Inheritance and Ownership Changes
On October 4, 1823, Jean Noel Destrehan passed away, leaving one of the largest estates in Louisiana to his surviving children: Nicolas, Rene, Eleonore Zelia, Louise Odile, and Celeste. After his death, his daughter Eleonore Zelia and her husband, Stephen Henderson, along with his youngest son, René, became the new owners of the plantation. Stephen Henderson managed the plantation while living in New Orleans.
In 1830, Zelia traveled to New York after attending her sister Louise’s wedding to Pierre Rost. While in New York, she unexpectedly became ill and passed away on September 19th. Henderson brought her body back to Louisiana for burial. Rene continued to live at the plantation until his death in 1836, leaving his share to his sisters, Celeste and Louise. They later sold their portions to Henderson, making him the sole owner until he passed away in 1837.
Remodeling and War
In 1839, Pierre Rost, who had married Louise Odile Destrehan, purchased the plantation. By that time, the house had been empty since Rene’s death and needed repairs. In 1840, Pierre and Louise remodeled the house in the Greek Revival style, which was popular at the time.
Pierre Rost became a judge on the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1845 and also worked to modernize the plantation. Under his management, Destrehan became the largest sugar producer in St. Charles Parish, using advanced equipment. The plantation became a summer home for the extended Destrehan family.
In 1848, Nicholas Noel died, and his will forbade his son Azby from returning to Louisiana until he was twenty-one. Adele, Nicholas Noel’s second daughter, would later marry a neighbor, Samuel McCutchon who owned the Ormond plantation.
The onset of the American Civil War in 1861 ended the profitable antebellum sugar trade. Rost took his entire family including his nephew Azby Destrehan to France. In 1861, Azby married Rosa Ferrier and died in 1862 from smallpox. He would be the last male bearing the Destrehan name. The Civil War brought drastic changes to the plantation’s fate. In 1862, as Union forces occupied southern Louisiana, the U.S. government seized the property and repurposed it as a Home Colony. These colonies were established to provide shelter, education, and employment opportunities for newly freed people and impoverished white refugees. The plantation’s vast fields and facilities were used for farming and training former enslaved individuals in trades that would help them transition into a new way of life. By 1867, following the war’s end and the implementation of Reconstruction policies, the U.S. government returned the plantation to the Rost family. Judge Pierre Rost died in 1868 and a family agreement allowed his son Emile to purchase the plantation instead of being put up for auction. Louise continued to live in the New Orleans house until her death in 1877.
Reconstruction Era
Emile Rost was a Harvard Law graduate and later served as a District Judge for the River Parishes. He never married, and in 1910, he sold the plantation to the Destrehan Manufacturing Company.
In 1914, the property was sold to the Mexican Oil Company, which later became Amoco. The company built an oil refinery and a company town on the site. When the refinery closed in 1958, the plantation house was abandoned and became a target for vandals due to a local legend that the pirate Jean Lafitte had hidden treasure on the property.
Learn more about how this Historic home was preserved.