Kent House Plantation - Alexandria, LA (A Hidden Gem of Activity)

3601 Bayou Rapides Road

Alexandria, Louisiana 71303

31.303697,-92.482873

www.kenthouse.org

*All pictures below are courtesy of www.kenthouse.org

        If you are looking for a true rendition of French and Spanish life during the late 1700's, then look no further than Kent House Plantation! This beautiful home is one of the oldest original structures still standing in Louisiana. This French colonial home was built around 1796 by French settler, Pierre Baillio II, on ground due to a Spanish land grant that consisted of 500 arpents, which is approximately the French equivalent of an acre, near Poste des Rapides.
        In 1842, the home was sold to Mr. Robert Hynson of Kent County, Maryland, oddly giving this home its final name. After the home luckily survived almost being burnt down during the 1864 Civil War Red River Campaign, it passed through several different owners, and was finally divided into three sections and moved two block over to its current location in 1964.

Tyrone Plantation - Alexandria, LA

6576 Bayou Rapides Rd.

Alexandria, LA 71303

31.312389,-92.562517

This quaint little plantation home was built in 1843 by Virginian, George Mason Graham.  Graham was familiar with plantation life and built a three storied house, a granary, a brick kiln, a saw mill, a cotton gin and a wharf for barge traffic on the bayou. Graham wrote an autobiography and left much correspondence that is in federal, state and university archives. Graham also built what is probably the only underground tomb on a plantation and buried there a wife and a son that has given rise to the story of the “soldier ghost.” Mr. Graham is probably most known for his work with the state's educational system, obtaining federal property, now known as the Pentagon Barracks, in Baton Rouge for a new location for a state university, which you may have heard of: Louisiana State University.

Masonic Children's Home - Alexandria, LA (Laughter From the Past)

Hwy 165 S

Alexandria, Louisiana 

31.259761,-92.477589

A grand home for its time, the children’s Masonic Lodge served as a quality refuge for orphans for nearly seventy years. The home was initially built in 1925. The local Masons believed that the construction of this new home would advocate much better living conditions and an overall improvement in well-being, as opposed to the state-ran orphanages of the time, which were notorious for not being in the most optimum of conditions.  

The grounds initially consisted of a boys’ dorm and a girls’ dorm, with a chapel and large infirmary being built soon after. The lodge opened with its first residents, six young siblings, ranging from three to fifteen. The population soon grew quickly, as it is estimated that a total of seven hundred and seventy-six children once called this place home. The home finally closed in May of 1994, with the remaining ten children being moved elsewhere. The buildings have remained abandoned ever since.