March 19 - 21 Weekend Happenings

39^th Annual Audubon Pilgrimage

Since 1972 the West Feliciana Historical Society has given visitors an intimate glimpse of Audubon’s Happy Land and its historic homes and gardens.  Each year the centerpiece of the Pilgrimage is the Oakley House at Audubon State Historic Site where John James Audubon tutored Eliza Pirrie in 1821.  The house is open all three days of the Pilgrimage along with Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site and Afton Villa Gardens.  This year the private homes open for tours include Cabildo on Royal Street; Laurel Hill and St. John’s Church in Laurel Hill; Barrow House on Royal Street; and Butler Greenwood on Highway 61.

 

The three churches located in St. Francisville’s Historic District are also open to visitors and are Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church; United Methodist Church of St. Francisville; and Grace Episcopal Church.  The Rural Homestead located on the corner of Highway 61 and 66 will showcase those almost forgotten skills used by the plain folk of the nineteenth century South.  Local volunteers will demonstrate open hearth and wood stove cookery, basket weaving, quilting, cotton carding and spinning, while the grist mill grinds out cornmeal.  Shingles are rived and ground is broken by mule and plow, all to the beat of the blacksmith’s hammer on iron.

 

Costumes worn by Pilgrimage workers reflect the authentic dress of the 1820s and have won national recognition from the American Association of State and Local History.  For more information or to purchase your tickets -- $30 good for all three days of the Pilgrimage – call the West Feliciana Historical Society office at 225-635-6330.

 

Friday, March 19

9:00 am                       Tickets go on sale at the Ticket Office behind the Historical Society Museum

9:30 am – 5 pm          Tours at Pilgrimage Sites; Antique Show & Sale in Historic District

6:15 pm                      West Florida Republic Re-enactment at Grace Church

6:30 pm – 9 pm         Graveyard Tour at Grace Church

                                    Robust Hymn Singing, Methodist Church

                                    Wine & Cheese Reception, Historical Society Museum

                                    Royal Street by Candlelight

Saturday, March 20

9:00 am                       Tickets go on sale at the Ticket Office behind the Historical Society Museum

9:30 am – 5 pm          Tours at Pilgrimage Sites; Antique Show & Sale in Historic District

7 pm                           Light Up the Night, Saturday Soiree at Parker Park

Sunday, March 21

9:30 am – 5 pm          Tours open at Oakley House, Rosedown Plantation, and Afton Villa Gardens

12 noon – 5 pm         Private Homes open for tours

 

Book Signings

Bevil Knapp will be signing her just released book, St. Francisville: Louisiana’s Historic River Bluff Country on Friday, Marcy 19 from 9 am until 1 pm at Sage Hill Gifts & Antiques; on Friday, March 19 from 1:30 pm until 4:30 pm at Hillcrest Gardens & Interiors; and on Saturday, March 20 from 9 am until 3:30 pm at Grandmother’s Buttons.

 

Avondale Antiques

This antique shop will be open the third weekend – March 19 – 21 – along with Craig Roth’s Pottery Studio.  Avondale Antiques is located on Commerce Street.