Riverlake Plantation, Oscar, Pointe Coupee Parish, LA

1988 Charles E. Peterson Prize, Entry
Significance: Riverlake Plantation House is situated on the site of a Spanish land grant issued to Issac Gaillard prior to 1793 in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. The house and pigeonniers were constructed by Antoine DeCuir, probably at the time of his marriage to Louise Beauvais in 1823. Riverlake is a raised Creole style dwelling with typical features of this period. It is one room deep with a salle-et-chambre core and three additional bedrooms en suite. It has a full length gallery and a cabinet-loggia range in the rear. Originally, it was covered with a French Colonial broken-pitch hip roof; this was replaced with a taller "umbrella" roof ca. 1845 when DeCuir's daughter Antoinette, married and inherited the property. The house was sold to P.C. Major in 1892, after which the present mantles were installed, some windows and doors were replaced, and the kitchen-dining room extension was added to the rear. Very few plantations in Louisiana retain their original pigeonniers. The construction features of the surviving Creole-style pigeonnier precisely match those of the earliest stage of construction of the house.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-115
Survey number: HABS LA-1187
Building/structure dates: ca. 1823 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: ca. 1845 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 19t1 Subsequent Work