You have now arrived at the remains of Afton Villa, a Gothic Revival mansion constructed in the 1850’s that was once the most imposing estate in West Feliciana Parish.
Standing before you and keeping with the spirit of the once magnificent residence, four classical statues of Italian carved stone mark the ruins where the mansion once stood: Hospitality (the figure holding a nest sheltering a little bird); Diana and Apollo (Goddess and God of the hunt); and Abundance (symbolizing prosperity), looking left to right. All four statues reflect different aspects of the long history of life at Afton Villa.
Afton’s history begins around 1800 with the Barrows, a family of Anglo-Saxon settlers from North Carolina who migrated to Louisiana for cotton planting. After Louisiana’s statehood in 1812, Bartholomew Barrow purchased the land, where Afton now sits, from his brother, William Bartholomew Barrow III, in 1820 for $20,000 and ultimately sold the property (called Homeplace at that time) and cotton lands to his son, David Barrow, in 1839. Both Bartholomew and his spouse as well as David and his first wife, Sarah (who died during childbirth in 1946), lived on the Afton grounds in an unpretentious two-story white colonial home, despite David becoming one of the wealthiest individuals in the area. David’s largest planting interests were mostly located in Pointe Coupee on the west bank of the Mississippi River, rather than in West Feliciana parish (where Afton sits).
When David Barrow married his second wife, Susan Woolfork Meade, in 1847, she found their modest two-story residence not at all to her liking. To please Susan, a striking brunet accustomed to living on a grand scale, Barrow told her she could build any house she wished, if the original dwelling remained intact. Susan was well-travelled and had no doubt seen (and been impressed) by the great Gothic mansions along the Hudson River at that time.
The Gothic Revival style of the original mansion had gained popularity owning to earlier architectural, landscaping, and literary influences –probably most significantly, Andrew Johnson Downing, who strongly advocated the suitability of Gothic Revival for rural estates.
Susan agreed to build over and around the original, smaller residence. After a long eight-year journey, the splendid towered and turreted French L-shaped 40-room Afton Villa mansion and its elaborate 25-acre garden was completed in 1856. The house included fifteen bedrooms and was one of the largest and most unusual plantation homes in Louisiana. Due to the mansion’s grandeur, the plantation’s existing name “Homeplace” was found to be no longer suitable and was renamed, “Afton Villa.”
