St. Francisville Says Goodbye and Good Riddance to 2020, Welcome to 2021
By Anne Butler
As the new year opens, with vaccines and continued mitigation measures revealing the light at the end of the terrible tunnel, St. Francisville has much to celebrate and look forward to, for 2021 marks the 200th anniversary of the artist John James Audubon’s inspirational stay in the area. Hired by Lucretia Pirrie, mistress of Oakley Plantation, to tutor her young daughter Eliza for the summer, Audubon arrived at the Mississippi River port of Bayou Sara by steamboat in June of 1821. His arrival marked a pivotal point in his career. The artist who was “bereft at that time of not only funds but incentive” was about to be introduced to the rich flora and fauna of the Felicianas, teeming with birdlife, that would renew his enthusiasm and artistic inspiration to continue on his staggering quest to paint all the birds of this immense fledgling country..
He recorded in his journal that the rich lushness of the landscape and flourishing birdlife “all excited my admiration,” and he would find the inspiration to paint dozens of his bird studies while residing at Oakley. The arrangement called for him to be paid $60 a month plus room and board for himself and his young assistant Mason, with half of each day free to collect and paint bird specimens from the surrounding woods, where he certainly must have cut a dashing figure in his long flowing locks, frilly shirts and satin breeches.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of his arrival in the Felicianas, the West Feliciana Tourist Commission is planning an Audubon Interpretive Trail program, tracing his footsteps as he walked from Bayou Sara to Oakley Plantation, recording the amazing number of structures he would have seen and interacted with that are still standing in St. Francisville. These historic homes and businesses, governmental locations, churches and cemeteries have been preserved due to the area’s abiding sense of place, allowing visitors to experience at least partially what Audubon must have seen during his stay in 1821.
A 1937 biography by colorful Louisiana historian/author Stanley Clisby Arthur described Audubon’s aura of mysterious charm: “a gifted artist, quasi-naturalist, sometime dandy, quondam merchant, unkempt wanderer, many-sided human being...A halo of romance surrounds his entire career, and he was generally regarded as mad because of his strange self-absorption, his long hair, tattered garments, and persistence in chasing about the countryside after little birdies.” The good-looking and graceful young Audubon had a decided way with the ladies, played the flute as well as flageolet and violin, danced a mean cotillion, fenced, and was partial to snuff and a liberal helping of early-morning grog.
In 1820, following a string of failed business ventures, he set out for New Orleans aboard a flatboat with only his gun, flute, violin, bird books, portfolios of his own drawings, chalks, watercolors, drawing papers in a tin box, and a dog-eared journal. As he wrote in his journal, “Without any Money My Talents are to be My support and my Enthusiasm my Guide in My Difficulties.” He earned a meager living painting portraits and giving lessons in drawing, dancing and more scholastic subjects, but by the following year Audubon was established at Oakley Plantation near St. Francisville and well on his way to accomplishing his dream.
In 1826 the artist started for Europe in search of a publisher; he had 240 bird drawings and $1700 his wife had saved from her earnings. He went first to England, then to Scotland with his “Birds of America,” and there the William H. Lizars Company of Edinburgh etched on copper plates the first ten drawings. After difficulties caused by colorists delaying production by going on strike in Scotland, Audubon took his drawings to the London company of Robert Havell and Son. It took eleven years to complete the copper plates of all, first run off in black and white, then hand colored to exactly match the original drawings, all under the supervision of Audubon. The original prints of “The Birds of America” measured 39½” by 29½” and were known as the Elephant Folio because of the size, bound in sets of four books; just under 200 complete bound sets were made up, sold by subscriptions costing $1000, and they represented 1065 lifesized birds. One of these original sets is in the rare book collection at LSU’s Hill Memorial Library.
Audubon died in January of 1851 in New York at the age of 66, some 30 years after his summer at Oakley set him on the road to recognition as one of the greatest bird artists and naturalists of all time, his bird studies characterized as “the greatest monument erected by art to nature.” As he would write in his journal on March 1, 1828, “The reason why my works pleased was because they are all exact copies of the works of God, who is the Great Architect and Perfect Artist—nature, indifferently copied, is far superior to the best idealities.”
And in the year 2021, the St. Francisville area will celebrate the colorful artist, his amazing bird studies, and hopefully the end of a devastating global pandemic. This might be a good year to give gift certificates from struggling small businesses in the St. Francisville area...the restaurants, overnight accommodations, gift shops and mercantiles, antiques co-ops, bookstores, art galleries, museums, historic tours, boutiques and all the other little indie businesses that have suffered from closures and limitations to keep customers safe.
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting; note that Clark Creek Natural Area with its waterfalls just across the Mississippi state line will not reopen until spring, but other fine options for hiking include Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge, Mary Ann Brown Nature Preseve, and the West Feliciana Parish Sports Park. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses in St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.
For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3688 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224; online www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com or www.stfrancisville.net.
For decades, St. Francisville’s wonderful Christmas in the Country celebration has drawn excited crowds to escape mall madness and celebrate a safe small-town holiday the first weekend in December. Its historic charm shone as tiny white lights climbed Victorian gallery posts to turn this little rivertown into a magical venue, its lavishly decorated shop windows filled with alluring gift possibilities and a delightful parade lending its theme to the whole shebang…Walking in a Winter Wonderland, or Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, or something equally upbeat.
Be sure to drive through the West Feliciana Parish Hospital’s lighting display from Burnett Road to Commerce St. and enjoy cookies and cocoa; this will be a popular drive-through all month. Also on Friday, from 7:30 to 9 p.m., Hemingbough hosts the Holiday Brass concert featuring the Baton Rouge Symphony.
There will be book signings for the new Soul of St. Francisville volume, full of fascinating history of iconic faces and places plus beautiful portraiture, at the West Feliciana Historical Society museum on Ferdinand Street on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at The Conundrum bookstore Sunday from 11 to 1.
But the big draw this weekend is the wonderful array of shopping opportunities in St. Francisville. There are co-ops bursting at the seams with antiques and one-of-a-kind collectibles, plus art galleries, specialty boutiques, ladies’ fashions, home décor and gift shops, ice cream parlors and candy shoppes, a bookstore, candles and crafts, fine jewelers and more. Many of these are located in charming repurposed historic structures, some of which were private cottages and others carrying on the tradition of several centuries as mercantiles.
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses in St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.
They come from every direction…from north or south along crowded US Highway 61, from the east via LA Highway 10, from the west across the new Audubon Bridge over the Mississippi River…and once they cross that parish line into West Feliciana, there is a collective audible sigh. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!
A Facebook request drew insightful comments from a wide variety of St. Francisville lovers---those born and bred here who never left, whose bloodlines run as deep and strong as the roots of those majestic live oaks; those who couldn’t wait to leave, but found themselves inevitably drawn back home; and those who came to visit and simply never left. And there were three main themes as to why St. Francisville’s logo “We Love It Here” is so fitting. First, the rolling hills and deep hollows, the verdant pastoral reaches, the mighty river and bountiful blossoms in well-tended gardens with always the scent of sweet olive or some other old fragrance perfuming the air, the terrain unlike any other in flat swampy south Louisiana (as one said, when you live in the swamp, West Feliciana seems like mountains).
Can this feeling be captured in a book? You bet it can, and it has, in the newly released book called The Soul of St. Francisville by two who earlier collaborated on the initial volume, Spirit of St. Francisville. Anne Butler is the author of more than twenty books, whose passion is the preservation of Louisiana history and culture, and who feels a real sense of urgency in getting all this preserved in one permanent volume. Award-winning artist Darrell Chitty is a real Renaissance man whose never-ending quest for new knowledge and techniques leads him into the future of art as well as into the past. This book is a showcase of his varied talents; some portraits you’d swear were Old Masters and some have been executed in the most modern of art forms. And yes, they both have discerning and loving eyes that certainly can see into the depths of the soul.
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, andNatchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination; check locally for coronavirus mitigation requirements, please. Several splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: The Cottage Plantation (weekends), Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens is open in season. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation (a National Historic Landmark) and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century life and customs.