Slightly up the road from Baton Rouge is the town of St. Francisville. It is a little tourist town with historic homes and the Myrtles Plantation — “The Home of Mystery and Intrigue”.
Plantations are trying to find their place in the tourism landscape. Some are having trouble updating. I went on a tour at one plantation where the older volunteer tour guide couldn’t bring herself to talk about enslaved people, so she referred to them as servants. Recently, there has been a push to end the “plantation wedding” with some popular wedding planning sites deciding to not list any.
The Laura Plantation speaks about the lineage of the enslaved people now and the Whitney is dedicated to enslaved people entirely. If you are looking for a great experience, I highly recommend the River Road Museum which stays away from glorifying a plantation at all.
The Myrtles goes big with its myths and legends, but is fairly self aware and goes for the sensational. The tour talks about some of the twelve ghosts said to be on the property. They used to only allow photography in the main entrance hall with the haunted mirror. There are thousands of images of the mirror in existence from tourists, including myself, trying to get a ghost to peak back.
