Holmes

Oaklawn Manor Holmes

Oaklawn, a great and beautiful house, has lived on the banks of Bayou Teche in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, for almost a century and a half. She has suffered through war, fire, and flood. Born of sweating slaves, she harbored the opulence of Southern aristocracy and vibrated to the strife of the Civil War. Her soul survived a fire, and later, floods of Mississippi waters covered her acres. She slumbered through the Depression, then slowly stirred during the 1940s to the reform of the social and economic order. Oaklawn Manor has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior. The stately home of Judge Alexander Porter stands today as an inspiration to all who admire and love Old Louisiana. Captain Barbour's superb restoration and many of the treasures he brought remain to honor him, and his wife, Jeannie, forever. The resolute Thomas Holmes, with his wife, Lucie, beside him, having preserved a heritage, will be part of it always. The Old South, where the plantation bells still ring early in the morning as they did when young Alexander lived on the banks of Bayou Teche, has not faded away but is lovingly and charmingly perpetuated.