Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Trip to "The Myrtles Plantation"


We visited The Myrtles Plantation last year, spring 2011.   With it being one of the most haunted places in the United States, thought we might see one of it's infamous ghosts.
This is the entrance gateway, although it does look a little strange and cloudy, no ghost yet.

It is a beautiful old plantation home built in  1796, located in St. Francisville, LA.  As this historical story goes, a southern gentleman built this plantation and farmed it with many slaves.  He married and had 2 children.  He bought some more slaves and a beautiful slave girl named Chloe, which he moved into the house and to his bed.  He told the girl to never let him catch her doing anything wrong or she would be thrown out of the house back to hard labor.   Along with her other duties, she was to take care of the children.



As fate would have it, one night the man of the house had a guest and closed the parlor door for a private discussion.

 Taking advantage of her freedom of the house, Chloe decided to listen in on the conversation.  She had her ear to the door trying to hear what her lover was discussing with his guest when he suddenly opened the door and found her evesdropping on their conversation.  He was so angry with her, he cut off her ear and did as he had told her and put her out of the house to do field labor. From that time on, she wore a green turban around her head to hide the scar of her missing ear.
Chloe was very angry and did not like working in the fields, wanting desperately to be moved back into the house.  She started scheming to make plans to do something to cause the master to favor her back into his graces and place her back inside.
 The two children's birthdays were very close together and were always celebrated at the same time.  Chloe begged the Master to allow her to bake the children's favorite cake for their party, and of course he let her bake the cake.  Chloe being familiar with the Oleander bloom, knew that if ingested, it would make you sick.  She thought, "If I make the cake and put some oleander in it, it will make the children sick and the Master will need me back in the house to take care of them."  She made the cake with the Oleander bloom, the children and wife all ate some of it and got sick.  Chloe took care of them, trying very hard to nurse them back to health, but; she had put too much of the Oleander into the cake.  The Mother lived but the two children died.  The rest of the slaves found out what Chloe had done and was afraid of the repercussions from the Master when he might find out.  The slaves gathered and got Chloe, hung her from a tree in the yard and then, threw her body in the river.

 It is said that she haunts this place and can be seen occasionally at this plantation house and also the children.  This place has been on America's most haunted, Today Show, the Haunted, and several other TV programs.  

The lady doing the tour told us that sometimes a ghost will appear in our pictures after we have them developed, but cannot be seen when we take the pic.  What is in the window of this picture in the left hand side.  I had not seen this until I put this on my blog.  Just saying..........
This is  black cat that greeted us upon arrival.
My DH Richard shaking hands with the ghost.

Sitting on the back porch at the Myrtles, just relaxing.
Inside the house tour
This is also a Bed and Breakfast.  You can spend the night upstairs where it is said that the children are often heard playing and laughing during the night.    NO I DID NOT STAY HERE.
The light in the mirror is just my camera flash bulb.  Not to worry.
See any ghost yet??
A reflection of Chloe's face is said to be in this mirror over on the right side, with her turban on.

I can see it better in this one.

This is a collection of things found that Chloe has removed from visitors who visit, or so they say.
An old, old picture of the house.  You can see Chloe standing to the right side of the house.
It is said that ghosts of confederate soldiers have been sited here under the bridge located in the backyard.
Made two pictures and still di not see any ghosts.

Still looking!
Gazebo in the backyard of the Myrtles.







Although we did not see any ghosts, we really enjoyed seeing this place and eating t the Carriage House Restaurant.  Hope you enjoyed it too.