Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2009 - (Page 78) To reconstruct or to mourn? Preservationists debate how to commemorate lost buildings The destruction by fire of the Kate Chopin House in For its architectural significance, cultural heritage, and its Cloutierville in the Cane River area of Natchitoches Parish, on prominence as a literary landmark, the house has become a October 1, 2008, raises old questions central to historic cultural icon. preservation and, by extension, to contemporary design. Should Reconstruction of destroyed buildings and even sections of an historic building that suffers a disaster be reconstructed or cities is universal and was widespread in Europe after World War II. should it just be mourned — accepting that things pass. If it is This nation's most substantial and well-known reconstruction is reconstructed, should it be built in the techniques and with the Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, which began in the 1920s. kinds of materials of the original, as some purists would argue, or Williamsburg consequently set off much of the debate for and is it acceptable to use modern techniques and materials, such as steel, in parts of the building hidden from view. And to what era in a building's life should it be reconstructed, given that most historic buildings are not pristine, but get altered or added to over the years. All of these questions apply to the Kate Chopin house. Novelist Kate Chopin (1851-1904) lived in this two-storied galleried house from 18791883. Although she did not begin to write until 1888, when she returned to her childhood home in St. Louis, the Cane River area and its culture served as a backdrop for her short stories in Bayou Folk (1894). When Chopin lived in this house, her husband, Oscar Chopin, helped manage the family plantation and general store. The Kate Chopin house was first officially recognized for its significance when it was designated a Louisiana Landmark in 1975. In the following decade it was placed on the Cloutierville’s Kate Chopin House, also known as the Bayou Folk Museum, burned on October 1, 2008. National Register of Historic Places for its importance to the history of the French community of Cloutierville, and it achieved national status when it became a National Historic Landmark in 1993. The house, among the oldest in Louisiana, was built sometime near the beginning of the 19th century for Alexis Cloutier by his slaves. Oscar and Kate Chopin purchased the house in 1876 when they were living in New Orleans and moved there in 1879. The ground floor was constructed of handmade bricks and the upper floor of cypress with with dovetail joints and square wooden pegs; the front gallery was supported on brick piers below square wooden columns. The ground floor was originally used as a storage area, connected to the second-floor parlor and four bedrooms by an exterior staircase in the gallery. 78 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2009
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