Recent Doings 2...
- Kary Spiegel
- Nov 2, 2023
- 1 min read
Then, in late October, I drove down to Houmas House, which sits behind the Mississippi River levee below Baton Rouge, to hand-deliver some copies of Voices on the River for the gift shop. When I first visited Houmas House in 1982 during an unscheduled stop on the Mississippi Queen, the plantation manse was an aging, decrepit old home. Then, 20 years ago, Kevin Kelly, a New Orleans businessman bought the place and began restoration. No absentee landlord he, Kelly has transformed this once-facing relic into a personal oasis. In addition to restoring the home and beautifying the grounds (perhaps not as many fountains as at Versailles, but enough to cast a spell), Kelly built the lustrous and elegant Great River Road Museum, which covers chronicles the river, the plantations, the steamboats. For more than a decade, I’ve been hearing how beautiful the place is. But seeing is believing – and I am now a believer. If you’ve not yet visited Houmas House, next time you’re in that vicinity, make the effort. You’ll be glad you did.
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