Doctor’s Cottage at Oakland Plantation, Cane River Creole National Historical Park

The building at Cane River Creole National Historical Park’s Oakland Plantation that is now called the Doctor’s Cottage was built around 1834, most likely for Phanor Prud’homme and his new wife Lise (Phanor was the son of Bermuda Plantation founder Emmanuel and his wife Catherine). The house took the name Doctor’s Cottage after being rented by various doctors starting in 1860, with the longest residency being that of Doctor Joseph Leveque and his family from 1866 until 1893. However, despite its name, for all but 35 years of its 170 years of existence, the Doctor’s Cottage was occupied by members of the Prud’homme Family, usually by Prud’homme children who got married and didn’t have a place of their own at the time. The house was used as a residence up until 1998.

The original building had only two rooms and a central fireplace, but it was continually updated and expanded through 1880. A few years after moving in, Leveque enclosed the south end of the front porch to create an office. In 1880 the house was enlarged to nearly double its original size to accommodate his daughter, Lucie, and her new husband, August Lambre Prud’homme. The couple and their subsequent daughter lived at the cottage with the Leveques until 1890. Three years later Joseph Leveque passed away, ending his nearly 30-year tenure as the Oakland Plantation doctor. Another doctor moved in, but only for a few months.

Doctor’s Cottage at Oakland Plantation, Cane River Creole National Historical Park

A more significant event in the history of the Doctor’s Cottage is the birth of Marie Adele Prud’homme in 1903. She and her husband would go on to own the cottage, and it was her daughter, Doris, who sold it to the National Park Service for inclusion in Cane River Creole National Historical Park.

Adele was the daughter of Pierre Phanor Prud’homme II and Marie Laurie Cloutier (Phanor II’s grandfather was the Phanor who first moved into the cottage). At the time, Phanor II’s father, Jacque Alphonse Prud’homme, was the owner of Oakland. In fact, he was the man who actually inherited the land that became Oakland Plantation—he was the one who gave the plantation its name. In 1901 he built a new home for Phanor II and Marie called Riverside Plantation, and this is where Adele was born.

Phanor and his family moved back to Oakland around 1910 and lived in the Doctor’s Cottage for a few years (Phanor II’s brother, Edward, moved into Riverside). The two brothers swapped houses at least one more time before J. Alphonse passed away in 1919. At that time, Phanor II inherited most of the property at Oakland including the Main House and the Doctor’s Cottage where Edward and his family were living. Edward moved once again to Riverside and Phanor II, Marie, and their children moved back into the cottage. Phanor II’s mother, who was still alive, lived in the Main House with his unmarried sister, Julia, and a cook. When his mother died in 1923, Phanor II moved his family to the Main House and the cottage was occupied by other family members.

Adele went on to marry Jesse Brett in 1932, and in 1936 they move into the Doctor’s Cottage, the place where she had grown up. That same year she gave birth to twins, but only one child lived, Doris Ann. Adele had fond memories of growing up at Oakland in the cottage, and in 1940 the couple purchased it from her father and lived there until 1949, at which time they moved to Texas. In their absence, they rented the cottage to various family members.

In 1956, the Bretts returned to Oakland Plantation to live in the cottage once again. Adele died there in 1974. Jesse continued living at Oakland for another ten years, then moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, to be with Doris. When he died in 1987, Doris inherited the house.

Doris never moved back to Oakland, but she did continue renting the cottage to various family members. The last person living there moved out in 1998. It was at this time that she sold the cottage and the surrounding grounds to the National Park Service. The rest of Oakland Planation was sold to the government by the Prud’homme Family.

The current Doctor’s Cottage is 2,500 square feet and has ten rooms, a front and rear porch, and three fireplaces. It appears as it was after the last major renovation in 1957. It is now used as an office for the National Park Service and is thus not open to the public.

There were a number of buildings constructed to support the cottage, and some of these are still standing. They include a barn built around 1870 (now used as a maintenance and storage shed by the National Park Service), a two-seat outhouse, a hand-operated grist mill, two cisterns, a chicken coop, and a garage. Dates of construction are unknown for most of these. A Prud’homme family member claims the garage was built in 1956.

Outhouse (left) and Grist Mill (right) near the Oakland Plantation Doctor’s Cottage at Cane River Creole National Historical Park

Barn near the Oakland Plantation Doctor’s Cottage at Cane River Creole National Historical Park

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