Shorpy is funded by you. Help by purchasing a print or contributing. Learn more.
Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
Vintage photos of:
Circa 1936. "Belle Grove Plantation, Louisiana, 1858. Closeup of column." Photo by Walker Evans for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
Another great Shorpy title; well done, Dave.
Ionic column.
[It's Corinthian, however. -tterrace]
How do you know since the capital is not visible?
[Because this. -tterrace]
Belle Grove was magnificent and probably the grandest of the antebellum plantation homes. It appeared in the landmark, two-volume book "Lost America" in 1971. There's another book from 1945 which was a photo gallery of both ruined and standing plantation houses, and it included several pages of close-up photos of Belle Grove made while it was in a state of decay but still standing. I believe this was titled "Ghosts Along the Mississippi," but I don't have it in front of me right now to provide the photographer/author's name.
By that time the house had been vacant for at least 20 years, and parts of it had already fallen. What remained was removed during the 1950s following extensive flood damage.
Perhaps, Shorpy will treat us to a few more views, including an overall shot of this grand old lady of yesteryear. Pretty please?
[Enter "Belle Grove" in the Search Shorpy box and you'll see three more. -tterrace]
Today's Top 5