LSU Rural Life Museum

I have more photos from the Rural Life Museum.  We saw photos of textiles and textile machines yesterday, so let's take a look at some of the architecture.

The museum has 32 buildings that are situated into three sections.  

The first section is a working plantation.  

This cute little building is a post office.  
Doesn't the tractor in the background  look odd?

The counter inside the post office with mail boxes.  On the left are eight  keyed boxes and
on the right are about 16 boxes behind a glass.  The post master had to hand the mail to the customer. 

The largest out house I've ever seen.  Each door open to a double seater.
That means up to four people could be in the bathroom at one time.
Of course, there was no privacy in this privy!

A cistern for holding water.  Rain water was funneled from the roof of the house into this cistern.
It brings back many memories as my grandmother's house had a cistern.  That one was make of metal, however.

The overseer's house.  There's a compound of several plantation buildings from  1800's.
Most of the houses had two doors in the front and two corresponding doors in the back for cross ventilation.
Windows on the side walls also were lined up so air could easily travel through the house.
Note that porches are very wide and deep to protect the interiors from the heat of the sun.

The kitchen.  The floor is completely bricked and outside the building is a garden with herbs and vegetables.
You can see the garden fence on the left.

The blacksmith's shop.  There are many blacksmithing tools inside and outside the building.
This one building is a great source of antebellum life. 

One of several slave buildings.  This one is set up as a very crude home,
but  another is set up to represent a sick house.

Syrup mill, for turning sugar cane into cane syrup.

The three pots in the syrup mill.  The closest one is the smallest.  The juice from the crushed cane was poured into the largest pot on the distant end, where a large fire was used to reduce the thin syrup and ladle off the brine.  It was then poured into the second pot, to be reduced even more.   Finally, it was moved to the smallest pot, where it was gradually cooled enough to pour into jars.

 The Upland South Section

A corncrib or barn, of sorts, for holding grain and hay.

Pioneer's house  on the right in the back is the corncrib and on the left is the potato house.

Dogtrot house, with the open breezeway in the middle.  One side is set up for a living area, the other
as a bedroom for the entire family. This house held residents until 1976!

One of two barns fully equipped.

A second cane syrup mill, although smaller.

Stoner-Athens house

One of many, many outhouses.

 The final architectural section is the Gulf Coast Region, but I don't have any photos of those buildings since I was exhausted and Rich went on without me.  

I hope you enjoyed this visit to the museum and have come to appreciate the many modern conveniences we have.  I realized the dependence I have on air conditioning!  And we had a beautiful, breezy day with lots of shade trees.

Please leave a comment.  

I read every one and appreciate your thoughts.