Page 6 - THE BOOK MCLHHC

MAISON CHENAL & LACOUR HOUSE PROPERTIES & COLLECTION A Louisiana French Creole Tout Ensemble
CREOLE CONNECTION
BY KELLI BOZEMAN Photos by Melissa Oivanki
inRegister MARCH 2015
The spirit of Louisiana colonial culture lives on in Jack and Pat Holden’s amazing collection of historic homes and antiques
Maison Chenal
“We call this one of our windows in time,” says Jack Holden, motioning toward a shadowy bedroom corner where plaster has been peeled away like a curtain.
When this Creole cottage was built c1790’s, he explains, the mud and moss mix known as bousillage would have been packed tight between the rough cypress planks to ward off drafts on cold south Louisiana nights. “We cut away the plaster so people could see how things were done back then.”
Peepholes to the past like this one are scattered throughout the Pointe Coupee Parish property that Jack and his wife Pat call home. But what quickly becomes apparent to any visitor is that this entire place is a window in time. Over the past four decades, the couple has pieced together a rare treasury of historic structures that spreads across 75 acres and spans both sides of a rural highway. The buildings are filled with Louisiana-built antique furnishings and colonial period vignettes, all carefully researched and assembled in an effort to ensure that Louisiana’s cultural heritage is preserved.
“Some people rescue stray dogs,” Pat says with a smile. “We were the rescuers of threatened buildings. We moved all of these things in because they were threatened with oblivion in some way.”
The fruits of the Holdens’ labors have been highlighted by national publications and TV shows, and the two
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