Old Baton Rouge Capitol and River Road Plantations

Monday when we spent time on the Mississippi riverfront in Baton Rouge, are hope was to see the Old and the New Capitol buildings.  Unfortunately, like a lot of museums, it was closed on Mondays.  We heard that it was a sight not to be missed, so we decided to do it first thing on Tuesday when it opened at 10am. 

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. 

 Here is my shot from "the perfect spot".  Not bad!

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. 

 Here is the dining room - with the whole tour group.

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.  

Baton Rouge, La Fun

We have one full day in Baton Rouge. 

But first, our breakfast in Baton Rouge.  It was spit in rain when we arrived the night before.  So we did not go to a grocery store.  Just went to our Airbnb apartment.  It was not fun getting our luggage and other stuff into the apartment in the pouring rain.  But we made it.  But we had no bread.  Mike had brought pretzels from home - so that is what we ate.

Tuesday, our plan was to go to the old Capitol and the new Capitol and spend time on the waterfront.  But - the most important thing to see is the old Capitol and it was closed today.  It is just across the street from the Riverfront Plaza where we went.  There are railroad tracks next to the river - so you have to climb stairs up and over the tracks and then down again.  This is more work, but you do get some good views of the old capitol and other things, so all is not lost.  We walked along the Mississippi river - Mike searching for coffee.  But, alas, none was to be found.  There is an interesting structure at the end of a wharf.  We also met a young man from Alberta Canada who was basically traveling to the states we want to see, except he started in Canada so saw a lot more of the US.  And he left his family behind and is traveling by himself - thus doing all the driving himself.  Another fellow traveler who has been to a lot of places all over the world.  I wish I would have taken a picture of him.  Then as we waked along the waterfront we met another couple of fellow tourists -also from Canada.  And those are the only tourist we saw all day!

First thing we saw was the picture window display of the planets from the planetarium. 

Then on to the wharf.

A view of the bridge, part of hwy 10

The old capitol - looks like a castle to a lot of people.

The passage way to a casino on a boat.

The new capitol.  Review say it is now that interesting to see.  So we did not go in.

On to the LSU Rural Life Museum.  Several different styles of homes based on where the immigrant was from. 

View of an outhouse.  I think I remember having a moon on the outhouse on our farm.  We did not have indoor plumbing until I was about 6.

An Assemblies of God Church.

I found this interesting as the steps to the loft are outside.  Mom drew a sketch of the house that was Grandma Fasts favorite home in Sully County, SD.  They also had a loft room where the boys bunked.  There was no heat - that is usual.  But the stairs to the loft were inside the house.  The girls had a room downstairs.  In Mom's case, she, her sister Mary and sister, Tilly shared a bed in a room downstairs.  The 7 brothers were upstairs in the loft.

An unusual slave quarters.  A double pen - most were singles.  Two families shared this.  Each family had one room.

 This is part of the blacksmith shop.

This is the display in the school house.  The overseer's children as well as freed black men's children could attend.  The Plantation owner's children would have private tutors.

They had a huge display of old carriages.

With one weaving loam.

An old Ford car.

One of the first refrigerators.

We went to Crawfords restaurant for a late lunch.  The catfish was the best part of the meal.  Then headed for a grocery store.  We got what we needed, but arrived at our car just in time for the first drops of rain to fall.  It was pouring by the time we reached our apartment.  So we got wet again!  We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and doing laundry.  Tomorrow we are off to New Orleans!