Even though it has a Darrow mailing address, Tezcuco is located on LA 44 at Burnside in sight of the Sunshine Bridge. It took five years to build Tezcuco in the 1850s. This Greek Revival home was constructed of cypress from the plantation’s own swamps and bricks made in its own kilns. When the original owner, Benjamin Tureaud, built the house he named it for an Aztec village on the shores of a lake of the same name in Mexico where he had been while serving in the Mexican War. The word is said to mean resting place, and in Mexico now has the Spanish spelling, Texcoco.
“Resting place” is an appropriate description of this antebellum home and its quiet historic village of restored cottages, chapel, carriage house, blacksmith shop, commissary, children’s playhouse, African-American Museum, and Civil War Museum. The cottages range from one bedroom, bath, and porch to two bedrooms, kitchen/great room, and two baths. Some are doubles with separate accommodations on each side. La Petite Maison, which is also called the honeymoon cottage, is on the National Register and has a formal parlor, kitchen, one bedroom, and a bath. It and some of the others are furnished in antiques. The most lavish unit is the General’s Suite on the third floor of the main house. It has two bedrooms, two baths, living room, dining room, and kitchen and overlooks the plantation grounds.
A full breakfast of eggs, sausage, biscuits, juice, and coffee is included in the price and is served in the cottages. The units also have coffee makers. For other meals there is a restaurant on the grounds, and the plantation is not far from two others. The Cabin, right in Burnside at the junction of LA 44 and 22, serves seafood specialties as well as po’ boy sandwiches.
Across the Sunshine Bridge to the west bank of the river, in the restored Viala Plantation House, is Lafitte’s Landing. Operated by noted Louisiana chef John Folse, it is one of the finest restaurants in the state. The food, Cajun in accent and mostly seafood dishes, is artfully and attractively presented.
A stay of several days at Tezcuco will give you the leisure time to explore the area and the many other antebellum homes along the river. One of the closest of these is Houmas House, an 1840 Greek Revival mansion on the National Register, which was restored in 1940 and is furnished with period antiques. In 1858, John Burnside bought Houmas Plantation, named for the Houmas Indians. There were 10,000 acres, which Burnside doubled to 20,000 for sugarcane production. Surrounded by formal gardens and live oaks, the massive white-columned home has been the setting for several movies and is open for tours daily, except on major holidays. Gift shop on premises. LBBA members, inspected 1996. Inn pays commission to travel agents.