page_title: Laura Plantation
section_title: Fire of 2004
hierarchical_section_title: Laura Plantation / Architecture / Fire of 2004
caption_attribution_description: Laura Plantation, St. James Parish, Louisiana. Plantation house from back side. Photo by Infrogmation, 2002
context_page_description: Laura Plantation is a restored historic Louisiana Creole plantation on the west bank of the Mississippi River near Vacherie, Louisiana, open for guided tours. Formerly known as Duparc Plantation, it is significant for its early 19th-century Créole-style raised big house and several surviving outbuildings, including two slave cabins. It is one of only 15 plantation complexes in Louisiana with this many complete structures. Because of its historical importance, the plantation is on the National Register of Historic Places. The site, in St. James Parish, Louisiana, is also included on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.
  Alcée Fortier, who later became Professor of Romance Languages and folklore at Tulane University, was said to have collected Louisiana Creole versions of the West African Br'er Rabbit stories here in the 1870s.
  The parents and family of U.S. singer-songwriter Fats Domino had lived on the plantation.
context_section_description: On August 9, 2004, the plantation house was significantly damaged by an electrical fire which destroyed 80% of the house, including the kitchen wing behind the house.  The left half of the house survived, but even the elevated foundation of the right side was burned. Restoration work was completed in 2006, despite the interruption of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The ashes of the kitchen wing were cleared, but the back wing was not rebuilt. Instead, the back corners of the house were capped with old gray boards to indicate where two back wings of the house had existed when Laura Locoul, the last DuParc descendant, sold the plantation in 1891.
caption: Back of house, showing kitchen wing (in 2002), which burned in the fire of 2004.
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