Laurel Valley Sugar Plantation, Double Creole Quarters, 2 Miles South of Thibodaux on State Route 308, Thibodaux, Lafourche Parish, LA

Significance: The Double Houses are of the type found on plantations throughout the Bayou LaFourche region. It has various folk type characteristics which are known as double pen or saddlebag. The Laurel Valley structures have a built-in front roof over-hang with sideward facing gables and double front doors. Each of the structures has two chimneys - one that bisected the tin gabled roof line in the center and opened into the two front rooms and another small chimney puncturing the roof's backslope with openings for flue connections on two sides. The front steps vary: they are either double or centered to serve both units of the house. The rear steps support double entrances. The exterior construction is cypress board and batten. These double houses were built after the Civil War, most probably in the 1870's by Burch A. Wormald. Originally two families occupied one structure, but sometime in the 1890's they were turned into single family units. With the change, the basic four room unit was opened up by inserting doors in the partition walls. Front rooms then became sleeping rooms and the back reserved for cooking, eating, and washing. These houses are the oldest tenant building on the plantation. Originally there were twenty-six double houses, divided into two rows - 13 to a row, separated by the plantation's road and railroad track. Beginning around 1904, seven of the structures on the western side were "broken-down" or moved to make room for four rows of shotgun houses.
Survey number: HAER LA-1-H
Building/structure dates: 1870- 1879 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1904 Subsequent Work