CenLamar

Can anyone give us an update? This is the information provided by the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation:

This is a request for pre-approval of the proposed move of the Bennett House in Rapides Parish. The house was listed on the National Register in 1980 as part of a Bennett House and Store nomination. The two wood frame buildings have been vacant for years and are prime candidates for demolition by neglect. Preservationists have long worried about their fate. In 2003 the Louisiana Preservation Alliance listed them among its Ten Most Endangered sites. In July 2005 the Historical Association of Central Louisiana (HACL) leveraged a donation of the house and store to that organization providing they be removed from the property. HACL’s goal was to find an owner or owners for the buildings. Scott and Kathryn Anderson have acquired the two buildings from HACL. The Andersons are taking this large project a step at a time. At the present time they wish to apply for a pre-approval of the relocation of the house to rural property they own elsewhere in Rapides Parish – specifically, a small portion of Inglewood Plantation (NR). (The Andersons are members of a family corporation which owns the remainder of Ingelwood.)

The House: The following summary of the house’s construction history and alterations supersedes that in the original nomination. It is based on a recent inspection of the house by a senior architectural historian in the Louisiana Division ofHistoric Preservation. While the documentary evidence is clear that Ezra Bennett built a house in 1854, it is very hard to believe that the house we see today is that early. The first known reference to the Italianate in New Orleans is 1850 (see below), and styles generally arrive later in the country. (Admittedly, Ezra Bennett was originally from the state of New York, having moved to the Boeuf country circa 1830.) The staff of the Division of Historic Preservation is dating the present house, for purposes of this submission, to circa 1870. Most likely, the 1854 house was remodeled (rather than a new house being built).

The Bennett House has a conventional central hall plan with two rooms on each side. One suspects that the rear wing on the south side, with a polygonal bay, dates from later than c.1870, perhaps 10 or 15 years later. (Its detailing is more elaborate, more robust than the main block.) The deteriorated, rather ramshackle rear wing on the north side of the house will not be retained in the new location. While it incorporates some early construction, it was remodeled in the early twentieth century and has received various later additions. In no way does it contribute to the house’s architectural character. In addition to the rear wing on the north side, the following notable alterations have occurred (some since the 1980
National Register listing): An early photo shows the house with a three-bay bracketed entrance porch topped by a balustrade (see attached xerox). The present owners plan to replicate this long-gone feature as part of a proposed tax credit project. Since the 1980 nomination, the mantels have been removed from the house (perhaps by vandals). Photos are in the original National Register submission.

The Proposed Move:
At present the house is set back from Highway 71 in a rural setting (with the store across the road). Please refer to attached photos showing the house in its original setting.
The proposed new setting is very rural, despite being on the outskirts of the city of Alexandria. Please refer to attached maps (2) for the proposed new location. The house will be located between a sharecropper’s cabin known as “Matt’s Cabin” and a small church on adjacent property. A small bayou is located to the rear. The move will be accomplished in as sensitive a manner as possible. Unfortunately, the roof will have to be removed to clear traffic lights and power lines. As noted previously, the rear wing on the north side will not be retained.
Assessment of Integrity:
The house in its new setting will meet the special requirements of Criteria Consideration B (moved properties) because the new setting is sympathetic and the house will remain within the parish which is the context for its architectural significance. (The original nomination made only brief mention of the house’s architectural significance. The context used was the Bunkie area, Bunkie being a nearby small town. The staff of the Division of Historic Preservation believes the house is significant within Rapides Parish as a rare surviving example of the domestic Italianate taste – see new statement of significance below.) The loss of the porch and mantels (at least one of the latter was in the Italianate taste) is an
integrity issue but not an insurmountable one. Even with these losses, the house clearly conveys the Italianate taste, as explained further in the Part 8 below.

SIGNIFICANT DATES 1887
ARCHITECT/BUILDER: Miller & Goodman, Architects
Edward W. Willis (masonry work)
CRITERION: C
The Bennett House is of local architectural significance as a very rare surviving example of the domestic Italianate
(in this case builder Italianate) within the large parish of Rapides. Italianate residences are quite common in certain sections of New Orleans, but are very seldom seen elsewhere in Louisiana. Secondly, the style as seen in Louisiana, deviated significantly from the national norm. The first known specific reference to the Italianate taste in New Orleans is from September 19, 1850, with a local paper describing a new house built for Duncan Hennen as an “Italian villa.” In the succeeding years a limited number of stately symmetrical palazzi were built in the city. But the palazzo mode was never very popular, nor was the asymmetrical Italian villa. Unlike typical examples of the style found in other parts of the country, characterized by picturesque asymmetry, Louisiana examples are by far rigidly symmetrical. More often than not, they resemble an earlier generation of Greek Revival houses (usually a one-and-a-half story house with an inset gallery or a two story house with an attached double gallery). The difference is in the more lavish details (for example, boldly formed moldings) and sometimes the grafting on of perhaps one or two
textbook Italianate features (brackets and round arches). In other words, they are Italianate in detail and feel but not in form (in comparison to the national norm). While the Bennett House’s small porch is not typical for Louisiana, the house’s interpretation of the Italianate taste is. It is Italianate in detail rather than form. After the southern rear addition of the 1880s, the house had the following features that contributed to its Italianate character: the porch (brackets and the balustrade, one can’t be certain about the columns); a bracketed cornice on the façade; a prominent dormer with a triple round arch treatment with a paneled design above; double arch windows in the front door; double arch windows in the rear door with matching side lights; an abundance of heavily molded window and door surrounds in the rear 1880s room; at least one of the mantels; and heavily molded panels accenting the staircase of the central hall. (The door and window frames in the main block are simpler than
those in the 1880s addition. They are not quite lavish enough to be viewed within the Italianate taste.) Today the house retains all of the above except for the porch (admittedly a notable loss) and the mantel.

Rapides Parish is quite typical for Louisiana in that Italianate residences are exceedingly rare. Created in 1807, Rapides is one of the state’s largest parishes, covering 1,341 square miles. The only town of any size is Alexandria, with a population of roughly 55,000. And despite the early settlement patterns, Rapides has very few buildings from before the twentieth century. A historic structures survey done for the Division of Historic Preservation in the 1980s recorded 4, 932 buildings fifty or more years of age. The vast majority of these, probably 70 to 80 percent, are early twentieth century folk bungalows, unstyled cottages, and unstyled shotguns. There is very little Queen Anne or Eastlake in Rapides, and what
can be found is modest. The domestic Italianate is practically non-existent. The two exceptions are the Bennett House and Loyd Hall, a Greek Revival plantation house with some Italianate interior features (elaborate, pierced plasterwork).
(For the record, there is also very little commercial Italianate, and examples are very simple, generally with only segmental
arches.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Caldwell, Joan. “Italianate Domestic Architecture in New Orleans.” Ph.D. dissertation, Tulane University, 1975.
Fricker, Jonathan. “The Italianate Style,” in Fricker, Jonathan, et. al., Louisiana Architecture: A Handbook on Styles.
Lafayette, Louisiana, 1998.
Historic Structures Survey, Rapides Parish.