rni 117- 1. 1,771, KT WELHAM PLANTATION AS IT LOOKED about 1890. Photograph from the Richard Koch Collection. Courtesy ef Special Collections Division, Tulane University Library. Orange Grove Plantatione A Plea For Preservation Non-Profit Organization U. S. POSTAGE PAI D New Orleans, La. Permit No. 1001 An Epitaph For Welham The recent demolition of Welham plan- tation has caused a lot of soap box orations. Few people, however, really know much about Welharn. Printed information is difficult to find and often erroneous. In 1973, I became involved with the history of Welham plantation while preparing architectural measured drawings of the L.S.U. Rural Life Museum. Most of the buildings there had originally come from the Welham plantation. On the mantel in the overseer's house were carved someone's initials. In trying to find out whose they were, I uncovered a sketchy history of the plantation and its residents. This information documenting Welham's historical importance when coupled with the building's obvious architectural importance, compounds the tragedy of its demolition and refutes Marathon Vice President Charles Barre's statement ". . . there was no in- dication that anyone thought the house was in any way, form or fashion of historic impor- The history of Welham is quite com- plicated. The main character in this history is William Peter Welham for whom the plan- tation is named. He was born in New York, the son of Robert Welham and Catherine Mariner, in 1798. While William was quite young, his father, Robert, died willing him some stock in the Manhattan Bank of New York. Not long after his father's death., William's mother remarried, this time to James Godberry on December 10, 1801. James had been previously married to Sarah Westin. From his first marriage, James God- berry had a daughter, Sarah Ann Godberry. For three years, this newly formed family lived in New York until 1804 when James Godberry took his family to the Louisiana Territory, arriving in St. James Parish on September 28, 1804. Once in Louisiana, James and Catherine had a son, James P. Godberry, Jr. The family continued to grow with the marriage of Sarah Ann Godberry to David Snead (Sneed) of St. John Parish. On February 25, 1824, a marriage contract was filed between William Welham and Reine Seraphine Theriot. At the time of this marriage Welham did not own any property in St. James but did own a house and land in St. John Parish. Reine was from a distinguished St. James Acadian family. Her grandparents, Joseph and Magdeline Theriot, had arrived in Louisiana in 1796, having been driven from Canada by the British. Reine's father, Pierre Theriot, alias Ferret, had distinguished him- self by serving as 6th regent of the Parish and on the first grand jury impaneled in St. James. In 1828, James Godberry Sr. died, leaving an estate valued at $10,645, which included 5 arpents de face by .the usual 40 with one residence, a magazine, a cotton and grain mill and various out-buildings valued at $7,500. An old photograph exists which is repor- tedly the house cited in the succession. It was a ohe story French house with a hip roof and gallery. by Robert Cangelosi The year following Godberry's death on April 27, 1829, a company was formed by his widow, Catherine Godberry, James God- berry Jr. and William Welham known as "Mrs. Welham, Son and Godberry." This company incorporated the land from the estate of the late James Godberry Sr. and was managed equally by all three. Welhaxn, not an heir of Godberry, bought into the company by using interest from the stock his father had willed him. At the time of the formation of this company it is ap- parent that the chief cash crop was cotton. Eventually, however, sugar replaced cotton and Welham became one of the larger sugar plantations in the state. Gradually the partnership expanded its land holdings. In both 1833 and 1836 ad- ditional acreage was purchased. By 1836 a new partnership was arranged in which Welham received one half controlling interest and James Godberry Jr. and Catherine God- berry each one quarter. The new company was called the William Welhe.r.:, ax.d G od- berry Co. In the succeeding three years the company went into heavy debt, borrowing a total of $71,500 by means of several mortgages. Perhaps it was sometime during this three- year period that Welham Plantation house and its sugar mill were built. From its architectural details, the house appears to have been built during the 1830's, but no exact date can be affixed to the house. Secondary sources cite various dates, 1835 and 1837 in particular. The year of construction is not of critical importance. The fact that Weill= was the only Louisiana Plantation house of its style to have survived along the Mississippi River is what made it so valuable. The house, like Reine and William, was a marriage between the French and the American, illustrating remarkably well the American, or what might loosely be referred to as Federal, influence on the traditional French building techniques. This house was the rural counterpart to such buildings as the Hermann-Grima House of 1832 in New Orleans. The floor plan of Welham was quite simple. A gallery traversed the river facade of the building, and a central hall bisected the house. To each side of the central hall were two rooms, each having at least two windows and a single chimney. The central hall, as well as the ground floor living rooms were planning concepts in- troduced by the Americans. Like most American houses, the stair was in the central hau. However, at Welham there was an ad- ditional stair in the rear loggia, between two "cabinets", as was typical of most French plans. The second floor plan was similiar to that of the first floor. The architect for this fine house has gone undocumented, but it would be safe to speculate that David Snead, Welham's brother-in-law, was the architect, since he was an architect-mason. The layout of the plantation was typical. Continued on Page 2 BY William R. Cullison, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Tulane University Library Editor's Note: On Monday, May 7, word was received that the Southern Railroad Com- pany planned to demolish Orange Grove Plantation in Braithwaite, La., on the River Road in Plaquemines Parish. The railroad felt that demolition was warranted because of the deteriorated condition of the building and possible injury to trespassers. J. Ben Meyer, noted Plaquemines Parish historian, suggested that the building could be renovated by the Plaquemines Parish Com- mission Council as a library. There is a real need for a library in this area, and the setting and historic structure would lend themselves agreeably to this adaptation. Other preservationists feel that the building should at least be roofed and boar- ' ded up to protect it from vandalism and the elements until a suitable use can be found Persons interested in the fate of Orange Grove should address their suggestions to J. Ben Meyer, Box 114 Braithwaite, La. 70040. Though relatively little known, the plan- tation house known as Orange Grove, located in Plaquemines Parish and now threatened with demolition, may be counted as one of Louisiana's more important early buildings. Indeed, in so far as both its history and ar- chitecture are concerned, the house is significant not only at the local level but also at the national level as well. Built by sugar planter Thomas Asheton Morgan from 1847-1853, Orange Grove represents architecturally a good example of the domestic ante-bellum neo-Gothic idiom, specifically that sub-species of the style generally referred to in its day as the "Tudor Cottage" or "English Cottage" mode. Con- structed of brick and timber, it has the characteristic formal arrangement of gabled and chimneyed main section and rear service wing, with, in the former, a standard center hall floor plan. Originally, there were the typical barge boards at the eaves, finials on the gables, and windows with diamond shaped panes of glass, but these have all now disappeared; also now gone is a wide veran- dah which stretched completely around the front part of the house to its jointure with the service wing. In contrast to the foregoing, Orange Grove exhibits several characteristics not generally found in other houses of the type, for exam- ple, a truly tremendous scale. With fifteen foot first floor ceiling heights, a fully finished attic and (rather amazingly for Louisiana) full basement, and main section dimensions of 45' x 58', the house has the size associated more with baronial Gothic modes, such as the castellated, rather than with the cottage. Also unusual is the amount and quality of detail given the house. Along with the barge boards and other details already mentioned, there were (also now mostly gone) beautiful doors with Gothic motifs, heavy door frames also with Gothic motifs, stained glass transoms and sidelights at the main entrances, cast iron mantles, a main stairway rising three floors into the attic, and elegant tri-part in- terior shutters which folded back into recesses built into the window frames. Though it saw use through various phases from around 1800 through the early decades of the present century, the domestic Gothic was never what one could call popular in America as was, for example, f Greek Revival. In the South particularly the style was scarce, with the result that, even in its own time, Orange Grove was of a rarity which must have made it appear, at least to untravelled eyes, so strange as to seem not quite real. Relatedly, Orange Grove has another distinction, albeit one based solely Continued on Page 3