Established in 1787 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Destrehan Plantation remains the oldest documented plantation home in the lower Mississippi Valley. Located just 25 minutes from New Orleans and 10 minutes from the New Orleans International Airport, Destrehan Plantation invites you to travel from the French and Spanish Colonial periods, through the antebellum grandeur of the sugar barons, to the ravages of the Civil War and the rebirth of reconstruction. You will find yourself immersed in the rich history of Louisiana when French was the language, and the white gold of sugar drove the economy. Family stories of those free and enslaved set against the fabric of history will intrigue every visitor to the site.

Here, you’ll be introduced by name–not just to the people whose portraits hang in this historic home–but to many of the enslaved men and women who built this plantation and made it thrive. Come meet them. Hear their stories. Then go home and share what you’ve learned. The plantation’s history consists of many notable people and events. The plantation served as a home to Marie Celeste Robin de Logny and her husband Jean Noel Destrehan, the most successful sugar producer in St. Charles Parish and one of the driving forces in Louisiana Statehood. The plantation exhibits an original document signed by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison appointing Jean Noel to the Orleans Territorial Council responsible for creating Louisiana’s civil law of government.

Destrehan Plantation was the site where one of the three trials took place following the 1811 Slave Revolt, one of the largest slave revolts in U.S. History led by Charles Deslondes. During the Civil War, the Union Army seized the plantation and established the Rost Home Colony where newly freed slaves learned trades enabling them to transition into a life of freedom.