However, it was too late to save the plantation complex.
In 1783, the mansion and several of its outbuildings were destroyed by fire, and the plantation complex gradually deteriorated into ruins.
The property was a largely self-sufficient plantation complex.
The city began in an old sugar mill and plantation complex around the 19th century.
With its additional rammed earth outbuildings, the plantation complex is also a National Historic Landmark.
Another residential structure largely unique to plantation complexes was the garconnière or bachelors' quarters.
The house was basically complete by 1826, although work on various buildings of the plantation complex continued up to 1835.
With buildings constructed from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century, it was one of the largest plantation complexes in the American South.
Once famed in Alabama for its architecture, it was an unusual mixing of neoclassical and picturesque aesthetics in one plantation complex.
It is one of only 15 plantation complexes in Louisiana with this degree of complete structures.