The Cottage

Description:

• This rambling country home, 5 miles north of St. Francisville, is really a series of buildings constructed between 1795 and 1859. It's not that much to see, inside or out, and the accommodations pale when compared to what's offered at Madewood. Still, the low, two-story house has a long gallery out front, a nice place to sit and relax for an evening, perhaps joined by the owners' sociable dogs.

  The first house was built entirely of virgin cypress taken from the grounds. Many of the outbuildings date from 1811, when Judge Thomas Butler (of the "Fighting Butlers," prominent in American history) acquired the property. After his victory in the Battle of New Orleans, Gen. Andrew Jackson, along with a troop of officers that included no fewer than eight butlers, stopped off here for a 3-week stay on his way from New Orleans to Natchez. The Cottage's interior looks very much as it did when the Butlers lived here, with hand-screened wallpaper, a 19th-century love seat (with space for a chaperone), and needlepoint fire screens made by the ladies of the family. This is a working family farm of some 360 acres.

  The six guest rooms ($115-$150 double, including breakfast) are a mix of elegant (huge four-poster canopy beds) and funky (icky motel room carpeting) and are not available January, February, or major holidays. But there is a small pool, and you do have breakfast in the elegant dining room of the main house.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010