Myrtles Plantation

The Myrtles Plantation is a historic home and former antebellum plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, United States. Built in 1796 by General David Bradford, it is touted as "one of America's most haunted homes."House and groundsArchitectureSited on a hill, the eastward facing frame house, with a clapboard exterior, is built in the Creole cottage-style that characterized many Louisiana plantation houses in the 19th-century. The original house was built in 1796 and featured six bays and three dormers on the roof. In the mid-1850s, the one-and-a-half-story house was extended south, almost doubling its size, and increased to nine bays including a new double door entrance. The entry doors are surrounded with a transom and sidelights, showcasing original hand-painted stained glass, etched and patterned after the French cross to allegedly ward off evil. The main feature of the Myrtles is the 125-foot long veranda that extends the entire length of the façade, and wraps around the southern end of the house. The ornamental cast-iron railing, with an elaborate grape-cluster design, supports a broad Doric entablature, and on the gabled roof, with six brick chimneys, are two large double paned, pedimented dormers with Doric style pilasters, interspersed with three single paned dormers. When the original roof of the house was extended to encompass the new addition, the existing dormers were copied to maintain a smooth line. The west facing rear façade features a central, open loggia that is enclosed on three sides by the house, and on the roof are five pedimented dormers identical to the front.