Oak Alley Plantation - Vacherie, LA ("They Killed Us")

3645 Louisiana 18

Vacherie, LA 70090

30.003318,-90.780735

www.oakalleyplantation.com

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.

Old Ursuline Convent - New Orleans, LA (The Casket Girls of New Orleans)

1100 Chartres St.

New Orleans, LA 70116

29.960856,-90.060682

            It goes without saying that the French Quarter contains some of the most concentrated amounts of history and hauntings in the United States. We have also learned that following two huge fires in 1788 and 1794, most of the entire city was destroyed and rebuilt. The few structures that did survive eventually succumbed to time and damaging storms. So far, we have mentioned several of the oldest buildings in the city such as Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop and Madame John’s Legacy. This leaves us to discuss the single oldest building still standing in the city New Orleans. It is only fitting that the oldest building contains a story so outrageous and outlandish, that it could only sound believable in a city such as the Big Easy.
            Our story begins sometime around 1727 when King Louis XV of France ordered a group of Ursuline nuns from Rouen to travel to New Orleans and establish a hospital and school for young children. The building was designed by Ignace Nicholas Broutin, the Chief Engineer of Louisiana, and architect Andre de Batz. Construction was complete in 1734 and the Ursuline nuns moved in. The building was made out of half-timber, also known as columbage. In most cases, this type of wall was protected with stucco or some other substance. Such was not the case with the convent, as the beams were left exposed to the elements. This proved to be disastrous, as the weather soon deteriorated the building and by 1744, it was on the brink of total collapse.

Madame John's Legacy - New Orleans, LA (Claudia's Blood Feast)

632 Dumaine St.

New Orleans, LA 70116

29.959437,-90.063075

www.thelmf.org  

            One of my favorite movies of all time is Interview with the Vampire. Not only because the movie is primarily shot in Louisiana, but I have always been enthralled with the vampire lifestyle. I’m not talking about the teenie-bopper vampires with sparkling skin of today, but those said to have existed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The movie truly stylized the genre and paved the way for similar movies for many years to come. The morbid dark humor in the film is unforgettable. In one of my favorite scenes, Kirsten Dunst’s character, Claudia, is taking piano lessons from a strict instructor. At this point, Claudia has just transformed into a vampire and is having a difficult time controlling her insatiable appetite for blood and will not always kill at the most opportune of times. In this case, she kills her instructor to feed her need. The following scene shows individuals carrying out the coffin containing the instructor from a large French Colonial townhouse with a very distinctive elevated from porch. I would soon learn that the home used for this scene is none other than the landmark known as Madame John’s Legacy.