San Francisco Plantation was built in 1856 by Edmond
Bozonier Marmillon. It is the most distinctive and only authentically
restored plantation on the River Road. It features five artistically
hand painted ceilings, faux marbling, and faux wood graining throughout
and antique furniture by master craftsman John Henry Belter.
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| Edmond Marmillion |
Although the house, in St. John-the-Baptist Parish,
Louisiana, is antebellum in a chronological sense, it is certainly
not typical of the period. Its style and coloration are totally distinctive.
The house is so distinctive, in fact,
that it inspired novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes to write "Steamboat
Gothic", a story about a family she imagined lived there. Viewed
from some angles, the house closely resembles the ornate and yet graceful
superstructure of a Mississippi riverboat.
There seems to be no link with California; the Marmillions
were undoubtedly Louisiana French and their travels would traditionally
have taken them to Europe, on the Grand Tour, rather than westward.
The most important period in the history of the mansion
was the time of prosperity in the late Eighteen Fifties, when the
intricate decorating and remodeling were undertaken. Little was done
after that, until the Bougère period. The Bougères,
who had a larger family, added two bedrooms on the first floor and
removed some of the large doors in the main entrance. The stairways
were partitioned and gas lights were installed. Some redecorating
was done.
The
Ory family purchased the property in 1904, and added a kitchen and
bathrooms but fortunately undertook few other alterations.
As a result of the Great Flood of 1927 the Army Corps
of Engineers constructed the present standard levee and completed
it by 1932. Local residents were among persons who lobbied the Louisiana
legislature to pass a measure that would save as many plantations
along the River Road as possible. Fortunately, the Corps was able
to curve the levee around San Francisco at the time it was owned by
the Ory family. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic
Places in 1974 when the San Francisco Plantation Foundation began
restoration.
In
1954, the Ory family leased the house to Mr. and Mrs. Clark Thompson
who maintained the premises and opened the mansion to the public.
In 1974 Mrs. Thompson, by then widowed, moved out
so that structural restoration could begin after ECOL and later Marathon
Oil Company had purchased the property.
As scientific analysis of materials and structure,
along with archival research, wound back the clock , it was decided
to focus on the golden years just before the War Between the States.
The San Francisco Plantation House and its memories
are now locked in time just prior to the War Between the States, when
the house was at the height of its splendor.
