Palo Alto Plantation House, Donaldsonville, Ascension Parish, LA

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Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey

10 drawings
1 data pages

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TITLE:
Palo Alto Plantation House, Donaldsonville, Ascension Parish, LA

CALL NUMBER:
HABS LA-1321

REPRODUCTION NUMBER:
[See Call Number]

MEDIUM:
Measured Drawing(s): 10 (24 x 36 in.)

DATE:
Documentation compiled after 1933.

CREATOR:
Historic American Buildings Survey, creator

NOTE:
Survey number HABS LA-1321

Unprocessed field note material exists for this structure (N924).

Building/structure dates: 1852 initial construction

Building/structure dates: 1950 subsequent work

0.2003

Significance: Palo Alto is an Anglo-Creole type Louisiana plantation cottage decorated in Greek Revival style. Its name commemorates a famous battle in the Mexican War, May 8, 1846. The house was probably constructed by Pierre Oscar Ayraud between 1852 and 1860. On stylistic grounds it is believed that it may have been designed by prominent Louisiana architect James H. Dakin (1806-1852). In 1860 the plantation was mortgaged to Jacob Lemann (1809-1887), a German immigrant to Louisiana who arrived in 1836. He was, by 1840, a successful merchant in Donaldsonville. The property passed to Jacob's ownership in 1867, following the Civil War.

SUBJECTS:
LOUISIANA--Ascension Parish--Donaldsonville
domestic life
plantation houses

COLLECTION:
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

REPOSITORY:
Library of Congress, Prints and Photograph Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

DIGID:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.la0460

CONTROL #:
LA0460

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