LAURA EWEN BLOKKER 44 ARRIS I vo 1U1v\E TW ENT Y 2009 Figure 20 Overseer's House, Oakland Plantat1on, Natchez, Louisiana, 1861, detail of later mud and moss plaster applied over bousillage and posts.(Photograph by author) LAURA EWEN BLOKKER BUILDING WITH BOUSILLAGE: PERPETUATION OF A CONSTRUCTION TRADITION IN LOUISIANA LAURA EWEN BLOKKER INTRODUCTION B ousiLLage is a nagging composed of a mixture of clay and Spanish moss that builders applied over riven staves betvveen posts in the timber framing of French Colonial, Creole, and Acadian buildings . Earthen noggings were common in the traditional building practices of cultures around the world, and immigrant groups in North America employed several variations for brief periods, but bousiLLage stands out for its enduring popularity with generations of builders in Louisiana. The technique can be found in a multitude of existing structures, from the modest to the grand, across the state today. Brick manufacturing began in New Orleans in 1726, and from that time, bricks became a more prevalent nagging in that city and in its immediate surroundings. In other areas, though brick was available and often used for foundations, bousiLLage remained popular for the nagging of the timber frame. Among documented surviving examples, most bousiLLage structures date to the 1830s, but the technique was popular from the beginning of the eighteenth century well into the nineteenth and may still have been used sparingly at the turn of the twentieth. Nevertheless, scholars have neglected this important vernacular building technique. There is no comprehensive study of the history and technology of bousiLLage, and studies of Louisiana's architectural traditions usually mention it only briefly. The definitions often pro\~ded may be unreliable because the information has been gathered orally or it is of unidentified origin and cannot be verified. 1 This important, but overlooked, part of our built heritage deserves more rigorous study. This article documents an extensive field study of forty-two buildings supplemented by archival research, and it may explain why bousiLLage became such a fixture in a large part of Louisiana. The author argues that this earthen infill technique flourished in parts of the state with significant Creole or Acadian populations, despite the presence of more expedient alternatives, because these areas were home to a unique union of formerly separate cultures.2 In this environment, traditional daubing practices from different parts of the world were combined with local materials to produce a construction technique well-suited to regional conditions. As such, it illustrates the process of creolization, which influenced many aspects of Louisiana's architecture and culture.3 In much the same way that the unique culture of the state resulted from the mixture of the people who settled there, bousiLLageendured as the vernacular building method of choice because it too was a mixture- a product of lessons learned across time and place and transformed by immigrants to meet their needs. This article explains bousiLLage as the product of three very broad geographical areas-the Gulf Coast of the United States, France, and \Nest Africa-to emphasize the compatible building traditions that guided the development of bousiLLage in Louisiana. The state's complete '0 U M E T W ENTY 2009 I ARRIS 45 LAURA EWEN BLOKKER immigration and settlement history is, of course, far more complex and included Germans, Spanish, Isleiios, Anglo Americans, and many other groups. It was through the unique cultural mix created by these major migrations, and all the minor ones in between, that the practice of bousdLage vvas continually reaffirmed and perpetuated. COLONIAL BEGINNINGS AND THE MEETING OF CULTURES French colonists arrived on the Gulf Coast in 1699 as a group led by Iberville and Bienville with the objective of securing territory up the ~~Iississippi River. Their first buildings were unique combinations of their old and nevv worlds. At the time the French arrived, many groups of Native Americans inhabited the lmver :.Mississippi Valley. In 1700, ajesuit priest named Father Paul du Ru began missionary endeavors with the Native Americans the French encountered. In his interactions with the different tribes, he observed their building techniques and noted that they began with posts in the ground and pieces between as in wattle and daub construction. Through further...
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