San Francisco Plantation

A stunning example of "Steamboat Gothic" architecture, this brightly painted mansion was built in 1849 at such immense cost that its name derives from "saint-frusquin" - French slang meaning "without all one possesses." Twelve highly skilled enslaved craftsmen constructed the elaborate home.

San Francisco Plantation stands along River Road in Garyville, Louisiana, its flamboyant facade of blue, peach, and pistachio paint making it one of the most architecturally distinctive plantation houses in the American South. The house was built between 1853 and 1856 for Edmond Bozonier Marmillion, who had purchased the plantation land in 1830 for one hundred thousand dollars from Elisee Rillieux, a free man of color. The construction was driven by heartbreak. Marmillion's wife had contracted tuberculosis and died in 1843, and their eight children also contracted the disease. Six of the eight children died over a period of about twenty years. Edmond wanted to build a grand home for his only two surviving children, Valsin and Charles, but he himself died in 1856, the year the house was completed, never seeing his vision fully realized.

Valsin inherited the property and, alongside his German-born wife Louise von Seybold, oversaw the elaborate interior decoration, commissioning delicate ceiling paintings featuring flowers, birds, and putti in five rooms. Valsin named the estate St. Frusquin, a play on sans fruscins meaning without a cent, reportedly reflecting the staggering debt the construction had left behind. Valsin died of tuberculosis in 1871, and his brother Charles followed four years later. In 1879, the next owner, Achille D. Bougere, changed the name to San Francisco. The house's distinctive silhouette, with its fluted Corinthian capitals, Tudor arches, and ogee-shaped windows, has earned its architectural style the name Steamboat Gothic. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974, and Marathon Oil purchased and funded a two-million-dollar restoration in 1976.

The haunting of San Francisco Plantation is rooted in the family tragedies that shadowed its creation. The spirit of Charles Marmillion has been encountered inside the house, with psychics from investigation teams noting his sickly form appearing in the office and one of the bedrooms. Given that Charles spent his final years weakened by the same tuberculosis that claimed so many of his family, the apparition seems to be a residual echo of his suffering.

The most poignant activity involves the spirits of children. Phantom laughter echoes through the nursery, and the gentle creak of floorboards is heard under unseen feet. Toys have been found inexplicably moved from room to room between tours. The apparitions of two young girls have been seen playing beneath the trees surrounding the house, believed to be among the six Marmillion children who died before the plantation was completed. Paranormal investigation teams including ISPR and Louisiana Spirit Paranormal Investigators have documented activity at the site, recording footsteps and capturing both adult and child entities on thermal cameras. EVPs and numerous personal experiences have been logged. The surreal beauty and rich decorative detail of San Francisco Plantation seem almost to mask the layers of lingering grief within its walls, a place where extravagance and the eerie exist in an uneasy balance.