Along the River Road: Past and Present on Louisiana’s Historic Byway

Upriver Along the East Bank

Upriver Along the East Bank Note: This linear route along the River Road from the Jefferson/ St. Charles Parish boundary upriver to Baton Rouge, with occasional side trips, offers the traveler a pleasurable outing into the area’s history, culture, and lore. Numbers indicate mileage as measured beginning at point 0.0—the sign indicating the Jefferson /St. Charles Parish line on the River Road. A new set of mileage numbers begins after the Bonnet Carré Spillway. 0.0 Jefferson/St. Charles Parish line. 0.3 The second water tower indicates the community of St. Rose, previously known as Elkinsville, one of the oldest settlements in the area. The name is derived from St. Rose Plantation, which in turn was named for the first patron saint of the Americas. A community of Italian farmers settled here before 1920, adding truck farming and national distribution of a wide variety of vegetables to the local economic base. The Cities Service Oil Company opened an oil export terminal in St. Rose in 1922. 0.5 Fairfield subdivision and Riverbend Business Park are both on property that was part of the extensive Fairview Plantation of Henry Frellsen. Frellsen was Danish consul in New Orleans and worked as a cotton factor in addition to owning the sugar and rice plantation and coping with the ongoing challenges of a non-native farming in south Louisiana. At one time the area was called Frellsen. 1.6 Almedia Road recalls the site of Almedia Plantation. 113 114  Along the River Road 1.9 Charlestowne subdivision is the site of Patterson Plantation, once a part of Fairview Plantation. Roadwork to straighten out a bad curve exposed the foundations of two houses. One, owned by Louis Augustin Meuillon, burned during the 1811 slave rebellion that started upriver in St. John the Baptist Parish. The other belonged to Jean François Piseros, a French settler who established a successful trading company that operated between New Orleans and Natchitoches. The house, built after the destruction of the Meuillon house, stood on what was called Piseros Plantation , according to Persac. Across from the subdivision is a public access to the levee. 2.0 A creole cottage is situated here at Riverview Drive, at an angle to the road, indicating levee setback. 2.3 The origins of the large oaks planted along the River Road are in dispute ; some say George Kugler, who worked at Destrehan Plantation and later became a plantation owner himself, planted them in the late nineteenth century. Others suggest that the oaks were part of LaBranche Plantation or were planted by Pan American Oil Company, originally Mexican Petroleum, in the early 1900s. 2.5 LaBranche Plantation Dependency is the primary remaining outbuilding from the LaBranche Plantation. The German von Zweigs settled here sometime after the establishment of the German Coast. Their first substantial house, built in the 1790s, was burned by the family during the Civil War to protect it from Union occupation. The substantial Creole garconni ère that remains boasts Federal-style woodwork, beaded beams and ceiling boards, and comprises four symmetrical square rooms, each with a mantel and fireplace. Though most Creole houses of this size were built as independent single homes, this one was ancillary to the big house. A surviving quarters cabin from the plantation was relocated near the garconni ère and has been restored and furnished. In the 1940s the property was renamed Idle Hour Farms and became a breeding farm for racehorses. Two curiosities: Adolf Hitler’s horse, Nordlicht, is buried here, and the bathtub of west-bank resident and Confederate general Richard Taylor, son of Zachary, is on display. Open to the public. It is said that Johann von Zweig arrived in the Louisiana colony from Germany and approached the Ursuline sisters in New Orleans to select a Upriver Along the East Bank  115 wife for him. They introduced the young man to Suzanna Marchand, and he pledged his troth. But the local French official and the French Catholic priest had great difficulty with the pronunciation of von Zweig’s name. The notary determined that, as the German would live in a French province with a French Creole wife, he should instead have a French name. Since Zweig translates from the German as “branch,” Johann von Zweig became Jean LaBranche. 2.9 Junction La. 626, St. Rose Avenue. In this area was the site of St. Rose Plantation house, a raised...