Monday, November 25, 2013

Bon Séjour/Oak Alley Plantation 1837-1839 part 3 The interior

The Parlor furnished with 1830's Louis Philippe furniture 

Bon Séjour/Oak Alley Plantation was built for Jacques Telesphore Roman and Celina Pilie, both from prosperous New Orleans Creole families. Jacques is said to have engaged Celia's farther, Gilbert Joseph Pilie, as architect of Oak Alley plantation and George Swainey, as master builder, to bring the house to completion. 

Upon stepping into the front Hall of Oak Ally its imposing dimensions amaze visitors. The central hall is 11 feet wide by 48 feet long. One of the largest halls in Louisiana plantations. The house inside and out is symmetrical with the interior containing two rooms on each side of the hall upstairs and down.  Oak Alley is beautifully furnished but the only piece of furniture original to the house is a child's cradle in the master bedroom. Today the house has been furnished using inventories of Oak Alley plantation and the Roman's French Quarter townhouse as a guide of what the interiors might have looked like in the Roman's day. It is elegantly furnished with Louisiana made antiques as well as French Charles X and Louis Philippe furniture. Oak Alley showcases what a interior of a prosperous plantation would have liked in 1820's-1840's Louisiana. The time period for furniture and decorative arts is 1838-1848. 















The dinning room 










1830's Old Paris vase 









Original cornflower spring decorated dinner plate and coin silver that belong to the Roman family 


The Hall 

















A Louis Philippe chair 





The Mourning room or sick room

The children bedroom 
















1820's French Charles X chair 



The child's cradle is the only piece that is original to the House  



The Plantation office 

The Plantation office