3645 Louisiana 18
Vacherie, LA 70090
30.003318,-90.780735
As I mentioned when I discussed Madame John's Legacy, one of my all-time favorite movies has always been Interview with the Vampire. From the storyline, to the characters and especially the locations, it is one of the few movies I do not get tired of seeing. For those of you that have seen the movie, once Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) is bitten by Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise), he slowly begins to transform into a vampire. As his health worsens and his body deteriorates, his demeanor and mannerisms equally dwindle down to the shadows where he is soon to follow. He becomes ill at the site of food, yet his hunger for blood intensifies. As he and Lestat sit at the dinner table of his grand mansion, his quadroon servant comments on Louis's fading appearance. Louis cannot resist the beautiful woman and bites her. She then faints, sending Louis into a frenzy, sick of what he has now become. As additional slaves gather at the outside of the home, Louis sets it ablaze. The pinnacle of the scene shows Louis kicking the door of his home open, as he carries out his servant, flames in suit. He hands the maid off to a waiting slave, hops on a horse and flees the property, as the slaves cheer and celebrate that the “devil” has finally gone.
If you remember the scene I am referring to, than you obviously remember the beautiful home that was used as Louis's plantation. If it looks strangely familiar, it's probably because you have seen it, not only in several other movies and television shows, but it is a very common plantation used in southern artwork, as many feel it to be the quintessential depiction of southern plantation life. If you have been living under a rock for the last few centuries, I am of course referring to Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie.
The land for the home was first acquired in 1830 by François-Gabriel "Valcour" Aimé, who was said to have been the wealthiest man in the south at the time. Often nicknamed the “King of Sugar,” Aimé would only deepen his pockets when he married Joséphine Roman, daughter of Jacques Étienne Roman of Grenoble, France and Marie-Louise Patin. In an interesting piece of information that I stumbled upon, Jacques Sr. and Marie Louise Roman would bounce back and forth to New Orleans, owning homes in that city as well. Get this; according to act of sale records, I discovered that Marie would purchase none other than the house eventually known as Madame John's Legacy in 1820. I found that was quite ironic; the way both homes are not only tied together by Interview with the Vampire, but also through historical ties. If you are not as equally impressed, I apologize, as I am often easily appeased. Give me a roll of bubble wrap and I'm pacified for hours! Joséphine's brother, Jacques Telesphore Roman, was also in the sugarcane business and was no pauper himself. In exchange for another plantation that Jacques owned, Aimé would trade him his large piece of land which was covered in massive oak trees, said to have been planted as early as the late seventeenth century.
In 1834, Jacques Telesphore would marry New Orleans socialite, Celina Pilie, and the two would begin planning the layout for their new home. With the aid of Celina's architect father, Joseph Pilie, and builder George Swainey, the two would construct the massive two-story mansion,
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| Strange myst we captured in one of the adjacent cottages. |
In 1848, Jacques Telesphore would pass away, leaving the home to his wife. Celina was nowhere near capable enough to manage such a large plantation so she trusted it in the hands of her son, Henri. Henri did not do much of a better job, as the house continued to go into more debt. Once all avenues had been exhausted, Aimé would come back into the picture and auction off the home for a mere thirty-two thousand eight hundred dollars to John Armstrong. The home must have been cursed, as owner upon owner couldn't make ends meet. After the home was nearly in shambles, it was purchased in 1925 by Andrew and Josephine Stewart. The couple would spend a great deal of time and money in refurbishing and modernizing the home. With sugarcane not a popular crop at the time, the Stewarts turned to their Texas roots and used much of the farmland as a cattle ranch until the 1960's, when the sweet cash crop made a resurgence. After Andrew passed away, Josephine continued to live in her beloved home until she too would die in 1972. The home would become an historic landmark and is now run by Mr. Zeb Mahew and the Oak Alley Foundation as a popular tourists' attraction.
Oak Alley will always hold a special place in my heart; not only due to its importance within southern iconography, but also as my first big league paranormal investigation. In early 2005, I was part of a small ghost hunting group based out of southern Louisiana. The group was fairly new and centered their investigations on cemeteries and the occasional private residence. Brandon Thomas, my now co-founder of Louisiana Spirits, was a fellow rookie investigator along with myself at the time. He was friends with a guy whose parents worked at Oak Alley Plantation. After speaking with them, he was able to line up an investigation of the home. We were elated, as this was going to be our first real investigation of a historical location of such magnitude. As I mentioned, the small group we were part of at the time did things quite a bit different in their manner of investigating that we do now. The group seemed to center their investigative results around the head of the group, a self-proclaimed psychic/sensitive. Whatever she claimed she “felt”, the group would use that as their “evidence”. As I’ve said before, I do not doubt that there are people out there with legitimate sensitive abilities, however there are many charlatans out there that are full of the old “Bravo Sierra”, if you know what I mean! I would soon find out that this individual was in the latter of the two categories. Regardless of these flawed techniques, there were several of us who still investigated using more scientific methods. This did not deter us from being anxious to conduct a thorough and accurate investigation. We knew we had to be on our “A game” and be as professional as possible. This would prove to be a fiasco as we were horrified at the actions of our now defunct pseudo-psychic. I go into great detail regarding this debacle in my original book, “Paranormal Uncensored”. I highly suggest you check it out and you will understand my thoughts on sensitives.
We were greeted by the hospitable staff and were shown around the massive home, giving us an idea on where to focus our attention. From past reports, much of the activity seemed to reside in the attic area, which was forbidden from daily visitors. Another area that garnered attention was the bedroom of former owner, Josephine Stewartt. A very interesting photograph would be taken years earlier that has sparked much debate. A tourist took a picture in the bedroom which contained a dress worn by Mrs. Stewart, now placed on a headless mannequin. Next to the bust was a large mirror. When the photo was developed, a very unique anomaly was present. As the reflection of the mannequin showed as expected, the actual bust appeared to now have a head with long flowing hair! The photo was analyzed by numerous photographic experts and all agreed that they could not detect any signs of
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| Famous picture depicting what many feel to be the spirit of Ms. Josephine Stewart. Notice the reflection in the mirror is different than the actual mannequin. |
We would begin our investigation in standard fashion, breaking up into groups of two, focusing on specific rooms. Brandon and I began in the attic area, as I mentioned this was a reported hotbed of activity. Throughout our investigation, we observed what could best be described as shadows moving throughout the attic and unexplainable electromagnetic spikes that seemed to surge when certain questions were asked. As we conducted EVP work in a small nook in the attic, we found a very small door which led to another storage/access area. We opened the door and looked around with no further incident. However, when we reviewed the audio taken during that time, we were amazed at what we captured. It was as though someone was sitting in that small area and we surprised them, as the audio recorded the voice of what sounds like a young girl yelling, “Oh no!” The voice even seems to have a cajun accent. Further review of the audio uncovered a very clear and stern voice simply saying “No” as another investigator and I were talking. As before, you can hear these EVP’s for yourself by clicking the above links.
After operating Louisiana Spirits for well over a decade, I have seen many investigators come and go. Their reasons vary, as many soon realize that a lot of work is involved, others have piss-poor attitudes and some even realize they weren’t as brave as they thought they were. Such was the case with one of our investigators, as Oak Alley would be his first and last investigation! As he wandered the attic area, he felt as though someone had grabbed his arm. Whatever was there, the force would best be described as an electrical surge down his arm. The sensation was forceful enough that he dropped his camera. He would not be the same the rest of the evening and would later determine that investigating the paranormal was not his cup of tea.
Needless to say, we were quite pleased with the results from our first investigation and so were the staff of Oak Alley. So much, in fact, that they would allow us to return for a follow-up investigation. This time, we were accompanied by a film crew that was putting together a documentary of hauntings across Louisiana. The documentary was led by Bill Murphy, who would later be a regular on the SyFy Channel’s hit show, Fact or Faked. We would investigate in the same fashion as our first visit, only this time we would be staying in the adjacent cabins while simultaneously running video and audio until the morning. First hand experiences were not as plentiful that night. Other than an interactive EMF spike, the evening was pretty quiet. Evidence review proved to be a little more fruitful, as we captured three very clear EVP’s: “Help Us”, “Get Ya” and “They Killed Us”.
The last of the three electronic voice phenomena would be the most interesting and intriguing to me, as there were no reported stories of any murders or violent activities taking place at Oak Alley Plantation. As you have read with many of these grand plantation homes, many violent acts were the catalysts for years of lore and legend. Such had never been the case with Oak Alley, yet could this EVP be a message from beyond the grave disputing that claim? Who was being killed and who did the killing?
As I mentioned Oak Alley is quite an incredible place and will always hold a special place in my heart as it was my first big investigation. As with locations such as the Municipal Auditorium and the Southern Forest Heritage Museum, once we investigated Oak Alley, it was soon featured on several paranormal reality shows, garnering it more attention within the paranormal community. I could be wrong but I often would like to think that I had something to do in expanding the knowledge of these locations. It has been years since I visited Oak Alley but I can only assume it is as grand as ever. From what I have last heard, investigations are no longer allowed so I am very grateful we able to get in when we did. Regardless, Oak Alley is an incredible place and if you haven’t had the honor of visiting it, I highly recommend doing so as it is truly the quintessential and iconic depiction of what a plantation home is supposed to look like.
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