National Register Listing

Bocage

LA 942 S of Marchandville, Darrow, LA

Bocage is significant in the area of architecture at the state level because it is a superb and rare surviving example of the grand Greek Revival plantation homes which once lined Louisiana's Great River Road between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. It also illustrates the extremely rare use of mid-nineteenth-century architectural pattern book designs in Louisiana.

Architecturally, Louisiana is best known for its fine collections of French Creole houses and grand Greek Revival plantation homes. The state's most famous and recognizable group of monumental Greek Revival plantations is found on the historic River Road. These homes, built by immensely wealthy sugar cane planters during the thirty years prior to the Civil War, were the absolute apex of the Greek Revival style in Louisiana. They may be briefly characterized as two-story mansions with broad double galleries (sometimes encircling the house) and monumental columns or pillars which rise to the roofline in one continuous shaft. When fully encircling galleries are present, the columns also encircle the house in what is known as the peripheral mode. No one will ever know the exact number of these houses. However, an 1858 map of Mississippi River land holdings suggests that many more once existed than have survived. Today, only eight River Road Greek Revival landmark plantation houses remain. All are individually eligible for the National Register.

Bocage is one of these monumental Greek Revival houses. A premier example of the style, it stands out among the limited group of survivors for several reasons:

1) Although most of the eight River Road mansions are vernacular adaptations of the Greek Revival style, evidence suggests that Bocage is an architect-designed home (see Historical Note below).

2)Bocage is especially noteworthy for its parapet, a feature found on only one other River Road home. The majority of the Road's Greek Revival houses have hipped roofs. As a result, Bocage more closely imitates the classical massing of Greek architecture.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1991.