According to a college thesis written in 1990 by Kathleen Mills Perilloux, "Afton Villa's house and gardens were built by the Barrow family in the mid-eighteen hundreds near St. Francisville in the parish of West Feliciana in Anglo-American Louisiana. The family members, who had come from North Carolina in 1798, were wealthy planters with extensive land holdings, and were prominent leaders in the area."
On March 4, 1963 the house was destroyed by fire.
In 1972 Mr. and Mrs. Morrell Trimble of New Orleans purchased the site. After several years of clearing the area of all the debris left from the fire, which as Mrs Trimble says "included hundreds of snakes in a snake pit", they decided to plant gardens amongst the ruins of the burned away mansion. They also restored the grounds with its magnificent oaks, dogwood, crepe myrtles, cypress and its glorious azaleas. Some 30,000 daffodils were planted on the gently sloping hills of the estate and each year Mrs. Trimble supervises the plantings of the tulips, phlox, pansies and other wonderful flowers for the Audubon Pilgrimage held in the middle of March. It was in St. Francisville that John J. Audubon painted many of his bird pictures.
Mr. Trimble passed away in 2004 and Mrs. Trimble is continuing the work that they began.
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