6 “Old South” Plantation Homes You Can Visit
Three in Louisiana, plus one each in Tennessee, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
1. Belle Meade Plantation, Nashville, Tennessee. This 19th century mansion and former thoroughbred stud farm, to which champion racehorses Seabiscuit and Secretariat trace their lineage, offers themed tours, including the new “Bourbon at Belle Meade.”
2. Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Revered for its moss-draped Avenue of Oaks, grand Colonial-style manor and live presentation of the Gullah cultural heritage, Boone Hall dates to 1681 and is still a working farm.
3. Houmas House Estate and Gardens, Darrow, Louisiana. This former sugar plantation features a Greek Revival mansion situated among lush gardens and live oaks, and its expansive grounds include an inn, several restaurants, and the newly opened Great River Road Museum.
5. Monmouth Historic Inn and Gardens, Natchez, Mississippi. Once owned by cotton planter and Mississippi Governor John Quitman, the former “White House of Mississippi” is full of Civil War history and now is an inn featuring antebellum-era antiques and 26 picturesque acres to roam.
6. Nottoway Plantation, White Castle, Louisiana. Exquisite architecture in the Greek and Italianate style defines the South’s largest antebellum mansion, completed in 1859 on a sprawling sugarcane estate, now a posh resort near Baton Rouge.