Parent Outreach Network for Youth (PONY)

COMMUNITY HISTORY

Destrehan, Louisiana

In 1787, Robert Antoine de Logny built what is now the Destrehan Plantation, located on the east bank of the Mississippi River – about eighteen miles above New Orleans. This is definitely one of the oldest plantations in Louisiana. Situated on the River Road, the home originally overlooked the Mississippi. Various owners maintained a small system of levees, each plantation owner doing the same until there was essentially one continuous system.

Robert de Logny contracted with a mulatto carpenter, Charles, for construction of the House. The following are excerpts from the contract:

(Charles will receive) “One negro … a cow and her calf … 50 quarts of rice in chaff and 50 quarts of corn in husks … one hundred pisatres at the end of the said work.”

Three years after construction was begun, the structure was completed and Charles was paid. Unfortunately, Robert did not enjoy the fruits of his labors for lond. He died in 1792.

On April 12, 1802, the home was sold by Pedro Robin de Logny, son of the builder, to his sister’s husband, Jean Noel d’Estrehan de Beaupre. It is from him that the plantation, and consequently the town, receives its name.

The name d’Estrehan, now written Destrehan, is an old one for Louisiana. The first one of that name to come to Louisiana came with Bienville, founder of the city of New Orleans.