Contract and lawsuits: building Wakefield Plantation in St. Francisville Louisiana

Garrison, J. RichieBetween 1830 and 1835, the wealthy cotton planters of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana began building the first examples of the Greek Revival mansions that have come to represent the Gulf South in the popular imagination. The advent of the cotton kingdom set off a building boom in the Mississippi River Valley challenging the abilities of the local building community to complete the many building projects of a newly wealthy elite seeking to affirm their societal status through massive building projects. This thesis explores the building of Wakefield Plantation for Lewis Stirling through a pair of lawsuits that document the construction of the plantation house. A detailed reading of the lawsuits reveals the complex process of designing and building a house before the advent of modern architectural practices. The building of Wakefield Plantation bridges the gap between the thoroughly localized artisanal traditions and the increasing professionalization of the building trade. The construction process and subsequent lawsuit reveal the chaotic process of experimentation, where both the patron and the undertaker of construction attempted to come to terms with the emergence of West Feliciana from the vernacular tradition. An infusion of builders from the American northeast brought the latest style ideas to the eager planters of the Mississippi River Valley, but the management of labor on massive building projects proved more difficult than either the builder or the undertaker of construction could imagine. As a result, this thesis explores the ways the building of Wakefield Plantation forced one local community to adopt modern practices of building.M.A.Winterthur Program in American Material Cultur