Cane River National Heritage Area, Natchitoches, Natchitoches Parish, LA

Miscellaneous subjects throughout the Heritage Area.
Significance: Creole architecture is an assemblage of architectural traditions from Europe, Africa, and Native America. These building practices and construction technologies melded into a distinctive form of colonial architecture and, in Louisiana, were shaped within the social order of plantation slavery. While there is no one Creole architecture, there are certain characteristics that appear in all of the places where it flourished. In Louisiana, the primary Creole characteristics are the high, steeply-pitched roof cantilevered over one or more outdoor porches (galleries), walls made from a mud-like material called bousillage, a raised primary floor on piers, posts, or columns, a plan without internal corridors, and a large amount of exterior porch space. This documentation project looks at a concentration of Creole houses within the Heritage Area (fig. 1)
Survey number: HABS LA-1361