The historic Nottoway Resort in White Castle, a former plantation home and the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the U.S. South, burned to the ground Thursday as flames engulfed the 160-year-old building and its storied — and painful — past. 

The cause of the fire was still unknown by Friday morning, but officials said it started in the building’s south wing before spreading to the main house. Iberville Parish president Chris Daigle said the mansion was a total loss.

Firefighters from Baton Rouge operate Aerial 3 as flames burst from the roof of the Nottoway Plantation on Thursday, May 15, 2025 in White Castle, Louisiana.

STAFF PHOTO BY MICHAEL JOHNSON

The plantation, a 64-room, 53,000-square-foot property, was built between 1857 and 1859 for wealthy sugar planter John Hampden Randolph. It was added to the National Register of Historic places in 1980. 

Over the decades, Nottoway’s sprawling grounds have been transformed into a sought after wedding location, tourist destination and resort, one celebrated for its Southern charm and beautiful oak trees. The plantation was a major attraction and tourism driver for the southeastern Louisiana parish near Baton Rouge. 

But for many, Nottoway remained a symbol of the South’s painful history with slavery, one that some felt was ignored inside the resort’s doors. 

Nottoway Plantation / Cornelia Randolph Murrell, painter / ca. 1870s1880s

Historic New Orleans Collection, The L. Kemper and Leila Moore Williams Founder Collection, Acc. No. 1958.36.

One of Louisiana’s largest plantations

Randolph, a planter from wealthy, prominent Virginia family, moved down to the Deep South to try his hand at growing sugar cane, according Sarah Duggan, project manager for Decorative Arts of the Gulf South at The Historic New Orleans Collection.

Once here, he commissioned renowned architect Henry Howard of New Orleans — a prolific designer behind some of Louisiana’s most iconic buildings, including the Pontalba buildings in Jackson Square and the Robert Short house — to draw up the grandiose Greek Revival and Italianate style mansion. 

Under Howard’s guidances, slaves built the house mostly from cypress trees in the nearby swamplands along the neighboring Mississippi River.

The extravagant home was fitted with many of the highest luxuries of the time: flushing toilets and hot and cold water in all bathrooms (thanks to 10,000 gallon copper tank), gas lighting, a grand 65-foot ballroom and a bowling alley installed for Randolph’s 11 children.

By 1860, Randolph owned 155 enslaved Black people and 6,200 acres on the Nottoway plantation, 1,200 of which were under cultivation, according to a 1980 National Register of Historic Places nomination form submitted for the property.

Nottoway Plantation / Robert S. Brantley, photographer / ca. 1970s

Historic New Orleans Collection, Acc. No. 1986.9.5.

Compared to other Louisiana plantations, Nottoway stands out to Duggan because of its enormous scale and the fact that it was built much later on than others.

The complex, like nearby counterparts, would have included slave quarters, lined up in a straight row beyond the main house, but close enough to be surveilled by Randolph or another overseer, Duggan said.

During the Civil War, the compound managed to avoid sustaining any major damage, like many of Louisiana’s other large plantations. And even after enslaved people in the U.S. were emancipated, life at Nottoway would likely have continued similarly, as many of the now freed slaves found themselves forced into the sharecropping system. 

“That is absolutely a big part of the story,” Duggan said. 

“If you think about it, if that’s only place you’ve lived your whole life, your family is there — your friends, your family, your community. And if you were enslaved, you were kept illiterate, so it would be so difficult to leave.”

Nottoway Plantation / Robert S. Brantley, photographer / ca. 1970s

Historic New Orleans Collection, Acc. No. 1986.9.7.

From Owens family to tourist destination

By 1912, the grand mansion was acquired by the Owens family and passed on through their generations until 1977. That year, Odessa Rushing Owens, a retired schoolteacher, sold the 32-acre property to construction company owner Arlin K. Dease for $720,000 — under the stipulation that she could continue living in the house. 

Dease, who was described in a 1980 Times-Picayune article as a lover of antiques and history, set out to revive the home using knowledge he’d gained from renovating other historic homes in Louisiana, including The Myrtles in St. Francisville.

A fire broke out at the Nottoway Resort plantation house Thursday, starting in the building’s south wing and spreading to the main house.

Video by Quinn Coffman

After the renovations were complete, Dease opened the home for tours and wedding receptions. Over the years he expanded the property, adding a 300-seat restaurant for receptions and opening 10 bedrooms to overnight guests. 

Five years later, Dease sold the property for $4.5 million to Australian Paul J. Ramsey and Boston native Peter J. Evans, owners of the Ramsey Hospital Corporation that operated River West Medical Center, a former hospital in Plaquemine. 

Nottoway’s attractions grew as Ramsey added more spaces for guests and several meeting rooms. It was under his ownership that the historic home came to be known as a resort destination. 

In 2008, the plantation sustained significant damage during Hurricane Gustav, forcing owners to close its doors for months for renovations. 

Nottoway Plantation, White Castle, Louisiana 70788 / Grant L. Robertson, photographer / ca. 1993

Historic New Orleans Collection, Gift of Lynne Robertson Parker, Acc. No. 2014.0330.1.166.

Nottoway has since changed hands a couple of times over the past few years, first being purchased by the late hotelier Joe Jaeger Jr. in 2019 and then by Dan Dyess, a Natchitoches area lawyer, in late 2024. Dyess also owns the historic Steel Magnolia House Bed and Breakfast in Natchitoches.

Despite the home’s past ties to slavery, the latest version of Nottoway Resort’s website avoids any mention of slaves or slave labor.

In the day since the fire, reactions to the monument’s destruction have been mixed. While some are mourning the loss of home and its history, many are celebrating the destruction of a place fraught with injustice. 

“That’s the inherent conflict in any plantation house or history,” Duggan said.

“This building is a monument to, sort of the apex of an exploitive, abusive system that exploited the lives of enslaved people to build elaborate, some would say bloated, homes like this.”

Officials have acknowledged the mansion’s complicated past while still mourning the loss of a historic building and economic driver in Iberville Parish. 

“While its early history is undeniably tied to a time of great injustice, over the last several decades it evolved into a place of reflection, education, and dialogue. Since the 1980s, it has welcomed visitors from around the world who came to appreciate its architecture and confront the legacies of its era,” Daigle said in a Facebook post. “It stood as both a cautionary monument and a testament to the importance of preserving history — even the painful parts — so that future generations can learn and grow from it.”

Despite the loss, Nottoway’s history and that of other plantation homes in the South still remain in the lives of those who live nearby and the records and documents that will be studied for generations. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that the history is lost. This artifact is lost, but the history is still there,” Duggan said.

“If you’re mourning the loss of Nottoway, I would encourage you to learn more about it. Learn more about other plantation houses. You can still learn from that history.”