The Greenhouse
By: Morgan Thielen
The Greenhouse was originally built by Alexander Hebert and Clarisse
Broussard around 1836.
Alexander acquired 6,000 acres on the Mermentau River in
the Lowry area, some of it from government patents and others from cash sales.
It is one of the oldest houses west of the Atchafalaya, and quite a
discovery. The house was most
likely built by slaves that Alexander housed in quarters just south of the home
site. The house can be considered
an Acadian style cottage in design and construction.
It was built with poteaux sur sole, or post on sill,
and bousillage entre poteaux, which is a combination of mud, Spanish moss, and
lime.
It has two large fire
places, and pillars of split cypress block, which is typical of
18th and 19th century Acadian-French design.
It is now being restored to its original form by the Lacassane Company.
Alexander and Clarisse had eight children.
There names were Clemence, Melanie, Aladin, Aspazie,
Caramalite, Belzire, Desire, and Eloisa.
Aladin and Aspazie were twins, one of whom drowned
in the nearby river.
His body was pulled out by a young slave named Bart
who continued to work for Alexander after emancipation until his death after the
turn of the century.
Another one of the children, Desire, later became
the patriarch of the family and increased the family’s landholdings.
Alexander died in 1865, and Clarisse lived until
1890.
The family is listed in the census as “grassers” because
they ran cattle across the entire Southwest Louisiana prairie.
In 1891, Desire sold his Vacherie consisting of
about 8,000 acres to Captain Lowry and his group of Hoosier investors.
They attempted to farm rice on a grand scale, but
severe flooding ruined all prospects of this being successful.
After this failure, the property was then sold to
the present day Lacassane Company.
Several other groups occupied the house before the
Lacassane Company obtained it.
In the early 20th
century a group of Franciscan monks inhabited the house, and it supposedly
served as a drop-off for bootleggers during the prohibition, and later a
brothel.
The Unkel family lived in the Greenhouse from 1914-1916
when they were decimated by typhoid and moved.
Sibyl Unkel Davis, now a resident of Houston, was
born in the house in 1914, and she is providing photographs of the house from
this period.
Today the Lacassane Company is working hard to restore the
Greenhouse to as close to its original form as possible.
Chad Thielen and other members of the Lacassane
Company have been collecting the history of the Greenhouse through concentrated
research.
There are other interesting facts surrounding the Greenhouse that help to
understand its past. For example, Jean
Lafitte supposedly sold slaves in the area to Jim Bowie who then transported
them by land away from the area. Lafitte,
under pursuit of federal authorities, deposited three hundred slaves on an
island several miles south of the Greenhouse.
They all died on the island and the bones are still visible today.
Also, the area around the Greenhouse served as a crossing point for
cattle that moved along the Lafitte Cut Off and were then sold in Brashear City,
now Morgan City. Desire would loan money
to the drivers who promised to repay him on their return trip. One man cheated
Desire, and did not repay him. Desire
and Bart, the slave who pulled Desire’s brother
out of the river, rode to Texas and shot the man “stone cold dead.”
Desire was not prosecuted because he was a man of property and integrity.
Another story is that of one of Desire’s offspring.
The man told his children and wife that he would be leaving for about two
years. The day after his departure his
horse returned to the Greenhouse without him.
A search party was organized, and his body was found on the banks of the
Lacassine Bayou with his throat cut ear to ear.
The death was ruled a suicide.
