Maison Chenal offers guided tours!

Tours are by appointment only between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. for individuals or groups of any size. Make your appointment by calling  (225) 443-1062  or emailing us at camille@maisonchenal.com.

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Tours are $10 per person, but many visitors graciously provide an extra donation to help us continue the restoration of this vital piece of Creole history. Tours are only possible on certain days based on the availability of our tour guide.

Please allow approximately 1 hour for a guided tour.

Information will be shared about the house, the grounds, the history of Maison Chenal and its inhabitants, and we will answer any questions you may have. You will see the multiple properties and you are welcome to take a leisurely stroll around the entire grounds.

 The Maison Chenal house was the first structure moved to the site and restored. It was originally located beside False River eleven miles from its current location. Construction techniques and nail analysis indicate a date before 1790 for the core of the house, but its exterior appearance suggests a date of c. 1820. A characteristic of Creole cottages is their asymmetry in room layout and facade elevation and Maison Chenal is a perfect example of that. The off-center chimney indicates the division of the two front rooms, with the larger, the parlor, on the left. Other deviations from symmetry are the unequal spacing of the galley posts and the off-center staircase rising to a six-bay gallery. These irregularities give the facade a special animation. The house has a double-pitched hipped roof over a Norman truss. The ground-level floor, possibly lower when first built, has been remodeled for today’s use; a staircase was added in one of the cabinets flanking the rear loggia. The windows are the original single large casements. Exterior and interior colors have been restored to the colors found under later layers of paints.    

The pigeonnier came next, followed by a kitchen building, a bachelor apartment or garconniere, and a smaller house next door to the main residence that now serves as a library. Each was set in place in relation to the primary house, just as it would have been hundreds of years ago.  

In 1996, the Maison Chenal’s LaCour House was added and is among the oldest surviving structures in the Mississippi Valley. The restored two-room home, which dates to around the early to mid-1700s sits across the road from Maison Chenal and only a few miles from its original location. The building has a typical asymmetrical Creole cottage plan-two rooms wide and one room deep with an internal fireplace.
Besides the LaCour House is the final piece of the Holdens’ Creole contribution to the site, a circa-1820 cottage we call the Bayou House.