National Register Listing

Hopkins House

Hopkins Lane, Marion, LA

The Hopkins House is significant at the state level in the area of architecture as an example of the "Carolina I" house type. These houses are significant indicators of the migration of the planter and upper middle classes from the region of South Carolina. Dr. Fred Kniffen states in his article on Folk Housing: "Early in its movement southward the "I" house became symbolic of economic attainment by agriculturists and remained so associated throughout the Upland South and its peripheral extensions." Elias George, the builder of Hopkins House, originally came from South Carolina before settling in Alabama. Most of the other known extant "Carolina I" houses in Louisiana are in the Feliciana Parishes. The SHPO is currently aware of less than ten "Carolina I" houses that remain in Louisiana. It stands, therefore as an unusual and important example of a substrain of the British vernacular architectural tradition in Louisiana.

History of the Property

The builder of the Hopkins House, the Reverend Elias George, moved to the Marion area in 1848 from Alabama. He and his family moved into their new home, built by an artisan slave named John Thomas, in 1850. In 1866 Elias George sold his home to his daughter Susan and her husband Lewis M. Powell. In 1884 the Powells sold the property to J. W. Frellsen. The Frellsen and Powell families intermarried and the house was eventually occupied by Miss Mary Hopkins, who remained there until her death in 1975 at the age of 84. It is presently owned by Mrs. Alice Frellsen Farrar.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.