Touring Louisiana's Great River Road
the Mississippi from Angola North to Venice South
[ Up ] [ Introduction ] [ Contents ] [ Contributors ] [ Excerpt: Donaldsonville ]
Donaldsonville lies in the juncture of the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche, a heavily traveled waterway from the river all the way down to the gulf until 1903 when it was 
dammed up and closed at Donaldsonville for flood protection. The approach from the tall Sunshine Bridge gives a dramatic view of the expansive plain of sugar cane fields on which the town lies and the stark contrast of industrial plants on the levee/horizon off on the right.
Most maps show Donaldsonville lying a few miles below White Castle on the River Road as it continues down past the Sunshine Bridge and on through Vacherie. In reality, Donaldsonville touches the river levee at only a short stretch where there is no River Road for several miles. The town is also three miles from the bridge, and with few signs to direct visitors, it’s easy to get lost.
This is a community of nearly 9,000 residents and the most densely populated area on the west bank next to Baton Rouge. Founded in 1806, it served as temporary capital of Louisiana in 1830-31. The quaint town, which suffered massive damage during a Civil War shelling and burning in August 1862, was revived as the railroad appeared in the early 1870s. Today there is a well preserved historic district of what survived the Civil War, and the town with its vintage housing stock, a number of fine restaurants and several museums is well worth a little extra time to get there.
Directions into and through Donaldsonville are tricky. Study the maps (p. 124 and 128) and decide ahead of time what you want to do.
Any of the following approaches to Donaldsonville... [Almost two pages of detailed directions have been deleted from this excerpt.]
Walking/Driving tour of Donaldsonville Historic District:
Begin at Railroad Ave. and Marchand Dr.
A good place to get an orientation to the town is at the Tourist Information Center in this first block, 714 Railroad Ave. in a restored 1924 shop building. In the block before this at 812 Railroad is a popular local eatery The Last Chance Restaurant & Bar, and in the 600 block past the tourist information center is Cabahanosse Antiques at 602 Railroad, named for the building that dates to the 1890s. A bed & breakfast is run out of the second floor with its wide upper gallery.
Across Railroad Ave. from Cabahanosse at the corner facing Charles St. is the River Road African-American Museum and Gallery at 406 Charles St. in the former home of Dr. John H. Lowery, black sugar planter and physician. Museum exhibits include documents and artifacts of local history. A block back from the museum on Lessard St. (600 and 700 blocks of Lessard) is a complex being developed by the museum to provide space for entertainment, educational and historical activities. It includes the True Friends’ Benevolent Association Hall built in 1886 and a focal point for the local community.
Alvin Batiste, primitive artist is represented by Rossie’s Framing and Art Gallery at 510 Railroad Ave. Batiste, a local celebrity who lives around the corner, is one of the foremost primitive artists working today in the U.S. Featured in books, articles and TV programs, he has been compared to Clementine Hunter.
|
Contributions of African-Americans in Donaldsonville
For several years now Donaldsonville has appropriately celebrated Juneteenth, commemoration of June 19, 1865 when many slaves first heard that they were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. This area is rich in African-American and Creole history. Pierre Caliste Landry, mayor of Donaldsonville for one year in 1868, was the first man of color elected to a mayorship in the U.S. Dr. H. Lowery, black sugar planter and physician, owned over 50 pieces of property in the historic district in the downtown area. The town is also home to the River Road African-American Museum & Gallery, a two block complex currently under construction on Lassard Street between Williams and Marchand streets. Museum exhibits are temporarily housed nearby at 406 Charles Street in the former home of Dr. Lowery. Fort Butler on the outskirts of Donaldsonville includes a monument dedicated to African-American soldiers who built and defended the fort in 1863; it is the only such monument to black Union Army soldiers in the U.S. |
Continuing down Railroad Ave. one block to the corner of Claiborne is Lafitte’s Landing Restaurant at Bittersweet Plantation at 404 Claiborne, a culinary and bed and breakfast facility operated by internationally known chef John Folse. He lived in this house and relocated his Lafitte’s Landing restaurant here after the earlier building near the Sunshine Bridge burned in the mid-l990s. The house built in 1859 survived the Civil War shelling of Donaldson-yule. The First United Methodist Church, Railroad at the next corner at Opelousas St, a white wooden building with Gothic touches, is another such survivor, built in 1844 and still in service. Dimm’s Bakery across Railroad Ave. in this 400 block is a local institution and known for its donuts.
Louisiana Square, dedicated in 1806, is a city park in the next block. The small red brick building in the park is Dr. John H. Lowery’s doctor’s office that was moved here (see museum above). The Juneteenth Day Celebration is held here annually to commemorate freedom from slavery. Directly across from the park the hardware store at 301 Railroad is in the former Bikur Sholim Synagogue, built in 1850. The storefront has been added. Bikur Sholim Jewish Cemetery founded in 1856 and located a few blocks away (see below), was associated with the synagogue.
The upcoming 200 block of Railroad contains three well known eating spots and a music club that offer a range of menus and atmosphere: on the left are lunch spot Railroad Café, 212 Railroad, Hambonz Piano Room at 212 Railroad, open nights and featuring jazz and local groups, Scott’s Bar & Grille on the Avenue, Railroad, and across the street the Grapevine Market and Café at 211 Railroad.
In the final block of Railroad on the right is the Elks Lodge No. 1153 built in 1910 with an elaborate brick façade at 115 Railroad. At the corner of Railroad and Mississippi St. on the left are the Historic Donaldsonville Museum and the Donaldsonville Tourist Center, both housed in the former Lemann and Brothers Department Store, an Italianate commercial building from 1877. The store was founded in 1840 by Jacob Lemann (pronounced lemon), and the current building is on the Register of Historic Places. The museum features lots of local documents, photos and lore, as well as exhibits on Donaldsonville as the state capital 1830-1831 and during the Civil War. The Jacob’s Buggy 1806 Gift Shop in the museum has a good variety of souvenirs and collectibles.
To continue the walking tour, a right on Mississippi St. one block to Lessard, and a left on to Lessard takes you past two blocks of privately owned vintage houses on the left that span two centuries. House numbers 124 and 130 in the first block are unnamed. The house at 124 is in bad need of renovation and illustrates the magnitude of work done on the others. In the second block the Vega House, 202 Lessard, built in 1868, is a cottage in the Classical Revival style. The Guinchard House, 212 Lessard, is an Acadian cottage dating from 1797 and built with bousillage (moss and mud). It was moved here and the present house in Classical Revival style was built around it. The Rodrigue Home, 220 Lessard, built ca. 1900 is a well preserved Victorian cottage believed to have been a Sears catalog model home.
Depending on your time and interest, there are 4 historic sites on St. Vincent St. two blocks behind you on Lessard St. Take a left turn at the next corner on to Nicholls St. which ends another block at St. Patrick St. Go left on St. Patrick one block and right on Iberville St. one block to St. Vincent St. Ahead on the left you’ll see the Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church at the corner of Mississippi and St. Vincent streets, which was established 1772 in a wooden chapel on this site. The current Romanesque-style building took 21 years to complete by 1875 and has some of the finest brick work in the South. Ascension Parish takes its name from this church.
A right on St. Vincent St. for two blocks brings you to St. Vincent’s on the right as part of Ascension Catholic Primary School. The institute was founded by the Sisters of Charity 1843 as a convent, orphanage, school and hospital. When a cannon ball fell through the ceiling but did not explode in the shelling of Donaldsonville in 1862, the nuns saw it as a miracle in answer to their prayers.
One more block on St. Vincent to Opelousas St. brings you to Ascension Catholic Church Cemetery which covers two blocks of St. Vincent St. between Opelousas and Charles streets and contains graves dating from before the Civil War. Most noted is the Landry Tomb, a monumental granite multi-burial vault with a miniature Doric temple on the second level. The Landry family owned the land on which Donaldsonville stands today. Soldiers from the Confederacy and Union are buried in this cemetery as are famous planters such as Duncan Kenner.
Take a right on to Charles St. and a left in one block on to St. Patrick St. One block up St. Patrick at Williams St. are two more cemeteries, Donaldsonville Protestant Cemetery that has many graves from the late 1800s, and Bikur Sholim Jewish Cemetery established 1856, which is the only such burial ground between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. It contains graves of leading local businessmen, and yellow fever victims. Symbolic Lebanon cedar trees line the southern border.
A right turn at the next corner on to Marchand Dr. brings you back in two blocks to Railroad Ave. Several other important sights lie outside this walking tour area to the left of Railroad Ave. Check map for distances and directions. They include St. Peter’s Methodist Church at 217 Claiborne corner of Houmas St. Established in the 1860s after the Civil War, the current building of 1873 has served the black community ever since. It was also a school during Reconstruction. A block to the left and a block down in the 300 block of Chetimaches St. is the Old Parish Jail built in 1867. The back of the Ascension Parish Courthouse can be seen from the next block of Chetimaches on the right facing Houmas St. A massive Romanesque style building designed in 1889 by New Orleans architect James Freret, it is open for self-guided tours.
Two blocks farther on Chetimaches at the corner of Veterans Blvd. is the only 19th century Creole townhouse between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the Bel House. Built in 1879, it has commercial offices on the ground floor and residences above. Two blocks to the left on Veterans Blvd. brings you to the site of Fort Butler, built and defended by slaves and free people of color as a Union stronghold in 1862. Today it does not look like a fort because the walls are broken down and covered with mounds of silt.
Two military memorials at the Fort Butler site have contrasting interests, one honoring the African-Americans who fought and died there for the Union (the only such memorial in the country), the other honoring white soldiers who perished in defense of the Confederacy. There are also a Civil War cannon and historic marker, plus a sign about the archeological dig in 1996 that discovered the location of the fort’s walls. Efforts are underway to rebuild some walls and provide exhibits about the crucial battle fought there. If you walk up on the levee, there’s a good view of the Mississippi River. Turning with your back to the river you can see the end of Bayou Lafourche which until 1903 joined the river and was a major waterway to the south. (For a side trip down Bayou LaFourche, see p. 147).
Note: In the 1820s in Donaldsonville Dr. Francois Prevost, a physician and native of France, became the second doctor in the U.S. to successfully perform a Cesarean section to deliver a child. He saved seven of the eight women who received the operation — two of them were slaves who were freed after the surgery.
[ Up ] [ Introduction ] [ Contents ] [ Contributors ] [ Excerpt: Donaldsonville ]
[ Home ] [ Publshing Guidelines ] [ Matters of the Heart ] [ Marietta's House ] [ Women and New Orleans ] [ Free People of Color ... ] [ Down at the End of the River ] [ Louisiana's River Road ] [ Creole Cats ] [ Gumbo People ] [ CD's of Creole Music ] [ Learn La. French Creole ] [ Creole ABC Book ] [ Mexican-La. Creoles ] [ Links ] [ About Us ] [ Surviving Hurricane Katrina ] [ About Sybil Kein ] [ Search Site ] [ Site Contents ]
Donaldsonville, LA 70346 