Before A. Hays Town

Prolific Louisiana architect A. Hays Town first brought the beauty of traditional Louisiana building to the attention of people far and wide of bayous and Acadian culture, and my own love of those traditional building styles began with his ‘replicated’ designs. Perhaps becoming so enamored of the famous architect’s designs blinds us to the fact that such building was going on long before Mr Town made it de rigueur. It was his eye that fully discerned the beauty of Louisiana’s old plantation houses, left in many cases to neglect and deterioration. His architectural masterpieces took old ideas and materials into a modern setting away from the bayous and sugarcane fields and made them sing as beautifully on city streets. But as much as I admire the work of Mr Town, the focus here is on a house standing long before his birth.

The March/April issue of the magazine Louisiana Life includes a story on one of the old Louisiana houses, this one—though moved eleven miles from its original site—is in a rural setting of seventy acres located along a channel of water in southern Louisiana. Owners of the house like to call this waterway a bayou, but it is more accurately a channel or chenal, remnant of a Mississippi River channel that once flowed through the area. But it’s best not to dicker over words, since the setting of Maison Chenal, whether bayou or channel is idyllic.

A cherished part of Louisiana’s architectural history, Maison Chenal is a raised eighteenth century Creole plantation home located along the Chenal waterway in Point Coupee Parish. The house was bought and moved eleven miles to its present site in 1973 and restored to museum perfection by its owners, Pat and Jack Holden. Unfortunately, complete documentation of the early history of the house does not exist, but evidence points to construction in the 1790s. The last documented owner was planter-merchant Julien Poydras in 1808, a gentleman well-known in New Orleans history.

The front garden of the house is surrounded by a pieu (post or pointed stake) fence made from split cypress boards.

The downstairs porch on the front of the house has a floor of old bricks common to these old homes and a frequent characteristic of Hays Town designs.

A bedroom opens onto the front gallery overlooking the garden.

Those wishing to read the complete article and view other photographs, click here.

A Hays Town: Sketches

Always a popular topic, looking at the architecture of Louisiana’s A Hays Town, even repeated viewings never fail to reveal a previously unnoticed nuance so common to the work of Mr Town. One can spend hours poring over designs, sketches and photographs, but unfortunately the material available to enjoy that hobby is often hard to find. One of the hard-to-find books that offers a treasure of architectural sketches is a 1985 limited printing of The Architectural Style of A. Hays Town, which includes 106 sketches in colored pencil of the architect’s projects.

From the book’s introduction written by Blanche Town Gladney…

A Hays Town developed his own unique style, calling on his background experiences and his God-given artistic ability. His travels to Europe, Mexico, Central America and other parts of the United States were educational experiences. He always returned with sketch books filled with architectural details that he found interesting. Years of studying and measuring the antebellum mansions of the south, roaming the streets and parks of New Orleans and living the impressionable time of childhood in Acadian country all contributed to the culmination of a style indigenous to his part of the world.

The demolitions yards in New Orleans became inured to seeing elegant ladies with Mr Town poking into the nether region of the yards, selecting blinds, bricks, wood and beams. An innovator of the use of these old materials, he liked the softness and interest the old materials gave to his houses. He felt that they added an element of warmth and hospitality to a family’s home. Local millwork shops retooled their machinery to run moldings and muntins to his specifications. His abundant use of windows and French doors in these traditional houses brought in the outside whenever possible, making the rooms seem part of the outdoors.

A signed copy of the book: “Best Wishes A Hays Town”

The Freeman House, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1964

The Smith House, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1967

The Marchman House, Monroe, Louisiana 1970

The Ellison Law Office, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1976

For more on A Hays Town look here and here.

Architecture Bayou Style

Growing up in Louisiana, the sight of a residence designed by architect, A Hays Town was not rare. I even had an aunt who worked for years as his personal secretary. The lumber mill across the street, where my father worked, did the millwork for all the Hays Town designs. But as with many youngsters, I had other things on my mind and took little notice of such during my years of growing up.

A Hays Town was a remarkably prolific architect, who started his career designing government and commercial buildings in Mississippi and Louisiana before turning his full attention to the design of private homes. More than 1000 of his homes remain today, in addition to the government and commercial work from earlier years. As a Louisiana son, his designs are strongly influenced by not only the south Louisiana culture he grew up in, but in the very landscape that defines the area. One of the distinctive Hays Town characteristics is a house that seems to rise out of the landscape, a design incorporating native plant materials into its basic parts. There is a quality of benign neglect in much of his work—studied decay, incorporating the effects of aging, mold, algae, and mildew into the shape, color and texture of materials. The houses make lavish use of cypress and heart of pine, two woods native to Louisiana.

Looking at a home designed by Hays Town will reveal elements of classic Louisiana—full-length shutters, dovecotes, thirteen foot ceilings and brick floors with a special beeswax finish. A familiar design reflects the old Acadian cottage with a raised front porch and exterior staircase. More often than not, the architect carried his influence inside, selecting materials, colors, furnishings, sometimes even recommending a dog to complement the design.

Most of his homes now wear a bronze plaque: A HAYS TOWN, ARCHITECT

Mr Town died in 2005, age 101.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS:

All five photographs are from the book, The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town, and are by Philip Gould.

From the top…

1. Witter House — classic Louisiana setting with a raised porch.

2. Sherar House — familiar Louisiana columns fronting open porches.

3. Laborde House — unseen here are the wide steps leading to the raised porch.

4. Strawitz House — old brick and aged wood, with the large window looking out.

5. Bonnecaze House — to my eyes a breathtaking design of the traditional 19th century look; the signature porch, this time with whitewashed brick and beams. And notice the old brick building with dovecotes.