Built 1850 Opened 1850 Added to NRHP 24 March 1978 | NRHP Reference # 78001426 Area 4.978 km² Nearest city Thibodaux | |
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Architectural style Renaissance, Queen Anne Similar Laurel Valley Village St, Wetlands Acadian Cultural, Dansereau House, Bayou Lafourche, Bayou Country children's | ||
Laurel Valley Sugar Plantation is located in Thibodaux, Louisiana. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Contents
History
The plantation was owned by Joseph Tucker, a Virginian, who bought more than 50,000 acres of land along Bayou Lafourche. The earliest structures on the property date to the 1830s. It was at one time the largest producer of sugar in Lafourche Parish, and a mill was built on the property for this purpose. As many as 135 slaves lived and worked on the property prior to the Civil War. While the main house built by Tucker was destroyed during the Civil War, shotgun houses and Creole cabins remain on the property. The mill stopped production in the 1930s, and sustained significant damage during Hurricane Betsy in 1965.
Laurel Valley today
With over fifty original structures remaining it is the largest surviving 19th and 20th century sugar plantation complex left in the United States and is still a working sugarcane farm. The general store on the property is open to the public, displaying tools and farm implements used in the cultivation of sugar cane as well as locally made arts and crafts. Laurel Valley was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 24, 1978.
Popular culture
Several movies have been filmed at Laurel Valley, including Angel Heart, Crazy in Alabama, A Gathering of Old Men, Interview with the Vampire, A Lesson Before Dying, Double Exposure: The Story of Margaret Bourke-White, and Ray.