Then we went on down river and toured Melrose Plantation. It was built by a freed slave woman. A very rare and remarkable woman by the name of Marie Thereze Coin-Coin. She also owned slaves on her plantation, if fact she was one of the largest slave owners of the area who was herself an ex-slave.
The first structure was built in 1796 and the walls were built Creole fashion with “bousillage”, which was mud, animal hair and Spanish moss packed between cypress supports. Amazing that it is still standing today. This regions adobe. The use of the cypress made them very strong. Bousillage is still used today. This first structure was called Yucca House and was the main house until 1833 when the current house, Melrose, was built. It 
started out just four rooms with the walls being the bousillage. Over the years the house was added on to. As with all these 18th and 19th century homes the kitchens were always detached, fear of fire being the primary cause. The subsequent owners all had interesting stories too. In the economic upheaval of the 1840’s the plantation passed to white ownership. It was bought by the Hertzogs who in turn lost it in the aftermath of the Civil war. In 1884 Joseph Henry acquired the plantation. At the turn of the century, 1899, Melrose became the home of Joseph’s son John Hampton Henry and Cammie Garrett Henry. It was a dream come true for Miss Cammie who loved the plantation. After the death of her husband in 1917 Miss Cammie made Melrose a haven for artists and writers. She had moved historical cottages and buildings onto the property, restored them and used them for lodging of the artists. The artists were allowed to live there free of room and board as long as they created daily. If they didn’t work on their particular art they had to leave. At dinner daily they were asked what they had done that day.
Miss Cammie herself was very important in addition to her support of artists in that she revived the plantation gardens, rescued colonial buildings and she was an avid collector of news clippings and articles of anything that interested her. She built a very large collection of scrapbooks that is now housed and used by historians at the local college.
During Miss Cammie’s time there was a field hand and cook at Melrose, Clementine Hunter,
one of the plantation’s most celebrated residents. She didn’t start painting until she was in her 50’s. Her story was interesting. She started her first painting with discarded tubes of paint left behind by one of the artists at Melrose. She would paint on whatever she had, cardboard, an old windowshade and she painted the people, life and scenes of the Cane River area. She was considered a primitive folk artist
and she would sell her stuff for a quarter, on up to five dollars. Clementine painted until a few months before her death in 1988 and she was 101! Her paintings were on display at the plantation and now her work is very valuable. Hundreds of thousands of dollars for some of them. Some are even in the Smithsonian. When asked why she had a rooster pulling the wagon of cotton, she said she was just tired of painting horses!One of the tour guides was a lovely woman who was quite the character. In fact she was such a character that she was an extra in the movie Steel Magnolia’s. She played the mother
of the groom. Steel Magnolia’s author lives in the Natchitoches area and the characters of the story are all real people of the area and much of the film was filmed at various places around town. There is a Steel Magnolia tour where you can see all the locations and the “homes” of the stories characters in the movie.So that was our day, an immersion in local history. It was nice to learn about Louisiana in the off season and in an area that isn’t as crazy with crowds as the south-coastal areas. The people are very nice and we really enjoyed our short jaunt across the state.
This is a crepe myrtle. They are everywhere in the south too and stunning!
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