The Whitehall Plantation house, figure 20, was built in 1858. Greek
Revival style details include the squared transom and sidelights at the
front door, low roof pitch, and pedimented window trim detail on the
front gallery, figure 21. The gallery siding was flush but beaded. The
windows extended to the floor allowing easy passage from interior rooms
to the gallery. Operable, slatted shutters allowed sun control,
ventilation, privacy.
Whitehall is a 1½ story house with dormers, attic rooms, and an integral
gallery. These were typical features for the Greek Revival cottages of
both North and South Louisiana. The central hall plan is another
characteristic of this type, which is generally associated with American
settlement.
[Illustration: _Fig. 19. The 1830 Jean Baptiste Filhoil Greek
Revival plantation house (Bldg. 134)._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 20. Whitehall Greek Revival plantation house,
1858 (Bldg. 127)._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 21. Detail of Whitehall gallery window,
pilaster (Bldg. 127)._]
“TURN OF THE CENTURY” ONE ROOM, TWO ROOMS AND SHOTGUN HOUSES
[Illustration: _Fig. 22. Circa 1910 two room house with integral
gallery (Bldg. 120)._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 23. Front view of a circa 1920 one room house
(Bldg. 115)._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 24. Side view of 1920 one room house (Bldg.
115)._]
The alluvial lands east of the Ouachita contained two categories of
dwellings, those of the plantation owner as previously described and the
houses of the tenants and small land owners. The dwellings depicted on
these and subsequent pages are typical of the latter category. The basic
folk house plan types used were the one room, two room, shotgun and
later the bungalow. Houses were usually constructed of wood frame with
vertical board and batten siding or horizontal milled siding.
A feature which the basic one room and two room plan dwellings had in
common was the integral front gallery. The gallery roof framing was part
of the roof structure of the core of the dwelling. One might notice in
figure 22 that although two gallery columns are absent, the roof is
still standing.
The one room type is illustrated in figures 23 and 24. The front view of
the circa 1920 house shows a side addition to the original core room.
The side view, figure 24, shows that this was originally two rooms deep
since the space usually occupied by the rear gallery was enclosed. The
roof had wood shingles on wood lath. The shingles were later replaced
with sheets of tin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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