Built on the banks of the False River in the early 1800s by François Samson, the LeJeune House thrived as the epicenter of a 500-acre indigo and tobacco plantation until the 1830s. The LeJeune family bought it then and remained until the 1970s, when they sold the house to Michael Rollinger and Mary Champagne, the well-known society editor of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. The couple hired the Southern master architect A. Hays Town to restore and renovate the house, but it is unknown whether any of his plans were actually carried out. Today, Richard Gibbs and Randy Harelson own the house and its 2½ acres—the rest was developed as part of the town of New Roads, Louisiana.
.jpg)
