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Zemurray Lodge
Courtesy of the Louisiana
Division of Historic Preservation
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Lake and some of the azaleas of the Zemurray Gardens
Courtesy of Lagniappe Tours,
Foundation for Historical Louisiana
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Zemurray Gardens, with its flowers,
fountains, statues, woods, lakes, and unusual buildings, stand as one
of the notable scenic attractions of Louisiana. The land now occupied
by Zemurray Gardens was one of the earliest settled areas in what is now
Tangipahoa Parish and was originally settled by Thomas Joiner sometime
in the 1790s. In 1828, Alfred Hennen purchased 1280 acres and built a
house here the following year. By 1860, Hennen was the third largest rice
producer in Louisiana, and owned over 100 slaves. After his death in 1870,
his daughter, Cora, wife of John A. Morris, the major financial backer
of the Louisiana Lottery, purchased the plantation. The Lake Superior
Piling Company of Chicago, of which Charles H. Houlton was president,
bought the property from the Morris heirs in 1918. Houlton and his brother
William made extensive improvements to the buildings, adding the colonnades
and interior redecorating that give the main buildings of the estate their
unique architectural character. The estate was then given the name "Houltonwood."
However, the Zemurray Gardens and Lodge Complex take their name from Samuel
Zemurray, a Russian Jewish immigrant who made his fortune in America from
the banana trade with Central America. He sold his successful fruit company
in 1929 for $33,000,000 to the United Fruit Company, a year after he had
purchased the "Houltonwood" estate. After making his millions Zemurray
became a noted philanthropist and expanded Zemurray Gardens, which began
in 1922. A trail of azaleas cuts through the forest of magnolias, cypress,
poplars, gum and oaks. The path, which also boasts camellias, irises,
daffodils, dogwoods, honeysuckles, marigolds and yellow poplars, goes
around Mirror Lake, where cast bronze statues stand reminiscent of the
great gardens of an earlier epoch.
Zemurray Gardens is not only renowned for its scenic gardens and founts,
but is also locally significant architecturally. The lodge complex forming
the main building on the grounds has an interior designed in the Arts
and Crafts style of the early 1900s by distinguished New Orleans architect
Moise H. Goldstein. Some of the decorating and architectural features
characteristic of this movement, like wainscoting, medieval-looking
beamed ceilings, the inglenook, and the Craftsman styled staircase are
all present in the one-and-a-half-story gable-end house with the log
cabin recreation room that serves as the main building. There are few
if any surviving examples of the Arts and Crafts style found in Louisiana's
Florida Parishes, making those within the Zemurray Gardens Lodge Complex
truly unique.
The Zemurray Gardens Lodge Complex is located along State Hwy 40
in Loranger, 1.7 miles east of State Hwy 455. Neither the lodge
nor the gardens, which were heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina,
are open to the public.
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