Nydrie By Anne Butler The forty-third annual Audubon Pilgrimage March 21, 22 and 23, 2014, celebrates a southern spring in St. Francisville, the glorious garden spot of Louisiana’s English Plantation Country. For over four decades the sponsoring West Feliciana Historical Society has thrown open the doors of significant historic structures to commemorate artist-naturalist John James Audubon’s stay as he painted a number of his famous bird studies and tutored the daughter of Oakley Plantation’s Pirrie family, beautiful young Eliza. Carefully selected features this year illustrate the grand good luck of needy historic homes fortunate enough to fall into the hands of dedicated and knowledgeable preservationists, and Nydrie is surely a prime example, its name redolent of references to family connections with Scottish castles and Virginia thoroughbred stud farms. This handsome raised Creole cottage had been constructed in the 1850s in Tangipahoa near Camp Moore, Louisiana’s largest Confederate training camp, and was used as a hospital during the Civil War. For many years it was occupied by members of the Callihan and Powell families. Powell Casey, who was raised in the house, was an attorney and historian as well as the author of a number of books on Louisiana’s role in the War of 1812, the Civil War and World War II. The upper floor was the living space, while the open lower level, its walls of old brick upwards of 16” thick, was used as a rustic dirt-floored carriageway for wagons and buggies. When West Feliciana native Edward Daniel IV found the house advertised for sale in the Baton Rouge real estate listings, the lower level was being used for storing hay. In 1997, the upper floor of the house was cut in half and moved on two 18-wheelers to Daniel family property (originally part of Rosedown Plantation) just north of St. Francisville; the upper walls and floors, all of wood, proved to be in remarkably good condition, as were the upstairs doors. The hip roof, removed prior to the relocation, was replaced with a new gable one. The downstairs brick, some so old they had embedded animal footprints, were saved, cleaned, and reused in the new location in various ways. Today spacious rooms flank a wide center hallway on the upstairs “premier etage,” and the lower floor has been enclosed as well. Broad front stairs access the impressive entrance doorway on the upper gallery, and both front and rear porches overlook clipped lawns shaded by a multitude of magnolias, young live oak and crape myrtle trees. The house has been beautifully furnished with an eclectic collection reflecting the diverse tastes and extensive travels of the owners, and admirably settled into its new location with terraces of old brick, arbors hung with climbing roses and a parterre garden of beds lined with manicured boxwood. It is now the country home of Earl and Anne Strachan Eichins, New Orleanians who found shelter in St. Francisville after Hurricane Katrina. For tickets and tour information, contact West Feliciana Historical Society, Box 338, St. Francisville, LA 70775; phone 225-635-6330 or 225-635-4224; online audubonpilgrimage.info, email [email protected] . New this year is a package including daytime tours, all evening entertainment Friday and Saturday, and a Saturday picnic lunch. Tickets can be purchased at the Historical Society Museum on Ferdinand Street. For information on St. Francisville overnight accommodations, shops, restaurants, and recreation in the Tunica Hills, see stfrancisville.us, stfrancisville.net, or stfrancisvillefestivals
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 13:18:47 +0000
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