.
that is fascinating about the multiple doors! The dome is really worth seeing, by look of the pictures.
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