Louisiana's Oldest Documented Plantation Home
13034 River Rd, Destrehan, LA 70047
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Daytime tours require tickets; senior, military, child, and group discounts available. Evening ghost tour: Adults $35, children (6-17) $20, groups of 10+ $30/person.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat grounds with paved paths; main manor has interior stairs
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1790 · 1811 German Coast Uprising · Creole Architecture · Louisiana Plantation History · Enslaved History
The structure at 13034 River Road was raised during Spanish colonial governance of Louisiana, a Creole-style manor of cypress and brick construction completed in 1790. The architect of record is Charles Pacquet, a free man of color who contracted the project with Robin de Logny.
Jean Noël Destrehan inherited the estate in 1792 and oversaw its transformation into a sugar operation, switching from indigo following crop failures that devastated the regional economy. Sugar required substantially more labor; the enslaved workforce expanded accordingly. At the plantation's peak, more than a hundred people lived and worked the property under conditions of legal bondage.
The 1811 German Coast Uprising, one of the most significant slave revolts in American history, brought the plantation into sharp historical focus. When the uprising was suppressed by territorial militia and federal troops, Destrehan Plantation hosted the subsequent trials. The plantation's gallery served as a courtroom. Executions followed.
The River Road Historical Society acquired the property in 1971 and has operated it as a heritage tourism site since, with interpretation that has expanded significantly in recent decades to address the full history of the enslaved population as well as the Destrehan family. The site offers multilingual tours and a reconstructed enslaved cabin.
Sources
The apparition identified as Nicholas Noel Destrehan — son of the original owner Jean Noël — is described consistently: dark hair, a sharp nose, a green waistcoat, standing near the main staircase. The detail of the waistcoat has appeared across independent accounts from tour participants who were not aware of each other's reports.
The nursery produces a different category of report: a young blonde girl playing with toys, seen moving between rooms and once observed jumping near the staircase. Unlike the Destrehan figure, which manifests as a static presence, the girl is described as mobile and oblivious to observers.
The plantation's ghost tour, running Thursday through Sunday evenings at 6:30 pm, frames these accounts within the broader history of the site. Guides distribute dowsing rods and EMF meters in the rooms with the highest concentration of reports. The tour also addresses the 1811 uprising trials — a chapter of the plantation's history that, as the tour materials note, left 'forgotten voices' in the walls.
The NOLA Ghost Riders tour, which departs from New Orleans and arrives at the plantation, focuses particularly on the servant staircase and the outbuildings associated with enslaved labor as locations of concentrated activity. Some investigators have suggested the specific acoustic properties of the staircase — a hollow wooden structure in a large, hard-floored room — may contribute to or amplify the footstep reports.
Notable Entities
A daytime guided tour through the 1790 Creole manor and the reconstructed enslaved cabin, led by a historical interpreter. Tours are available in English, Spanish, and French. Downloadable audio tours are also available. The tour covers the plantation's transition from indigo to sugar, the Destrehan family history, and the lives of the enslaved people who worked the property.
A 90-minute after-dark tour through the manor and grounds, beginning at 6:30 pm Thursday through Sunday. Guides provide dowsing rods and EMF readers for visitor use in rooms where apparitions, phantom footsteps, and unexplained cold spots have been reported. The tour traces the plantation's paranormal history alongside its documented human tragedy.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Hollywood, MD
Historic Sotterley is the only tidewater plantation in Maryland open to the public, with a 1703 Manor House and an 1830s slave cabin standing on 94 acres above the Patuxent River. It is a National Historic Landmark and a UNESCO Site of Memory tied to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Franklin, KY
Andrew Jackson Caldwell laid the foundation of Octagon Hall in 1847, completing the distinctive eight-sided brick residence by approximately 1860. Built on 300 acres in Franklin, Kentucky, it served as a hospital for both Confederate and Union soldiers during the Civil War and as a hiding place for retreating Confederate troops. The Octagon Hall Foundation acquired the site in 2001 and operates it as a museum and investigation venue.
Holland, MI
Dorr E. Felt, the Chicago inventor of the Comptometer adding machine, completed Felt Mansion in 1928 as a summer home for his wife Agnes. Agnes died of a stroke six weeks after moving in. The estate later served as a Catholic boys' school, a convent, and a Michigan State Police post before nonprofit restoration began.