PRESS St. Francisville, LA Events February - March 2016
Black History Month Display: Month
of February, 10 am-4 pm. In celebration of Black History Month,
Rosedown Plantation will mount a display in the gift shop conference
room honoring the lives and accomplishments of African-Americans. The
exhibit will feature pictures, brief biographies and music of
African-Americans who had an influence on history. . For more
information call 877.376.1867 toll free or 225.635.3332 locally.
Garden Tour Fridays: February
5, 2016, 10 am. A guided walking tour of the historic Rosedown Gardens
and Outbuildings. Program occurs every first Friday of each month.
For more information call 877.376.1867 toll free or 225.635.3332 locally.
St. Francisville’s Writers and Readers Symposium: A Celebration of Literature and Art
February 20, 2016
Recognized as the cultural center of the Felicianas for the
large number of artists, authors and other creative souls who reside in
its historic homes and pastoral settings, St. Francisville, LA, has also
become popular with fans of good literature who come together from a
wide area each February to enjoy the annual Writers and Readers
Symposium.
Once again the sponsoring arts and
humanities group called A Celebration of Literature and Art, Inc. has
put together an amazing group of authors and artists who will speak
about their creative processes and mingle with enthusiastic fans at
Hemingbough Conference Center on Saturday, February 20. Registration
begins at 8:30 a.m., with presentations by featured authors starting at
9, lunch served at noon, a 1 p.m. author’s panel Q&A, followed by an
hour-long autograph session beginning at 2 p.m. An added visual treat
will be A Novel Image, a competitive exhibit of photographs, paintings
and sculpture matched with literary works. The Saturday symposium will
be followed on Sunday by a Writers Workshop led by Margaret McMullan for
both experienced and aspiring authors at the West Feliciana Parish
Library from 9 to 4.
Featured presenters this year
will be award-winning novelist Margaret McMullan, who released her
moving seventh novel Aftermath Lounge on the 10th anniversary
of Hurricane Katrina; Renaissance man Michael Rubin, jazz pianist,
national speaker/humorist, and practicing attorney whose murder mystery
The Cottoncrest Curse was published by LSU Press; New Orleans poet Mona
Lisa Saloy returning to share a new book of poetry called Second Line
Home; and noted Louisiana photographer Philip Gould and renowned public
muralist Robert Dafford. The Public Art of Robert Dafford, one of
Gould’s dozen books, features his superb images in both words and
photographs of some of Dafford’s most memorable murals, painted in this
country, Canada, France, Belgium and Great Britain, and both artists
will be present for the symposium at Hemingbough.
A
Celebration of Literature and Art is a non-profit organization whose
goal is to bring together people who delight in the creative process—the
writers, visual artists, actors and musicians, as well as those who
enjoy and value what others have crafted. To submit an entry for A Novel
Image, send digital image to coordinator Darlene Reaves at dayreaves@bellsouth.net by December 15. For tickets, register online with credit card at www.brownpapertickets.com (OLLI members www.outreach.lsu.edu/olli).
Fees for the symposium are $40 for 2015 registrants; $50 for 2016
registrants; $60 at door. Writers Workshop fee is $150; limited
scholarships are available. Online information is available at
www.literatureandart.org.
Supported by a grant from
the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development,
Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism in cooperation with the
Louisiana State Arts Council as administered by the Arts Council of
Greater Baton Rouge.
March 2016
Garden Tour Fridays: March
4, 2016, 10 am. A guided walking tour of the historic Rosedown Gardens
and Outbuildings. Program occurs every first Friday of each month.
For more information call 877.376.1867 toll free or 225.635.3332 locally.
Easter Egg Hunt: March
12, 2016, 1 pm. Easter was an important holiday at Rosedown in the
1800s. On this day children can participate in an old-fashioned Easter
Egg Hunt on the grounds of the plantation. After the hunt, children can
enjoy playing 19th century games. Prizes will be awarded to the children who find the special “Rosedown” eggs.
For more information call 877.376.1867 toll free or 225.635.3332 locally.
2016 Audubon Pilgrimage
General Press Release
By Anne Butler
The forty-fifth annual Audubon Pilgrimage March 18, 19 and 20, 2016,
celebrates a southern spring in St. Francisville, the glorious garden
spot of Louisiana’s English Plantation Country. For over four decades
the sponsoring West Feliciana Historical Society has thrown open the
doors of significant historic structures to commemorate
artist-naturalist John James Audubon’s stay as he painted a number of
his famous bird studies and tutored the daughter of Oakley Plantation’s
Pirrie family, beautiful young Eliza. A year’s worth of planning and
preparation precedes each pilgrimage, and with 45 years of experience
under their belt, society members put on one of the South’s most
professional and enjoyable pilgrimage presentations.
This year’s tour features several townhouses in St. Francisville’s
National Register Historic District and two early plantations in the
surrounding countryside, each illustrative of the interconnections of
early homes and family histories.
The Cabildo, thought to have
been built on Royal Street in St. Francisville as early as 1809 with
handhewn joists and brick walls 22 inches thick, is a Spanish colonial
structure used over the years as monastery, tavern frequented by
Audubon, bank/counting house, West Feliciana’s first parish courthouse
beginning in 1824, barbershop, grocery, hotel, drugstore, library, and
now beautifully restored present residence of Peggy and Joey Gammill,
preservation/conservation experts.
Vinci Cottage at Virginia,
all of 1000 feet, was built in the forties of materials salvaged from
the detached kitchen and servants’ quarters behind the 1817 historic
townhouse on Royal Street called Virginia, perfect for owner Nancy
Vinci’s “downsizing with dog.” Supplementing the postage-stamp lawn of
this cottage is Woodleigh Garden, just across Royal, a beautifully
landscaped hillside setting filled by owners Leigh Anne and Butch Jones
with heirloom pass-along plantings and a pleasant brick courtyard with
fountain.
The Myrtles, a raised English cottage begun
in the late 1790s by Judge David Bradford, leader of the Whiskey
Rebellion, was enlarged by subsequent owners throughout the 19th
century. The long front gallery is graced with grape-cluster wrought
iron, and inside rooms are formalized with elaborate plaster friezework
and marble mantels in the twin parlors. John E. and Teeta Moss are the
current owners.
Rosale Plantation, north of St. Francisville at
Wakefield, was part of early settler Alexander Stirling’s enormous 1790s
landholdings; when the elaborate brick house his daughter Ann Skillman
built in 1836 burned in the 1880s, the family moved into the two-story
schoolhouse, built the same time. Today the simple farmhouse with
sweeping vistas of manicured oak-shaded lawns and multiple ponds is
owned by Peter and Lynda Truitt.
Other popular
features of the 2016 Audubon Pilgrimage include Afton Villa Gardens,
Audubon (Oakley) and Rosedown State Historic Sites, three 19th-century
churches in town and beautiful St. Mary’s in the country, as well as
the Rural Homestead with lively demonstrations of the rustic skills of
daily pioneer life. An Audubon Play will be performed several times
daily on Saturday and Sunday in recently restored Temple Sinai. Daytime
features are open 9:30 to 5, Sunday 11 to 4 for tour homes; Friday
evening activities are scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m., Saturday soiree
begins at 7 p.m.
The Historic District around Royal Street is
filled during the day with the happy sounds of costumed children singing
and dancing the Maypole; in the evening as candles flicker and
fireflies flit among the ancient moss-draped live oaks, there is no
place more inviting for a leisurely stroll. Friday evening features
old-time Hymn Singing at the United Methodist Church, Audubon Play in
Temple Sinai, Graveyard Tours at Grace Episcopal cemetery (last tour
begins at 8:15 p.m.), and a wine and cheese reception at Bishop Jackson
Hall (7 to 9 p.m.) featuring Vintage Dancers and young ladies modeling
the pilgrimage’s exquisitely detailed 1820’s evening costumes,
nationally recognized for their authenticity. Light Up The Night, the
Saturday evening soiree, features live music and dancing, dinner and
drinks beginning at 7 p.m.
For tickets and tour information,
contact West Feliciana Historical Society, Box 338, St. Francisville, LA
70775; phone 225-635-6330 or 225-635-4224; online www.westfelicianahistoricalsociety.org, email wfhistsociety@gmail.com.
A package including daytime tours and all evening entertainment Friday
and Saturday is available. Tickets can be purchased at the Historical
Society Museum on Ferdinand Street. For information on St. Francisville
overnight accommodations, shops, restaurants, and recreation in the
Tunica Hills, see www.stfrancisville.us, www.stfrancisville.net, or www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com
