L’Observateur / September 8, 1999

The purchase this week of Whitney Plantation brings to a end the lengthy uncertainty about the property and promises a new era of prosperity for the west bank of St. John the Baptist Parish.Together with neighboring Evergreen Plantation, Whitney is positioned to bring tourism dollars and help usher in ancillary businesses such as restaurants, inns and other tourist-related businesses.

This is quite a switch from the days when Formosa Plastics announced its plans to build a gigantic plant on the old plantation site, igniting a firestorm of protest from historical and environmental activists and, along the way, ending up with a parish president in federal prison.

New Orleans attorney John Cummings, who bought Whitney Plantation, is proud of his acquisition, terming it “a dream.” His plans includeestablishment of a museum, educational complex and plantation tours.

The extensive and necessary renovation of Whitney will also provide valuable opportunity in St. John Parish. Cummings’ plans include invitingstudents to participate next summer in work programs to help restore the 1790s-era plantation complex to its antebellum glory.

Also, Cummings said, his historical position will be to present to visitors a more complete and accurate view of plantation life. While not the idyllic”Gone With the Wind” scene, nevertheless, the pre-Civil War South was also not all misery. His plans are to highlight the contributions of allpeople to the success of the old South, including the valuable contributions of the slaves brought to the area. Many of these, after thewar, moved on to the Treme area of New Orleans, making up the largest entrepreneural group of African-Americans in one spot across the nation.

Cummings plans to plant fields and show first hand how the plantation life really was, stripped of myth, to show how everyone’s contribution made the plantation lifestyle work.

The plantation will provide scholars a valuable window into the lifestyle of planters and slaves alike and, working in tandem with other local historical sites from Destrehan to Oak Alley, bring a welcome economic boost to the entire River Parishes region.

The River Parishes has a valuable resource in its history and it is still under-utilized as an economic development tool. This resource can providejobs, boost businesses, not pollute the environment and give coming generations a better realization of the value of every person and of what has come before to make the area what it is and can become.

Whitney Plantation can now re-join the economic life of St. John theBaptist Parish after years of being a forgotten shell along empty stretches of River Road.

Where once blackbirds cawed and vines crept, weddings and other special events may soon grace the murals halls of Whitney Plantation. It’s beenfar too long.

Welcome back.

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