Qualla: Nottoway Plantation

Nottoway Plantation: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elisa Rolle, CC BY-SA 3.0. The double curved granite staircases had separate sides for ladies and gentlemen -- the left for women, the right for men -- so that no gentleman would catch a glimpse of a lady's ankles beneath her skirts as she climbed. A boot scraper at the bottom marked the men's side. This was the kind of house Nottoway was: a place where social etiquette was literally built into the architecture. Completed in 1859 near White Castle, Louisiana, the Greek Revival and Italianate mansion held 64 rooms, 165 doors, 200 windows, and over an acre of floor space spread across three stories. It was the largest surviving antebellum plantation house in the Southern United States. On May 15, 2025, fire consumed it. The concrete foundations and remnants of the southeast wall are all that remain of the main house, though several dependencies and historic structures survived on site.

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Image: Elisa Rolle | CC BY-SA 3.0

Nottoway Plantation: A Rivalry Written in Cypress and Marble

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Per source. Please credit "Family collection of Infrogmation", CC BY-SA 4.0. John Hampden Randolph, born in Virginia in 1813 to the prominent Randolph family, moved to southern Louisiana in 1842 and made his fortune converting a cotton plantation to sugar cane, constructing Iberville Parish's first steam-powered sugar mill. By the mid-1850s, he owned 176 ...

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Image: Per source. Please credit "Family collection of Infrogmation" | CC BY-SA 4.0

Nottoway Plantation: The White Ballroom and Dresden Doorknobs

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricky Idlett, CC BY 4.0. The interiors of Nottoway were designed to astonish. Baccarat crystal and brass chandeliers hung from the ceilings of the second-floor entrance hall, which ran the full length of the house. Every door featured hand-painted German Dresden porcelain doorknobs with matching keyhole ...

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Image: Ricky Idlett | CC BY 4.0

Nottoway Plantation: Surviving the War, One Grapeshot at a Time

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Serge Ottaviani, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the Civil War erupted shortly after Nottoway's completion, Randolph backed the Confederacy financially and sent his three sons to fight. He lost his eldest, Algernon Sidney, at the Battle of Vicksburg. As Union forces advanced through Louisiana, Randolph took 200 enslaved wo...

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Image: Serge Ottaviani | CC BY-SA 3.0

Nottoway Plantation: Keepers of a Crumbling Crown

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Landry76, CC BY-SA 4.0. Nottoway passed through a succession of owners who each struggled with its enormous scale. Sugar planter Alfonse Hanlon lost it to foreclosure in 1913 after consecutive crop failures. Dr. Whyte G. Owen, a former Surgeon General of Louisiana, bought it out of foreclosure for $10,0...

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Image: Landry76 | CC BY-SA 4.0