Barthel Pigeonnier - Baton Rouge, LA
N 30° 25.561 W 091° 11.196
15R E 674160 N 3367389
Quick Description: Located on and part of the Magnolia Mound Plantation complex. Complex is located at 2161 Nicholson Dr in Baton Rouge.
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 12/31/2008 5:23:57 PM
Waymark Code: WM5FDE
Views: 10
Long Description:Pigeonniers have long signified wealth to the French. Having one was a meaning of having money. There are many of them in south Louisiana, mostly they are close to and or part of large plantation complexes. This one is no exception. Part of NRHP Magnolia Mound Plantation.
Magnolia Mound. The Barthel Pigeonnier is behind the main house. The whole complex is a very fine museum. Open year round (except major holidays). At my visit the prices were VERY reasonable ($6.00usd adults for tour of plantation home and grounds or just $2.00usd for a walking tour of just the grounds= see secondary website for more details). I have driven past this all my life, and this was my first visit. The grounds of the complex are very nice, all the buildings are furnished with period furnishings and implements.
Here is a link to the pigeonnier's Register application
here. The Barthel Pigeonnier is significant on the state level as a rare surviving example of a
building type which was once common in Louisiana.
Pigeonniers are one of the most direct links between Louisiana architecture and the
architecture of provincial France. At one time almost every Creole plantation had one or more
pigeonniers featured prominently on the grounds near the main house. This is evidenced by Adrian
Persac paintings and by plantation inventories of the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.
However, as far as the State Historic Preservation Office can determine, the Barthel Pigeonnier is
one of only about thirty examples remaining in Louisiana.
