Greenwood Plantation Manor, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana File prepared by Jan McCoy and submitted by Donald W. Johnson ------------------------------------------------------------------ ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------ GREENWOOD PLANTATION MANOR Built 1830 Greenwood, the most magnificent example of the Classic Revival arch- itecture in Louisiana, is a poem in architecture. Nowhere in the entire South is there to be found a place so restful and so beautiful. William Ruffin Barrow, cultured gentlemen planter, a member of that distinguished family who were to build so many fine homes in Louisiana, came from the Northern part of Carolina to this state and located in West Feliciana Parish shortly after 1803. Selecting a tract of 12,000 acres in the most beautiful section of the Feliciana country, he at once set his slave to work building brick kilns, cutting lumber and getting ready for the mansion he planned to build. When completed Greenwood with its twenty-eight massive columns, its wide surrounding porches, its splendid cornice, surmounted by a great obser- vatory, was fine indeed. From this observation post he could readily survey his estates of twelve thousand acres at will, and know what was going on in the various parts of the plantation. In the center of this great mansion from front to rear extends a very wide hall seventy feet long at the rear of which a splendid mahogany stair- way winds to the floor above. A beautiful black marble having Ionic columns, above which was a large mirror in ornate gold leaf frame. This mantel is one of the many lovely ones, each of which originally was surmounted by mirrors equally as handsome. Greenwood was about four years in building, and quantities of costly wood-work and other materials were brought from the North for the interior finish. The mansion stood complete according in year 1831, when attention was given to the additional building attached to the plantation. The immediate grounds about the mansion were planned as a deer park with an artifiicial lake in which the mansion might be reflected. Here grew a variety of water plants among which swans and other aquatic birds sported. Some distance in front of this deer park a private race-track was laid out, and here a great many races with the aristocracy as spectators took place with fortunes chang- ing hands. Far to the right was laid out the slave village, remote enough from the house to avoid odors being carried from the quarters to the mansion by the wind. Here a hundred brick cabins, a church, a hospital, a place for amuse- ments, bath,etc., needed by such a colony, were found. Large sunken brick- lined clusters dotted the grounds in goodly number to furnish good water at all times. A great coach house, stable, kitchen and smoke house - in fact some forty extra buildings are recorded as being completed according to the original plans. Most of these buildings were construced of brick, some of Greek Revival design. Like a great English palace in all its glory, each formed a part of the original ensemble when Greenwood Plantation stood complete. When the Union soldier blew up the sugar houses and cotton gins, most of these buildings were destroyed after their contents had been carried away. When the plantation buildings were all finshed, Mr. Barrow and his family gave a series of entertainments that recalled the ones given in the palatial homes of the old Cavalier Families of Carolina and Virginia. Wealth poured into the coffers of the planters, cotton and sugar bring- ing fabulous prices, with England clamoring for more cotton for her mills. The great estates of England were being divided making room for the cotton mills that were springing up on all sides. New Orleans, Bayou Sara, Natchez and Vicksburg - all were busy with shipping plantation products and every one apparently making money. Gradually the war clouds gathered, and Judah P. Benjamin, the able United States Sentor from Louisiana, also a planter and close friend of the owner of Greenwood Plantation advised Mr. Barrow to dispose of his large holding even if he had to do it at a great sacrifice. Noting that matters were getting worse, after a consulation with the different members of his family, Mr. Barrow decided to follow his friend's advice. Finding Major Reed anxious to possess Greenwood, reserving a few articles, he sold the place intact to Major Reed who with his son, an able planter, was able to hold on to Green- wood Plantation until the latter part of the war. Learning that plantations were being swept clean of their contents and realizing that Greenwood's turn would soon come. Major Reed sold what cattle and other products that he could. But to protect his beautiful home and its contents seemed an impossible task. Finally he had all of his valuable possessions boxed and crated and shipped to New Orleans where they were put in storage. After the fall of New Orleans, Ben Butler seized all the movable property he desired, shipping immense quantities of solid silver table services, barrels of silver spoons (gaining for him the name of "Silver Spoon" Butler) and other valuables to the North. Confiscating the contents of banks, he proceeded to claim bank funds out in the state. As the Federal troops advanced upon Greenwood, the owner having learned that his belongings stored in the city had been confiscated, General Butler felt sure that Greenwood would be burned, and he fled to a thicket to watch the destruction of his beautiful home. But after veiwing the mansion, the Union Officers decided that it would make a good hospital, so spared the building. But everything that could be carried away from the plantation was taken. With the freeing of the slaves, it was impossible to maintain such an enormous place. The Reeds finally seeing no possibility of holding on to it, disposed of the mansion and estates to the present owner Mr. and Mrs. Frank Percy. They have restored the place to its present beautiful condition, and furnished it splendidly with appropriate belongings and many fine antiques, many of them heirlooms from both sides of their families. The Percy family, another distinguished plantation family of the Feliciana area, is related to many noted families in the state. They are a cultured people, descending from Robert Percy of Shenandoah Valley, who built Beechwood Manor which he had laid out in 1804 on Little Bayou Sara, then a thriving place. Beechwood Manor has been replaced with a simpler country home and is at the present, the country residence of Mr. and Mrs J. Hereford Percy who live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In olden days, Beechwood Plantation was a rallying ground for the patricain families of the vicinty. Its history is closely interwoven with that of Audubon, and with the romance of beautiful, vivacious Eliza Pirrie, who eloped with her cousin, the hand- some young Robert Hillard Barrow, son of the man for whom magnificent Green- wood manor was built. After the elopement, Audubon, who had been teaching Miss Pirrie, left Oakley, Miss Pirrie's plantation home, and became the tutor of the Percy children. Mrs. Audubon later enjoyed the hospitality of the Percy family while the naturalist sought a publisher in London. Greenwood Manor has been restored beautifully, and it has again become one of the most charming plantation homes in Louisiana.