Rosedown Plantation is located in the West Feliciana community
of St. Francisville along one of the most historic corridors
in South Louisiana.
West Feliciana Parish near St. Francisville is largely agrarian
in nature, and defined by its proximity to the Mississippi
River, which forms its western boundary. The historic presence
of the River created deep soil deposits in relatively flat
valleys that became, in the days of the cotton boom, extremely
productive and valuable. In addition to the natural flats,
creeks draining to the River created some expanses of rugged,
heavily treed terrain that became profitable as timberland.
Societies in and around St. Francisville at the time that
Rosedown Plantation was assembled and constructed were dominated
by European, primarily British, settlers who became cotton
planters on an enormous scale. Most of the nineteenth century
cotton barons of all nationalities had requested and received
their plantations through land grants from the Spanish government,
the titles to which remained valid after the establishment
of the United States government. The parents of Daniel and
Martha (Barrow) Turnbull, the original owners of Rosedown,
achieved high social status in West Feliciana through their
immense cotton operations, and Daniel Turnbull himself was
known before the Civil War as one of the richest men in the
The land that became Rosedown Plantation, named for a play
that the Turnbulls saw on their honeymoon, was assembled not
by Spanish Land Grant, but in a group of seven purchases made
by Daniel Turnbull from the 1820s through the 1840s. At its
largest, Rosedown Plantation comprised approximately 3,455
acres, the majority of which was planted in cotton.
Daniel and Martha Turnbull began construction on the main
house at Rosedown in 1834, completing it by May the following
year for a total cost of $13,109.20. The house was constructed
by Wendell Wright as a version of the Carolina Tidewater form
(known as an extended I-house) with a neoclassical columned
facade and double front galleries. Much of the cypress used
in the structure was harvested and processed at the Plantation
sawmill. Some timber was shipped upriver to Cincinnati for
preparation, then sent back down to Rosedown, and some was
purchased in Cincinnati. More unusual materials, such as the
fireplace marble and the 70 feet of mahogany used for the
main staircase, were shipped from the northern states or from
After completion, the home was furnished with the finest
pieces available, most imported from the North and from Europe,
by famous cabinetmakers like Crawford Riddle and Anthony Quervelle
of Philadelphia and Prudent Mallard of New Orleans. A surprising
amount of the furnishings purchased by the Turnbulls remained
with the house during the years after the Civil War and many
original pieces are still on display at Rosedown.
The formal gardens at Rosedown were begun around the same
time as the house. As early as 1836, there are records showing
the purchase of camellias, azaleas, and other plants from
William Prince & Sons in New York. The gardens were the
province of Martha Turnbull throughout her life. The Turnbulls
honeymoon in Europe was planned as a tour of the great formal
gardens of France and Italy, and the knowledge of design and
horticulture that Martha Turnbull gleaned on this trip formed
the basis for her activities at Rosedown. The gardens grew
out from the house over a span of several years, to cover
approximately 28 acres. In the 19th century, Rosedown was
one of the few privately maintained formal gardens in the
Rosedown, unlike many plantations in the Felicianas, remained
in original ownership from its construction until 1956. The
Turnbulls lived there in prosperity through the 1850s, staying
at Rosedown from planting through the harvest, and spending
summers in fashionable "spa" towns like Saratoga.
By the 1850s, the Turnbulls had built Rosedown into one of
the most extensive and prosperous plantations in the area.
The contribution of slave labor to the construction and upkeep
of the plantation, as well as agricultural prosperity and
wealth accrued by Daniel Turnbull, was immense. During peak
years of cotton production, operation of Rosedown utilized
as many as 450 slaves.
After Turnbulls death in 1861, the family saw a steady
decline in a way of life that could no longer be supported
nor justified. Rosedown and two other Turnbull plantations
were severely affected during the war both by the invasion
of Northern troops and by the loss of the slave labor workforce.
The Turnbull/Bowman family stayed at Rosedown throughout the
war, protecting and farming the property as best they could.
Troops stripped the home (and owners) of valuables, food,
and supplies while the area was occupied by the Federals.
After the peace at Appomattox, the Turnbull/Bowman (Daniel
& Martha's daughter married a Bowman) family leased the
land they could no longer farm to sharecroppers, rented some
land in exchange for labor, and remained in relative poverty
at Rosedown. Martha made pension and war claims repeatedly
in the years following the war, trying to get some restitution
for the crops destroyed and livestock killed or stolen. Neither
Martha nor her daughter Sarah was able to ever get more from
the government than Marthas $8 monthly pension.
Martha Turnbull died in September, 1896, leaving her daughters
family in sole possession of Rosedown. Sarahs four unmarried
daughters, Corrie, Isabel, Sarah and Nina shared Rosedown
as a joint inheritance after her death. The property suffered
another blow in the 1920s when a boll weevil infestation destroyed
the cotton crop in the Felicianas. The sisters survived and
kept Rosedown Plantation largely intact, despite the loss
of almost all sources of income. The property gradually decayed
and the gardens grew up and around it. The sisters sources
of income included the sales of yard eggs and of cuttings
from their grandmothers garden.
In the 1930s, the sisters decided to open the house to tourists
interested in the remnants of the prosperous cotton culture.
Because of the Victorian conventions under which they were
raised, they lived entirely on the second floor of the house
to avoid awkward meetings with paying guests. The sisters
made extraordinary sacrifices to hold on to Rosedown, and
when Miss Nina, the last surviving sister, died in 1955, there
were no bills or mortgages outstanding on the property.
After Miss Ninas death, Rosedown passed to her nieces
and nephews, who decided to try to sell the old plantation
whole. In 1956, Catherine Fondren Underwood, herself an enthusiastic
amateur horticulturalist, purchased it and began an eight-year
historic restoration of the house and formal gardens. The
Underwoods returned Rosedown to function as a working cattle
farm and restored the old home to its former grandeur.
The emphasis on restoration rather than renovation was applied
to the formal gardens as well, which were reconstructed by
Ralph Ellis Gunn using Martha Turnbulls extensive garden
diaries. When possible, the same species and varieties were
replanted. When plants in Marthas inventory were discovered
to be no longer available, the staff of gardeners would propagate
them from plant stock surviving in the gardens. Through this
process, the gardens, as well as the house, were returned
to their pre-1860s state.
Currently, the main house, historic gardens and 13 historic
buildings and 371 remaining acres of Rosedown Plantation are
preserved as a state historic site by the Office of State Parks.
State Parks staff and volunteers conduct tours and programs
to illustrate plantation life in the 1800s.
The site is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed only
on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Guided
tours of the main house are provided on the hour beginning
at 10 a.m. and concluding with the final tour of the day at
4 p.m. Admission prices are: $10 for adults (age 18 from 61);
$8 for senior citizens (age 62 and over); and $4 for students
(age 6 through 17). Children, age 5 and under, will be admitted