LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / May 5, 2000

HAHNVILLE – It stands large and looming, surrounded by pecan oaks, at the end of a long, dusty driveway – a fading antebellum flower with the threat of extinction lurking closer day by day.

In an effort to rescue the 210-year-old structure, local preservationists have approached the State Parks Office to try and have the site become Louisiana’s newest and St. Charles Parish’s first state park.However, with the present state fiscal crisis, that chance is dim.

Richard Keller is practically a landmark himself in St. Charles Parish. One ofthe co-owners of the sugar plantation, along with several other family members, he is the principle caretaker for the place.

He can be found there, almost daily, making repairs and doing whatever he can for his boyhood home.

Home Place, also known as Keller Place, was built in the late 1780s to the design (it is believed) of Charles Pacquet, who also designed Destrehan Plantation on the East Bank.

The raised Creole plantation includes native brickwork, Italian marble, bousillage-filled walls and a narrow stairway to the attic. The stairway has, itis believed remnants of the original wallpaper. That’s 1790s-era wallpaper.Louis Fortier purchased the house in 1806 and it remained in his family for 50 years. P.A. Keller, an overseer at Terre Haute Plantation in Lions, boughtit in 1889, and it remains in the hands of descendants to this day.

Richard Keller, born and raised at Home Place to the extended Keller family, assumed his responsibilities over the plantation at an early age. His father,Theodore P. Keller, died when Richard was age 11. Working closely with hisgrandfather, Richard assumed management of the place while attending Hahnville School. He graduated with its first class of seniors in 1935 whowent through all grades in that school from when it opened in 1924.

Keller attended LSU and graduated four years later with a pre-med degree.

However in February 1941, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served inthe Pacific, ending the war as a major.

After the war, he earned his teaching certificate and returned home to St.

Charles Parish, teaching in Des Allemands and Destrehan. He retired in 1980and later served as a member of the St. Charles School Board from 1983 to1987.

He also serves with the St. Charles Toy & Gift Fund and the St. CharlesCouncil on Aging when he’s not playing host to the numerous film companies who use the plantation for a movie set, notably scenes for “Interview with the Vampire.”Meanwhile, the future of Keller’s Home Place remains in doubt. While theannual sugar crop pays for expenses at the house, it has many enemies – time, the elements, lack of money and the Formosa termite.

Portions of the floor in the main living area and several door frames are badly damaged by termites – a fact demonstrated as Keller took a piece of door frame and crumbled it in his fingers.

The State Parks Office has been interested in the site, evidenced by Lt. Gov.Kathleen Blanco, who recently visited and was “enthusiastic” about the notion.

However, “the problem is money,” Keller reported. The state government ismoney-shy and aren’t interested in taking on such a new project.

“The state recently closed several wildlife refuges, due to budget cuts,” he said.

Another notion put forth is to have St. Charles Parish itself take ownershipof the plantation and hire the River Road Historical Society to manage it and oversee its preservation and restoration, while the parish use the cane field as a site for a proposed civic center.

“Once you get into it, groups such as the historic society become eligible for all kinds of public and private grants,” Keller added. “Once you get thesethings going, you get some money and plow it back into restoration.”In addition, there are some private individuals interested in buying the plantation but no one can put together the right package yet.

“Our problem right now is we need skilled craftsmen to come by and do some work here,” Keller continued. His plans are to rebuild the old detachedkitchen and use it as an office, reconstruct the missing porch rails and rebuild the old pigeonnaire near the house.

“The first step is to stop all the deterioration, then start nibbling away at restoration,” Keller said. “I’d like to get it back to 1904-era when the lastextensive renovations were done to the house.”He concluded, “I tell my grandchildren they don’t know what it was like living in a house without electricity or indoor plumbing. If you had chicken forsupper, that chicken was walking around in the yard that same morning.”

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