Plantation Landscape

Plantations resembled small towns with numerous buildings surrounded by fields, pastures, and gardens, and planters added, re-purposed, or removed buildings as the plantation’s needs changed. The original outbuildings were where generations of people lived and worked. An 1858 map shows many buildings on the plantation and possibly not all of its structures, with the Quarters shown as a stylized grid of twenty-four cabins. Notably absent is the steamboat landing that likely stood on the riverbank near the baled cotton storage and the kiln for the brickworks. Today, the Pigeonnier, Blacksmith’s Shop, Hospital, Cotton Gin, and eight cabins of the Quarters survive. The Store, built after the Civil War, replaced the Saw Mill, and the planter’s "Dwelling," which burned in 1864, was rebuilt in the 1890s.

Montgomery, Louisiana · United States