were among the features that combined to form the basic components of the Southern plantation home and clearly exhibited that plantation architecture was

an eclectic blending of many different architectural concepts. These diverse factors resulted in the development of a new style of increasingly large, stately homes that began to appear in the South.

     The earliest settlements in Louisiana and Mississippi developed along the waterways that were the principal means of transportation. The Mississippi River and its tributaries facilitated commerce by providing access for development and ensured, through periodic flooding, that the land would have rich and fertile soil for growing crops. These flood prone conditions also made it necessary to raise the main floor of the plantation home to the second level. The ground floor of the