Destination Louisiane: Mandeville’s Jean Baptiste Lang House
By Stephanie Oswald,
1 days ago
MANDEVILLE, La. ( WGNO ) — The City of Mandeville is known for beautiful oak trees and historic homes. In this edition of Destination Louisiane, WGNO’s Stephanie Oswald takes you to a Creole cottage with some unique interior designs.
The Jean Baptiste Lang House Museum was built in the 1850s on Lakeshore Drive, where it provided relief from summer heat.
“So the whole time you’re here, you should be imagining that this house was on the lake, and right now we’d be looking out and have a lovely view of the lake,” said Adele Foster.
Nearly 200 years later, it’s still a place of respite owned by the city, and tours are free. Visitors can stop by any Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.
“Jean Baptiste Lang was a tobacco merchant; he was very successful. He did well, as many merchants did in New Orleans prior to the Civil War. We’d like to think he was here all summer because you didn’t come for a long weekend or two weeks; you came for the whole summer. You had to get out of New Orleans,” said Foster.
The house was damaged by Hurricane Katrina and was donated to the city by the Jourdan family. The City of Mandeville had the home moved in 2011 to its present address on Carroll Street, where it opened as a museum in 2014.
“So there’s something called faux bois; it’s the idea of painting something to look like a really pretty exotic piece of wood,” said Foster. “What you usually see in the French Quarter or any plantation homes is an attempt to reproduce it. What you see here is original faux bois.”
Something else exciting that’s happening during the month of October, locals have the opportunity to adopt a live oak.
“We’ll have a whole exhibit of photographs of our iconic lakefront oaks that are registered with the Live Oaks Society. There are 28,” said Nancy Clark.
When asked about what it meant to adopt an oak, Clark responded, “Well, you will be required in your adoption process to actually monitor the health of that oak and to measure it.”
That’s just another reason to visit the unique piece of the past: a retreat cherished in the 19th century, and today.
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