Things to Do at Southdown Plantation House

Southdown Plantation House sits quietly on the banks of Bayou Terrebonne in Houma, and it's one of those places that actually gives you a sense of what antebellum Louisiana was really like. Built in 1859 by William Minor, this Greek Revival mansion was the centerpiece of a massive sugar plantation that once sprawled across thousands of acres. The house itself is genuinely impressive - you'll find yourself standing in rooms where Confederate generals once dined and where the complexities of 19th-century Southern life played out in all their contradictions. What makes Southdown particularly interesting is that it doesn't shy away from the harder truths of plantation life. The museum does a decent job of presenting both the grandeur of the planter class and the brutal realities of enslaved labor that made it all possible. You might find yourself spending more time here than expected, not just admiring the period furnishings and architecture, but actually grappling with the layered history of sugar, slavery, and survival in the Louisiana bayou country.

Southdown Plantation House is located at 1208 Museum Drive in Houma, about an hour southwest of New Orleans via US-90. If you're driving from the French Quarter, you'll head west through some genuinely beautiful Louisiana countryside. The plantation is well-marked once you get into Houma, and there's decent parking on site. Public transportation options are pretty limited out here, so having a car is really your best bet.