Big House

Louis Metoyer died on 11 March 1832 with the house unfinished; his son Jean Baptiste Louis Metoyer completed it in 1833, the year on the cornerstone. The Park Service describes walls of bousillage, a mix of mud, Spanish moss and deer hair, remodeled many times, and two hexagonal garçonnières flanking the front gallery. Joseph Henry bought the property and moved his family in during 1898, then died in 1899, leaving the house to his son John Hampton Henry and his wife Cammie.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Melrose Plantation — steps away
  The Cane River estate built on land granted to Louis Metoyer, son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin, with the Yucca House and African House, later an artists' retreat; guided tours Thursday to Sunday.
• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 0.6 mi
  The parish church at the heart of the Cane River Creoles of color, begun by Augustin Metoyer on his family's land and still holding Mass for the community that grew from Marie Thérèse Coincoin's children.
• Cane River Creole National Historical Park — 4.9 mi
  Oakland and Magnolia, two Cane River cotton plantations kept as they stood, told through the enslaved families who worked them, the 1864 and 1804 freedom seekers and the tenant farmers who stayed into the 1960s.
• Kisatchie National Forest: Longleaf Vista — 8.7 mi
  A free ridge-top overlook and 1.5-mile loop above the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness on the Longleaf Trail Scenic Byway, in the forest Caroline Dormon helped win in 1930.

More markers nearby

• African House and Clementine Hunter's Murals — steps away
• Clementine Hunter Home and Studio — steps away
• Yucca House — steps away
• Ghana House — steps away