French
DeutschKate Chopin House (Cloutierville, Louisiana)
Kate Chopin House | |
Formerly listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
 Historic American Buildings Survey photo of the house | |
   | |
| Location | Main St. (LA 1), Cloutierville, Louisiana |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 31°32′26.04″N 92°55′1.53″W / 31.5405667°N 92.9170917°W |
| NRHP reference No. | 93001601 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 19, 1993[1] |
| Designated NHL | April 19, 1993[2] |
| Removed from NRHP | December 28, 2015 |
| Delisted NHL | December 28, 2015 |
The Kate Chopin House, also known as the Bayou Folk Museum or Alexis Cloutier House, was a house in Cloutierville, Louisiana. It was the home of Kate Chopin, author of The Awakening, after her marriage.
Overview
[edit]The house was located on Main Street (Louisiana Highway 1) in Cloutierville, in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. The home was built by the town's founder, Alexis Cloutier[3] and was constructed using a combination of handmade brick, hand-hewn cypress boards, and bousillage.[4] Its construction, done through the use of slave labor, dated to between 1806 and 1813.[5]
Kate Chopin moved here with her husband Oscar and their five children in 1879. Her sixth child, a daughter named Lélia, was born here shortly after the family's arrival.[6] Oscar set up a general store and ran the business end of the family plantation. Shortly after their arrival in Cloutierville, he inherited a quarter of the family property.[7]
Chopin would later describe the neighborhood in her 1891 short story "For Marse Chouchoute" as "two long rows of very old frame houses, facing each other closely across a dusty roadway".[8] Neighbors, mostly of French-Creole descent, did not approve of Chopin's fashion and tendency to smoke cigarettes, play cards, and go for walks alone.[3] Local gossip also suggested that Chopin lifted her skirt higher than necessary when walking, showing her ankles.[7]
Kate Chopin only lived here for about four years when her husband died.[9] Oscar Chopin had suffered from malaria and overdosed on quinine, leading to his wife Kate to take over the business.[7] However, she soon left the home and relocated to St. Louis, Missouri by mid-1884 to be with her mother. She left her sons with the family of her husband in Cloutierville.[10]
Chopin used some of her experience in the town for inspiration for several of her writings, including Bayou Folk, A Night in Acadie, and The Awakening.[6]
Modern history
[edit]
The house was opened as a museum in 1979.[3] It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993 for its association with Kate Chopin's life and her use of area happenings as source for bayou life covered in much of her writings.[2][11] Though the building was restored, the wainscoting was original, as were many of the glass panes. A collection of Chopin artifacts was displayed in one of the basement rooms.[4] The museum, known as the Bayou Folk Museum (in part because of Chopin's book of the same name), was run by the Association for Preservation of Historic Natchitoches.[5]
The house was destroyed in a fire on October 1, 2008.[12][13] Though the cause of the fire was not determined, the home's destruction inspired the use of preventative measures at other historic structures in Louisiana.[14] Its National Historic Landmark designation and National Register of Historic Places listing were withdrawn in December 2015.
See also
[edit]- Kate Chopin House (St. Louis, Missouri), another one of Chopin's residences
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Louisiana
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
References
[edit]- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ a b "Kate Chopin House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
- ^ a b c Schmidt and Rendon, p. 34.
- ^ a b Baldwin, p. 66.
- ^ a b Baldwin, p. 64.
- ^ a b Leeper, Clare D'Artois. Louisiana Place Names: Popular, Unusual, and Forgotten Stories of Towns, Cities, Plantations, Bayous, and Even Some Cemeteries. Louisiana State University Press, 2012: 69. ISBN 978-0-8071-4738-2
- ^ a b c Baldwin, p. 65.
- ^ Toth, p. 82.
- ^ Schmidt and Rendon, p. 35.
- ^ Toth, p. 100.
- ^ Jill S. Mesirow and Page Putnam Miller (June 24, 1992), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Kate Chopin House (pdf), National Park Service and Accompanying 10 photos, exterior and interior, from 1992. (948 KB)
- ^ "200-Year-Old Kate Chopin House in La. Burns Down". New York Times. Associated Press. Retrieved October 1, 2008. [dead link]
- ^ "Historic Cloutierville landmark burns". The Times (Shreveport). October 2, 2008. p. 9. Retrieved July 5, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Millhollo, Michelle. "Training for flames", The Advocate. January 20, 2014.
Sources
[edit]- Baldwin, Jack and Winnie. Baldwin's Guide to Museums of Louisiana. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1999. ISBN 9781455600557
- Schmidt, Shannon McKenna and Joni Rendon. Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Hemingway's Key West. National Geographic Society, 2008. ISBN 978-1-4262-0454-8
- Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. University Press of Mississippi, 1999. ISBN 1-57806-101-6
External links
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