Rosedown Plantation

Rosedown Plantation is a historic house, landscape, and former cotton plantation near St. Francisville in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. The property is now preserved and interpreted as Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site. Its principal house was commissioned by Daniel Turnbull and Martha Barrow Turnbull and constructed in 1834–1835 by enslaved laborers under the Turnbulls’ control. The complex is particularly notable for the survival of its architecture, furnishings, outbuildings, and formal gardens, making it one of the most extensively documented plantation landscapes in the southern United States. The approximately 8,000-square-foot house occupies a prominent position on a bluff above Alexander Creek. Designed in a transitional Federal and Greek Revival idiom, it has a two-story main block, a broad gallery with Doric columns, elaborate elliptical-arch entrances, and later side wings. Cypress and cedar used in the original construction were largely milled on the property. Additions made during the nineteenth century included brick side wings, porticoes, service facilities, and rooms adapted to the needs of the Turnbull family and their household. Rosedown’s historical importance is inseparable from the plantation economy and the system of slavery that financed and sustained it. At the height of Daniel Turnbull’s operations, he enslaved hundreds of people across his plantations, with approximately 250 people working at Rosedown itself according to historical accounts. Cotton production, forced labor, and the management of a large agricultural estate shaped the property’s architecture, gardens, material culture, and social history. After the Civil War, the family could no longer rely on enslaved labor and used approximately 250 sharecroppers in the postwar operation. The property is best known publicly for its gardens. The present grounds include roughly 371 acres, with about 18 acres of ornamental gardens arranged in formal Baroque, English, and mixed styles. The gardens reflect the European Grand Tour undertaken by the Turnbulls and the horticultural interests of Martha Turnbull, who maintained a detailed garden diary over many decades. A long oak allée leads from a Greek Revival gate to the house, while parterres, paths, gazebos, fountains, a reservoir, an underground hothouse, and collections of ornamental plants organize the landscape. Camellias, azaleas, roses, and other specimens were documented as early as the 1830s. The house retains or interprets a substantial collection of historic furnishings and decorative materials, including imported objects from Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Europe. Interior features include French-style planning, block-printed wallpaper attributed to Joseph Dufour et Cie of Paris, an elliptical mahogany staircase, formal entertaining rooms, a library, a dining-room punkah, and family bedrooms. Some furnishings associated with the property were later sold, including a large rosewood Gothic Revival bed that was acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art. Following the deaths of the Turnbull descendants, the property was sold in 1956 to Catherine Fondren Underwood and Milton Underwood. They undertook an extensive eight-year restoration while the surrounding estate continued to function as a cattle farm. Rosedown opened to the public in 1964. In 2000, the Louisiana Office of State Parks acquired the plantation and made it a state historic site. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005. Today, Rosedown functions primarily as a heritage and educational attraction, presenting the architecture, landscape design, material culture, and contested history of a nineteenth-century Louisiana plantation.

Rosedown was assembled through seven land purchases made by Daniel Turnbull from the 1820s through the 1840s. Unlike many nearby estates whose titles originated in Spanish colonial land grants, the Rosedown tract was built up incrementally by the Turnbull family. Daniel and Martha Turnbull began construction of the principal residence in November 1834, and the house was completed in May 1835. The reported construction cost was $13,109.20, while the labor and agricultural wealth supporting the estate depended on slavery. The Turnbulls named the property after a play they encountered during their honeymoon. Before the Civil War, Daniel Turnbull became one of the region’s most prosperous cotton planters. At its largest extent, Rosedown encompassed approximately 3,455 acres, most of which was devoted to cotton. Historical accounts state that Turnbull enslaved 444 people across his holdings, with roughly 250 assigned to Rosedown during peak operations. Enslaved people constructed, maintained, and serviced the house, gardens, agricultural facilities, and wider plantation system. The residence was designed in a transitional Federal–Greek Revival style, with a two-story central block, a gallery supported by Doric columns, and finely detailed entrances. T. S. Williams added brick side wings in 1845. The interior followed a French or early Louisiana plan rather than the central-hall arrangement common in many American houses. Its rooms combined imported furnishings with regionally produced materials and included formal public rooms, service areas, a library used by Turnbull as an office, and bedrooms for the family and guests. The gardens developed alongside the house. Martha Turnbull directed much of their cultivation and recorded plant purchases and horticultural work in a garden diary. The layout drew on French, Italian, and English examples that the Turnbulls had seen during a European tour. The grounds included a long oak allée, geometric parterres, winding paths, gazebos, ornamental plantings, and supporting facilities such as a hothouse and tool shed. Marble sculptures purchased in Italy in 1851 once formed part of the landscape, although the statues currently displayed along the allée are later replacements or approximations. The family’s succession shaped the property during the mid-nineteenth century. The Turnbulls had three children, although their son James Daniel died of yellow fever in 1843. Their son William died in a boating accident in 1856, leaving their daughter Sarah and her husband, James Pirrie Bowman, to inherit the plantation. The Bowmans had a large family, and in 1859 Daniel and Martha Turnbull moved into a rear wing to make room for them. Daniel Turnbull died in 1861, the year Louisiana joined the Confederacy and the American Civil War began. War damaged Rosedown and other Turnbull properties. After emancipation, Martha Turnbull managed the estate under radically changed labor conditions. The plantation could no longer operate through enslaved labor and instead relied on sharecropping, with historical accounts describing approximately 250 sharecroppers working the property. Martha died in 1896. Sarah retained the property until her death in 1914, after which four unmarried daughters—Corrie, Isabel, Sarah, and Nina—managed the estate. During the 1920s, the sisters began receiving visitors interested in the surviving material remains of the region’s cotton-plantation culture. Their efforts helped keep the house and grounds intact, although maintaining the property required significant personal sacrifice. Nina, the last surviving sister, died in 1955. At that time, the family still held about 3,000 acres, as well as the furnished residence, and had reportedly left no outstanding bills or mortgages on the property. In 1956, the heirs sold Rosedown to oil heiress Catherine Fondren Underwood and her husband, Milton Underwood. The Underwoods initiated an eight-year restoration costing approximately $10 million, restoring the house and gardens while operating the wider property as a cattle farm. Rosedown opened to the public in 1964. The restoration included work on the garden framework and ancillary buildings; landscape architect Ralph Ellis Gunn restored the gardens in 1956 and introduced features such as a reservoir and fountains while attempting to preserve the historic character of the grounds. The Louisiana Office of State Parks acquired Rosedown in 2000 and established it as a state historic site. The state’s interpretation presents the house, gardens, and associated buildings as evidence of nineteenth-century plantation life while also documenting the central role of slavery and agricultural labor in creating and sustaining the estate. Rosedown received National Historic Landmark designation in 2005. It remains a publicly interpreted historic property and a significant destination within Louisiana’s plantation and garden tourism landscape.

• 2005

  National Historic Landmark designation

  [1]Rosedown Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Rosedown Plantation was designated a National Historic Landmark in recognition of its architecture, landscape, historical documentation, and preservation significance.

• 2000

  Acquired by Louisiana state parks

  [1]Rosedown Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The Louisiana Office of State Parks purchased Rosedown and established it as a state historic site.

• 1964

  Opened to the public

  [1]Rosedown Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Following the Underwoods’ restoration, the house opened for public visitation.

• 1956

  Private restoration begins

  [1]Rosedown Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Catherine Fondren Underwood and Milton Underwood purchased Rosedown and began an extensive restoration of the house and gardens.

• 1851

  Italian garden sculptures acquired

  [1]Rosedown Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The Turnbulls purchased twelve statues in Italy for the formal landscape during their period of European-inspired garden development.

• 1845

  Brick side wings added

  [1]Rosedown Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  T. S. Williams added one-story brick wings with Greek Revival end porticoes to the main residence.

• 1835

  Principal house completed

  [1]Rosedown Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Daniel and Martha Turnbull completed the main Rosedown residence after construction began in November 1834. The house was built by enslaved laborers under the Turnbulls’ control.

A preservation-focused cultural heritage site distinguished by an unusually intact antebellum house, extensive formal gardens, original or historically associated furnishings, and interpretation of plantation life and slavery in nineteenth-century Louisiana.

• Historic-house interpretation · 1835

  Rosedown historic house

  The approximately 8,000-square-foot main residence is a transitional Federal–Greek Revival building with a two-story gallery, Doric columns, elaborate entrance detailing, French-influenced room planning, historic wallpaper, a mahogany staircase, formal entertaining rooms, service areas, and family bedrooms. It is presented as the architectural centerpiece of the state historic site.

• Historic landscape · 1836

  Formal gardens

  Rosedown’s gardens cover approximately 18 acres within a larger 371-acre historic property. They combine formal Baroque geometry with English-style winding paths, an oak allée, parterres, gazebos, fountains, a reservoir, ornamental plantings, and an underground hothouse. Their design reflects the Turnbulls’ European travels and Martha Turnbull’s long-term horticultural management.

• Museum collection and site interpretation · 1835

  Historic furnishings and outbuildings

  The site interprets furnishings and domestic objects associated with the plantation, including imported goods from Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Europe. Ancillary resources include a doctor’s office in a Greek temple style, privy, milk house, wood shed, barn, kitchen facilities, and other structures illustrating the operation of the estate.

• 2000

  Transfer to Louisiana Office of State ParksM&A

  Background

  After decades of private ownership and public visitation, Rosedown required an institutional preservation framework.

  Action taken

  The Louisiana Office of State Parks purchased the plantation and designated it a state historic site.

  Aftermath

  Rosedown became part of Louisiana’s public historic-site system and continued operating as a heritage and educational destination.

  Source

• 1956

  Comprehensive restoration and public-opening strategyStrategy

  Background

  After acquiring Rosedown, Catherine Fondren Underwood and Milton Underwood sought to restore the house and formal gardens while retaining the property’s agricultural setting.

  Action taken

  They undertook an eight-year restoration and subsequently opened the residence to public visitors in 1964.

  Aftermath

  The work preserved the property as a visitor attraction and established the modern public-facing model later continued by Louisiana State Parks.

  Reported restoration expenditure. $10 million (Eight-year restoration beginning in 1956)

  Source

1. 1Rosedown Plantationen.wikipedia.org