The North and South Pigeonniers were built around 1820 at Oakland Plantation to provide a source of pigeons for the owner of the plantation and his family to eat, to provide fertilizer for elegant flower gardens that adorned the main house, and to add a dash of social prestige, as keeping pigeons was a privilege of the "landed gentry" social class. Pigeonniers were not-so-subtle indications of weath, power, and high social status, which is why they are located near the main house so everyone could see them.
The pigeons and the pigeonniers at Oakland Plantation were tended by the African slaves who worked this plantation, now preserved as part of the National Park Service Cane River Creole National Historic Site near Natchez LA.
From the National Park Service: (
visit link)
"A River and Its People
The Cane River region is home to a unique culture; the Creoles. The nearly three hundred year relationship between the Cane River Creoles and their homeland was shaped by the river. This relationship was tested by flood, drought, war, and numerous other obstacles. Luckily, their resilience and resourcefulness has allowed the Creole culture to endure and thrive.
What Does it Mean to be Creole?
In colonial Louisiana the term "Creole" was used to indicate New World products derived from Old World stock, and could apply to people, architecture, and foodways. Regarding people, Creole historically referred to those born in Louisiana during the French and Spanish periods, regardless of their ethnicity. Today, as in the past, Creole transcends racial boundaries. It connects people to their colonial roots, be they descendants of European settlers, enslaved Africans, or those of mixed heritage, which may include African, French, Spanish, and American Indian influences.
Cane River Creole National Historical Park's Oakland and Magnolia Plantations are excellent places to immerse oneself in the Creole culture and observe their past and continuing contributions to our entire nation."
Plans and drawings of the pigeonniers from a historical survey done in 1996 are located here: (
visit link)
"Title
Oakland Plantation, South Pigeonnier, Route 494, Bermuda, Natchitoches Parish, LA
Other Title
Cane River Creole National Historical Park
...
Subject Headings
- dovecotes
- Louisiana -- Natchitoches Parish -- Bermuda
Notes
- Suggested address, Rt. 494, is not verifiable in documentation.
- 1988 Charles E. Peterson Prize, Honorable Mention
- Significance: The South Pigeonnier is one of two pigeon-storage houses built in the 1820s. It is of bousillage (mud and moss between heavy timbers) construction. The first floor area includes shelves and benches for storage and repair work. The second floor contains setting and egg collection facilities. The manure was prized as flower and garden fertilizer. The birds and their eggs were eaten and considered to be great delicacies. The roof is covered in cypress shingles and is in great need of repair.
...
- Building/structure dates: after. 1820- before. 1830 Initial Construction
- National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 79001073"
From the National Historic Landmark Nomination form for Oakland Plantation: (
visit link)
"Pigeonniers (2) (contributing, deteriorated condition)
On Creole plantations pigeonniers were often located near the main house to connote prestige and identify the owner as a member of the “gentry” (see Part 8). There was no set pattern; their placement varied. Sometimes a set of pigeonniers framed the main view of the house, while sometimes there was only a single pigeonnier on the property.
Similar but not identical, the two pigeonniers at Oakland (c.1830-c.1850) are set to the south side of the main house – one to the front and one to the rear. Each is a squarish two story tower under a pyramidal roof. Also, as was common, the upper story, which contains the roosting space and nesting boxes, is less than full height.
Both feature bousillage construction on the lower story, and both have pigeon access holes on just one side. There are some differences between the two. The east pigeonnier is slightly taller than its western counterpart.
Also, the east pigeonnier features French joinery in the framing, while the west one does not. Overall, about 75% of the original clapboard siding remains. Both were in a deteriorated condition when NPS acquired Oakland, and they are at present (1996) completely encased in plywood protective structures as a temporary preservation measure.
. . . .
[page 16]
The rural French Creole building tradition is also known for the use of pigeonniers to ornament the plantation.
Domestic pigeons had value not only as a delicacy but as a source of fertilizer. However, as noted by Louisiana plantation specialist Barbara Bacot, “it was less a taste for squab than for status that exalted the pigeonnier.”
Bacot, in Lousiana Buildings, 1720-1940, notes that in France only landowners had the right to keep pigeons under the Old Regime, and some of the landed gentry chose to frame their houses with pairs of dovecotes.
In Louisiana pigeonniers used in the form of monumental towers set near the main house continued as a fashion well into the nineteenth century. By contrast, on English plantations, where birds were sometimes kept, the roost or dovecote would typically have been little more than nesting boxes set in the gable of the barn.
. . .
Among this very small and select group Oakland is conspicuous because of the sheer number of buildings in the French Creole tradition that survive in one place. Not only is there a classic French Creole plantation house of the largest size built in the Mississippi valley and two rare surviving pigeonniers, there are a total of eight buildings featuring bousillage construction, one of the hallmarks of rural Creole architecture. Bousillage,
related to English wattle and daub construction, was commonplace in rural Louisiana in the colonial period and well into the nineteenth century. In all of the state today, Oakland, with eight, has by far the largest number of bousillage buildings at any single property. In fact, it is the only rural Creole property known to retain more
than one bousillage building.
In addition, the overseer’s house makes an important contribution to Oakland’s “Creoleness.” Creole features include its hipped roof, galleried form; its floorplan; French joinery; and its central chimney (not to mention its bousillage construction). The cook’s house also has the broad galleried form and French joinery associated with Creole architecture.
Certain Creole buildings at Oakland are of particular national importance – namely the main house and the two pigeonniers.
As previously noted, the main house is a textbook example of the largest size of French Creole plantation house built in Louisiana. Although the rural Creole tradition embraces various house sizes and permutations, it finds its ultimate expression in plantation houses such as Oakland, Parlange, and Homeplace – large residences raised a fully story above grade with encircling galleries and a huge umbrella-like roof. It is impossible to determine the number of these “great houses” that once existed in the French areas of rural Louisiana, although they must have numbered a 100 or more. Early written accounts as well as other documentation (photographs, paintings and 1930s HABS drawings) record numerous examples that are no longer extant."