Allendale Plantation

In February 1852, Henry Watkins Allen and William Nolan purchased the Westover Plantation. Henry Watkins Allen had served as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, as well as serving as the 17th Governor of Louisiana. Three years later in 1855, the land was divided and split; with Nolan keeping the name Westover Plantation on his portion of land and Allen using the name Allendale for his portion of the property. Allen owned 125 enslaved African Americans. Allen built his own railroad, which had been headquartered in what is now the town of Port Allen. Allen had moved to Mexico art the war in 1865, and a year later he died on April 22, 1866, in Mexico City, and as a result the Allendale Plantation held many owners after his death. The Kahao family operated it as a sugar mill into the 1930s. == Architecture ==

The Allendale Plantation Historic District is the name used by the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and it includes 15 wood-framed structures that were once part of the Allendale Plantation. Multiple cabins built between 1870 and 1900 are found on the site, they were once used by sharecropping laborers. In 2016 and 2020, the West Baton Rouge Museum narrative tour featuring Allendale Plantation been criticized for being biased and narrow in scope. The Allendale Church was built for laborers, and the office on the property held all of the related operations paperwork. Most of the plantation buildings were moved often, due to flooding of the area. As of 1996, there were only six remaining examples of the sugar plantation complexes and systems in southern Louisiana. == See also ==