American School, 19th century

In 1828, wealthy landowner Daniel Turnbull married Martha Hilliard Barrow, uniting two prominent West Feliciana Parish families. The original Rosedown Plantation and Gardens were located on seven tracts of land in south Louisiana several miles off the eastern shore of the Mississippi River. The land eventually included 3,455 acres and was one of the most productive plantations in the South.

The concept of having formal gardens at Rosedown was initiated during the Turnbulls' wedding trip to Europe late in 1828. Though no definite itinerary is known, the Grand Tour historically consisted of visits to notable sites in England and on the continent, including formal gardens. Trips to Renaissance and Baroque style gardens, and English landscape gardens inspired Martha to pattern her gardens after those she had seen. Statuary and garden ornaments in the 17^th century French and Italian styles were purchased for the gardens during this and other trips to Europe.

At the time of the Turnbulls' Grand Tour, gardens of the size and scope developed at Rosedown were unheard of in the United States. All 18^th century American gardens, including those at Mount Vernon and Williamsburg, were much smaller in concept, consisting mainly of small formal parterres or compartments containing fruits, vegetables, or flowers near the main house, and sometimes small, contained landscape areas in the English style. Large, extensive formal and landscape gardens such as those at Middleton Place and Magnolia Place and Magnolia Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina, did not exhibit their greatest growth and expansion until after 1860, almost thirty years after the Rosedown Plantation gardens were begun.

Excerpted from Mary Parke Luttrull, The Evolution of a Southern Masterpiece, Rosedown Plantation and Historic Gardens, St. Francisville, Louisiana, 1996