Laura Plantation Louisiana – Laura Creole Plantation

Laura, A Creole Plantation

The Laura Plantation's award-winning 70-minute guided tour offers professional interpreters, within 70 minutes, who will expose you to compelling; real-life accounts of generations of owners, women, slaves and children who called this typical Creole sugarcane farm their home..

The guided tour is based upon 5,000 pages of documents related to this plantation discovered in the Archives Nationales in Paris, with the major stories coming from Laura Locoul Gore's own Memories of the Old Plantation Home.

The guided tour starts with a visit through the Maison Principale, built in 1805. Visitors will venture into its raised basement galleries, into men's and women's chambers, service rooms and common rooms. Even though you will see Laura's family heirlooms and their Creole furnishings, this portion of the tour spotlights the charmed but tragic lives of the plantation's inhabitants. Visitors are introduced to age-old Creole traditions and the skilled workmanship of enslaved artisans.

Your admission includes:

A guided tour based on Laura Locoul's Memories of the Old Plantation Home.
A guided tour of the newly restored Big House, its raised basement and galleries, men's and women's parlors, service rooms and common rooms.
A guided tour of the 200-year-old sugar plantation homestead with a visit into the 3 gardens: Jardin Francais, the kitchen Potager & Banana and grove.
A guided tour inside one of our slave cabins, built in 1840, where the ancient west-African tales of Compare Lapin, better known in English as "Br'er Rabbit," were recorded. On the grounds are 12 buildings on the National Register, including animal barns, overseers' cottages and the 1829 Maison de Reprise.
Free parking and entrance to the Laura Plantation Store.
Group Rates and Specialty Themed Tours are available daily by reservation.

Laura stands in the heart of New Orleans Plantation Country. While you are in the area, enjoy our neighboring attractions, accommodations and local Creole & Cajun cuisine that Louisiana's Great River Road has waiting for you!

For more information on Laura, a Creole Plantation, visit http://www.lauraplantation.com/.

Tour Schedule & Cost
Laura Plantation is open daily for guided tours except for the following Creole holidays:

New Year's Day
Mardi Gras Day
Easter Sunday
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day

Tours are scheduled throughout the day to begin at the following times:
10:00 a.m.    12:30 p.m.
10:40 a.m.    1:10 p.m.
11:15 a.m.    1:45 p.m.
11:55 a.m.    2:20 p.m.
3:00 p.m.
Last tour begins: 4:00 p.m.

Laura: A Creole Plantation is open for guided tours only. Visitors must have an admission ticket to take the tour, and they must remain with their guide at all times. Admission tickets are available daily at the Ticket Office in the Laura Plantation Store.

Individual Admission Rate:
Adult: $15.00
Student (Ages 6-17): $5.00
Child (Age 0-5): Free
AAA Adult: $13.00
Nat'l Trust Adult: $13.00
Military Adult: $13.00
We Save Adult: $13.00

If you are planning to visit with 20 or more people, tour reservations are required. Group rates apply for reserved groups of 20+ persons. It is strongly advised that reservations be booked at least 30 days in advance of your visit. Tour escorts, drivers and guides are admitted free. Laura Plantation also offers customized tours for elementary, middle school and high school student groups. For reservations and further information about group tours and school group tours, please contact Jay Schexnaydre: 225-265-7690

Group Rates:
Adults: $12.00
Children (ages 6-17): $5.00

School Group Rates:
Student: $5.00
Adult Chaperone: $12.00

History

Originally known as DuParc, the plantation was established in 1755. Guillaume Duparc's sugar farming complex was originally called l'habitation Duparc, then, years later, renamed the Laura Plantation. At its largest size, it was approximately 12,000 acres, which included properties amassed over time. Construction of Duparc's manor house began in 1804 and completed 11 months later. The plantation complex includes the "big house," several outbuildings, six original slave quarters and a second house.

After Duparc's death, his widow, Nanette Pru'homme, managed the plantation for 25years. Nanette was the first of four generations of women who would operate the plantation. Each generation of the family cleared more land and expanded the acreage of cultivated crops. Through births and purchases, the slave population grew to nearly 200. The plantation became a self-contained village with a sugar mill, dairy, blacksmith shop, large kitchen, smokehouses, barns, overseer cottages and 64 slave cabins.

Laura Locoul Gore was the fourth mistress of the plantation. She was born in the house in 1861. She inherited it and ran it as a sugar business until 1891. She sold the plantation to the St. James Sugar Cooperative, with the condition the plantation always be called Laura.