The guided tour of the Laura manor house, or as it was called, the Big House, begins with an introduction to Creole architecture. Major elements of Creole design can be seen in this 1805 building, a common sense response to the Louisiana environment.

Firstly, the building is raised high off the ground to protect from annual flooding of the Mississippi as well as to afford cooler, drier and better ventilated living quarters upstairs.  To aid in the necessary ventilation, the house faced the River with the doors and tall windows ready to catch the breeze.  For shade, galeries (porches) surrounded the house on four sides.  By 1822, the side galleries had been enclosed for needed bedroom spaces.

The upper level of the 24,000 sq. ft.  house was made of brick-between-post (briqueté-entre-pôteaux); the lower level was of solid brick.  Below the ground level was an 8-foot deep foundation of 72 brick pyramids holding up the house in the fine river silt.

The  Big House stood as a typical U-shaped house for 100 years, until 1905 when the Waguespack family, faced with inheritance problems inherent in all family businesses, cut off the two wings and reshaped the house into its present form: a 17,000 sq. ft. house in the shape of the letter: "T".

Visitors enter the raised basement from under the galleries.   Here you can view the wine cellar and cypress beams notched by the Senegalese slaves in 1804. From the basement, visitors walk into the back courtyard and pass the Jardin Français on their way to the front gallery on the upper level.

Upstairs, you enter the men's  parlor, the main parlor (the living room), the ladies' parlor, children's room, back gallery, pantry and, finally, the dining room. All these rooms act as a backdrop for the detailed personal stories and events that took place in these very spaces over the last 200 years.

Today, the Big House has, intentionally, not been fully restored, offering visitors a sense of authentic realism among some of Laura's Creole family's furniture, heirlooms, slave and business registers, clothing, jewelry, and a large collection of family portraits and photographs.

Allow from 45 minutes to 1 hour for your visit of the Big House and, following this tour, feel free to roam the farmstead where you can view the fields of sugarcane and Laura's numerous outbuildings.