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Cottage Plantation house, built with Doric columns
Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana
Cottage Plantation, two buildings meet in "L" shape
Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours, Foundation for Historical Louisiana

The Cottage Plantation House was built from 1795 to 1859 and consists of three buildings joined together. The architecture reflects both Spanish and English influence. Built of virgin cypress, except the massive sills, the core of the house dates from the Spanish colonial era, beginning in 1795. Completed in 1859, the Cottage Plantation consisted of two buildings in the form of an "L," with the original house as part of the foot of the L. Standing complete as it did in antebellum days, the Cottage Plantation has in addition to the plantation home the old school house, outside kitchen, milk house, carriage house, barn, three slave houses, and other outbuildings. Every room was originally furnished with a hand carved fireplace mantle, some of extreme simplicity and others elaborate with fluted Doric columns and panels in a sunburst design.

Judge Thomas Butler (1785-1847) acquired the Cottage Plantation around 1800. Judge Butler was the first Criminal Court judge of the Florida Parishes and a member of Congress. Moving to the Mississippi Territory c.1807, after practicing law in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he became a Captain of a cavalry troop in the Mississippi Territory Militia in 1810. Appointed Parish Judge in 1812 and Judge of the Third District in 1813 by Governor Clairborne of Louisiana, he was elected to the Fifteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas B. Robertson. Re-elected to the Sixteenth Congress, he served until March 3, 1821. Butler was the owner of 12 sugar and cotton plantations, president of the board of trustees of the Louisiana College in Jackson, and a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. He died in St.Louis, Missouri, on August 27, 1848, and is interred on his plantation, "The Cottage."

The Cottage Plantation is located at 10528 Cottage Ln., off US Hwy 61, six miles north of St. Francisville, on the east side of the road. The Cottage offers bed and breakfast accommodations and tours daily from 9:00am to 4:30pm, there is a fee for admission. Closed on major holidays.

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