Albania Mansion
Jeanerette, Louisiana
At a Glance
The Albania Mansion was built between 1837 and 1842 along the banks of the Bayou Teche and facing the historic Old Spanish Trail. Stay in a beautifully restored historic mansion with 9 bedrooms and 9 ½ baths situated on 9 acres of parklike grounds filled with ancient live oaks draped in Spanish moss.
Albania hosted John James Audubon while he created his “Birds of America” sketches. These same birds still make the Bayou Teche area their home today. Enjoy bird watching on the bayou or from your own perch in the gorgeous gazebo situated along the bayou’s edge. Rest and relax on one of the enormous porches which add almost 4,000 square feet to the size of the home. Stroll the grounds and visit the aviary of peafowl and ornamental pheasants. Discover the hidden gardens or the bamboo retreat.
Mansion Grounds
Albania was built by Charles and Euphemie Grevemberg between 1837 and 1842. Charles was the son of Francis Grevemberg who had been given a Spanish land grant by the King of Spain in 1780 for millitary service against the British during the war with England. The orignal West Indies style home built by Francis had burned down and this Greek Revival Beauty was built between 1837-1842. One of the most striking features is the three-story unsupported spiral stair which was made in France and shipped over by boat. It is the largest in the state. The home is one of the largest in Louisiana and is made of cypress and bricks completely milled on the property. The Grevembergs had five children: Louis, Agricole, Charlotte, Mathilde, Gabriel, and Charles Jr.
Located on Bayou Teche
After the Civil War, the family hung on to the plantation until 1885 when a Jamaican of Jewish decent (a Yale classmate of Charles, Jr.) forclosed on the loan and created one of the most successful sugar cane businesses in the state, comprising over 6,000 acres and expanding its on site sugar mill operation. Isaac Delgado was also a wildly successful sugar broker who resided in New Orleans. He never lived at Albania but hired Alexandre Pierre Allain and his family to manage the sugar cane operations and live on the premises. When Mr. Delgado died in 1912, having never married or produced heirs, he left the entire sugar plantation to the City of New Orleans to establish the Delgado Central Trade School for the under-privileged. The Allain family continued to live on site and manage the sugar cane operation.
Stay in ulitmate comfort and style. In a totally updated and modernized version of the past. This is not the ordinary hotel or accomadations. The experiece of living in the mansion is worth the entire cost of the workshop.
Life of days gone by in a modern world
located in historic southern Louisiana