Butler Greenwood Plantation

Butler Greenwood Plantation is a historic plantation complex in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, located on U.S. Route 61 approximately 1.4 miles north of St. Francisville. Although it is not a conventional consumer brand, the Butler Greenwood name functions as a heritage and hospitality identity associated with a historic house, gardens, tours, and overnight accommodation. The property is listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. The property’s documented history begins with Dr. Samuel Flower, a Quaker physician who moved from Pennsylvania to the Feliciana region during the 1770s, when Louisiana was under British control. Flower later treated Manuel Gayoso, the Spanish governor of the territory. After Flower’s death in 1813, his estate was divided among eight heirs. The residence near Bayou Sara went to his 20-year-old married daughter, Harriett Flower, who was married to George Mathews. Mathews held important judicial offices in the Mississippi and Orleans territories and became chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court after statehood. Harriett and George Mathews operated Butler Greenwood within the plantation economy of the antebellum South. Agricultural production included indigo, cotton, sugarcane, and corn, and the family used the forced labor of enslaved people. Their holdings expanded beyond the home place to include a sugar plantation in Lafourche Parish. By the 1850s, historical production estimates placed the family among Louisiana’s more productive sugar planters. The 1860 census recorded Harriett and her son Charles Lewis Mathews as planters. Butler Greenwood’s home-place operation covered approximately 1,400 acres and included 96 enslaved people living in 18 dwellings. That year’s reported output included cotton, corn, sugar, hogsheads of sugar, and molasses. The wider family holdings extended over substantially more land and involved several hundred enslaved workers. The Civil War and emancipation transformed the labor system: after the war, the home place was worked by a much smaller group of freedmen employed for wages. Today, Butler Greenwood remains associated with descendants of the original family. The property is described as the home of the seventh and eighth generations, including author Anne Butler and her daughter Chase Poindexter. Its principal house is a raised cottage-style structure containing family furnishings and decorative arts, including oil portraits, Brussels carpet, gilded pier mirrors, period beds, china, silver, a French Pleyel grand piano, and a Victorian formal parlor preserved with its original upholstery. The grounds include formal gardens and mature live-oak groves. A detached brick kitchen dating from the 1790s and a garden gazebo dating from the 1850s are among the notable surviving features. The property is open for guided house visits and offers overnight stays in bed-and-breakfast cottages on the grounds. Its present positioning combines historic preservation, interpretation of plantation architecture and material culture, family stewardship, garden tourism, and experiential lodging. Any public presentation of the site also requires attention to the history of slavery and coerced labor that supported the plantation economy in which Butler Greenwood operated.

Butler Greenwood Plantation developed from land associated with Dr. Samuel Flower, a Quaker physician who left Pennsylvania for the lower Mississippi region during the 1770s. At the time, the surrounding territory was under British authority. Flower established himself as a physician and later provided medical care to Manuel Gayoso, who served as governor during the period of Spanish administration. When Flower died in 1813, his estate was divided among eight heirs. The family holdings included thousands of arpents in the Feliciana and Rapides areas, land along Bayou Manchac, and property in the Mississippi Territory. The residence near Bayou Sara was assigned to Flower’s daughter Harriett, then a young married woman. Her husband, George Mathews, was a prominent judge who had served in the Mississippi Territory and the Territory of Orleans before becoming chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court after Louisiana entered the Union. Harriett and George Mathews made Butler Greenwood their home and operated it as part of a larger agricultural estate. Crops included indigo, cotton, sugarcane, and corn. The plantation economy depended on the forced labor of enslaved people, a central and inescapable part of the property’s history. Produce could be moved through the Bayou Sara waterfront, while the family also accumulated a productive sugar plantation in Lafourche Parish. Historical estimates place the Mathews family among the leading sugar producers in Louisiana during the 1850s. After Judge Mathews died in 1836, Harriett continued managing the plantations with assistance from her son Charles Lewis Mathews. The 1860 census identified both mother and son as planters. Butler Greenwood’s home place then encompassed about 1,400 acres, with 96 enslaved people housed in 18 dwellings. The recorded agricultural output included 130 bales of cotton, 2,000 bushels of corn, 175 hogsheads of sugar, and more than 10,000 gallons of molasses. The family’s additional plantations covered nearly 10,000 acres and involved approximately 400 enslaved workers. The Civil War and emancipation fundamentally altered the property’s labor structure. The postwar home-place workforce was much smaller, consisting of 27 freedmen working for monthly wages rather than the enslaved labor system that had supported antebellum production. The property subsequently became principally significant for its surviving house, landscape, architectural features, family continuity, and historical associations rather than as a large-scale agricultural enterprise. In the present day, Butler Greenwood is connected with the seventh and eighth generations of the family, including Anne Butler and her daughter Chase Poindexter. The raised cottage-style residence retains an extensive collection of furnishings and decorative objects, including portraits, carpets, mirrors, beds, china, silver, a French Pleyel grand piano, and a Victorian formal parlor whose matching pieces remain in their original upholstery. The surrounding grounds contain formal gardens, extensive live-oak plantings, a brick kitchen believed to date from the 1790s, and a garden gazebo from the 1850s. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and operates as a visitor destination. Public offerings include house tours and overnight accommodation in bed-and-breakfast cottages. Its current identity therefore rests on historic preservation, family interpretation, architectural tourism, and hospitality, while responsible interpretation must also address the enslaved labor and racial hierarchy that shaped its antebellum history.

• 1865

  Emancipation changes the labor system

  [1]Butler Greenwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  After the Civil War, the plantation’s formerly enslaved workforce is replaced by a much smaller group of freedmen working for wages.

• 1860

  Antebellum agricultural production documented

  [1]Butler Greenwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The census records Butler Greenwood as a 1,400-acre plantation with 96 enslaved people and substantial cotton, corn, sugar, and molasses production.

• 1836

  George Mathews dies

  [1]Butler Greenwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  After Judge George Mathews’s death, Harriett continues managing the plantation interests with assistance from her son Charles Lewis Mathews.

• 1813

  Flower estate is divided among heirs

  [1]Butler Greenwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Following Samuel Flower’s death, his extensive estate is divided among eight heirs, with the Butler Greenwood residence assigned to his daughter Harriett Flower.

• 1770

  Samuel Flower establishes himself in the region

  [1]Butler Greenwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Quaker physician Samuel Flower relocates from Pennsylvania to the Feliciana region during the period of British control and begins the family association with the property.

• Property becomes a heritage and lodging destination

  [1]Butler Greenwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The family opens the historic residence for tours and provides overnight stays in cottages on the grounds.

A family-maintained historic property positioned as a Louisiana plantation-house museum and heritage lodging destination, combining architectural interpretation, historic collections, gardens, and overnight accommodation.

• Heritage tourism

  Historic house tours

  Guided visits to the raised cottage-style plantation residence, presenting its architecture, family history, furnishings, decorative arts, and preserved interior spaces. The experience is centered on the house as a historic property rather than on a mass-market branded product.

• Hospitality

  Bed-and-breakfast cottages

  Overnight accommodation located on the plantation grounds. The cottages extend the site’s heritage-tourism offer by allowing visitors to stay within the historic landscape while visiting the house, gardens, and surrounding St. Francisville area.

• Cultural attraction

  Historic gardens and grounds

  The plantation grounds include formal gardens, extensive live-oak groves, a detached brick kitchen dating from the 1790s, and a garden gazebo associated with the 1850s. These landscape and outbuilding features form part of the visitor experience.

1. 1Butler Greenwood Plantationen.wikipedia.org