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2011 Tour of Homes Cancelled
Will resume next year.
Regretfully we announce that the 2011 Tour of Homes has been cancelled for uncontrolable reasons. Please join us again in 2012 whe we will resume the tour. | | | Here are our homes for 2010.
STAY TUNED FOR OUR 2011 HOMES
 |  | | Trolley ride to each home | | | The Tour of Homes has been a unique part of the Giant Omelette weeked since 1989. Thanks to Mrs. Lelia Minvielle, affectionately refered to as "The General" and her love of Historic Downtown Abbeville. The General sought out and trained Abbeville's own Volunteer Tour Guides and began the tour of homes. This event is a wonderful addition to the Giant Omelette weekend!
Tours begin at 9:30 a.m. at Abbey Players on the corner of South State and Lafayette Streets on Saturday, November 6.
Tickets ($10) can be purchased at The Depot in Historic, downtown Abbeville starting Tuesday, October 5, 2010 through Friday, November 5, 2010.
The Depot is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Some tickets may be available at Abbey Players on the day of the tour. (Sorry. No children allowed.)
Below are the the houses featured in the 2010 tour.
| | | 2010 Homes
Once again the Tour of Homes will begin at the beautiful Abbey Players Theatre. You will enjoy viewing their recent renovations while you gather with friends in the lobby of the Theatre to wait for your tour.
| | | Thank you Dana Main
The following articles were written by Dana Main with the home owners and appeared in the Abbeville Meridional on successive Wednesdays from October 13 to November 3, 2010.
| | | THE CORCORAN HOUSE
Yum! Yum! Yum!
It looks good enough to eat!
Mama is cooking!
Yummy! Yum! Let’s do it!
Let’s make a gingerbread house!
A gingerbread house it is! The first of four houses you will visit on the Maisons des Visite during the week-end of the Giante Omelette Celebration, isn’t really made of gingerbread. It just looks that way! Sondra Corcoran will welcome you to her newly decorated home filled with beauty and surprises.
The first homeowner was Nina Langlinais who was a very accomplished and successful businesswoman. Her stylish dress shop on South State Street from the thirties to the sixties was simply known as Nina‘s. Nina Langlinais purchased the house and lot on Young Street from her family’s estate after her mother, Althea Langlinais, died in 1934. In 1937 she had the original house torn down, and engaged Emmet P. Putnam, Jr. to build the three bedroom house.
Nina and her two sisters, Mae Langlinais and Eucharis ‘Khan’ Langlinais Corcoran along with Khan’s son, Johnny, moved into the new home. Johnny Corcoran inherited the property in 1981 after his Aunt Nina died. He and his wife Sondra Roche Corcoran made plans to return to Abbeville upon his retirement in 1990. In 2000 Sondra plunged into a major repair-restore-redecorate period and the house was on the Tour of Homes in 2001.
This year Sondra looked at her house again and slowly began the metamorphosis from the sweet little white house on the corner to an interesting, ‘head turning’ house that, yes, looks somewhat like a gingerbread house that the kids make at Christmas. Two large oak trees protectively embrace the house in the front and in the late afternoons partially shades the newly added rear patio-walkway.
One enters the house into the former screen porch which Nina Langlinais enclosed in the 1950’s. The two front windows stand on the brick base allowing light into the room yet providing privacy. A swing and an antique table and chairs invite a casual visit.
A step leads up into the living room with the dining room to the left. Beautiful restored white oak floors with two and a quarter inch wide planks sweep across the living-dining areas and into the rest of the house. Furniture from both Sondra and Johnny’s families are tastefully placed throughout.
One interesting piece came from neither of the families but was found in Mobile by Sondra herself. It is a metal screen with dragon fly cutouts. How Sondra bargained for and arranged shipment of the metal screen from Mobile to Abbeville is a story only Sondra can tell.
Sondra’s mother, Louise Roche, loved to shop for antiques. Her major destination, however, was not an antique store, but rather a house or a barn. In those days people bartered using other furniture items rather than money. A furniture item that Mrs. Roche found useful in most situations was an old wash stand. So she bought old wash stands and traded one for a piece of furniture that she spotted as a ‘gem’. She would return home with what seemed like hopelessly derelict junk. But after hours of cleaning, sanding, repairing, and staining…voila!! The result is amazing! Sondra will point out some of these pieces on the Tour.
There are surprises in the living room like what an antique table can turn into, and where the dragonfly motif appears again. The ‘oh my’ reaction continues into the dining room as one views a real curved glass china cabinet and how space was used in former pocket doors. But its the glass chandelier over the dining room table that will take your breath away! Sondra decorates the chandelier for all four seasons, plus the major holidays and any other event that catches her whimsy. It will be fully decorated for the tour.
Down the oak-floored hall from the living room are the three bedrooms. The first one on the right is a large room that boasts a beautiful four poster bed with accompanying antique pieces. At the end of the hall to the right Sondra has created a totally different kind of space with poppy motifs and an antique iron bed. The corner bathroom has been turned into a large walk-in closet. The third bedroom is the master bedroom full of antiques from Sondra’s family.
The kitchen can be entered from the dining room and from a small hall off the bedrooms. Nina Langlinais modernized it by 1950’s standards and Sondra enlarged and updated it further. Even in the kitchen the floor shows the oak flooring.
Sondra is an incredible cook! The room carries the scent of delicious meals even with the stove off. Out of this kitchen memorable meals have debuted that tantalize all of the senses.
Sondra claims she did not intend to create a gingerbread house.
The house knew what it wanted to be.
It led her.
Tours begin at 9:30 a.m. at Abbey Players on the corner of South State and Lafayette Streets on Saturday, November 6. Tickets ($10) can be purchased at The Depot through November 5, 2010. The Depot is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Some tickets may be available at Abbey Players on the day of the tour. (Sorry. No children allowed.)
| | | | | | THE PUTNAM HOUSE
On a stroll up Abbeville’s North Louisiana Street in the late nineteen thirties or early nineteen forties three little tow-heads could be seen running and playing in the yard of a southern colonial home that boasts a spacious brick front porch with four Doric columns. The three oak trees that spread their lumbering branches above them were well over a century old at that time. On the northeast corner of the spacious grounds, a Woodville Red camellia tree from the mother tree in Mississippi nestles among other treasured specimen camellias. The two little girls (Ruth and Lise) and the one little boy (George) were born on the same day…from the same mother. Before your eyes are the Putnam triplets! The home that the triplets grew up in will be on the Tour of Homes this year on Saturday, November 6, the week-end of the Giante Omelette Celebration.
The Putnam triplets were a first for Abbeville! They were a first for the state of Louisiana! A New Orleans writer at the time noted that Canada had the Dionne quintuplets, England had the Harmsworth quadruplets, and Louisiana had the Putnam triplets. In this day of fertility drugs and medical treatments where multiple births are a frequent side effect and premature babies are saved by modern medicine, it is hard to appreciate how very rare a multiple birth of three was in 1935 where all survived. The Putnam triplets celebrated their 75th birthday this past September 7th. (See the Sept. 7 edition of the Abbeville Meridional for Nicole Rogers’ excellent article on this event.)
The triplets’ father, Emmet Perkins Putnam, Jr., built the home in the same year that the triplets were born. It was patterned after the home of his wife Ruth Argue Putnam from Woodville, Mississippi. The architect was Owen Southwell from New Iberia. The triplets were born at Hotel D’ieu in New Orleans and some weeks later came home to the house that will be open for the Visite des Maisons.
Hand-pegged and butterflied oak floors and a curved stairwell leading to the second floor greet the visitor at the entry. There is a small balcony part way up the stairwell and off a second floor bedroom where Lise and Ruth threw their bouquets following their weddings.
More of the original flooring flows through the living room and the dining room. The living room is furnished with family heirlooms that include a wingback chair and a tall antique chest of drawers that are original to the house. George and Sylvia added fireplace stools and a remote controlled fireplace. In the dining room the table and the secretary chest are from the Argue family home in Woodville, Mississippi and the armoire and chandelier were inherited from Mr. Putnam’s oldest sister (the triplets’ aunt), Agnes Putnam Godchaux. Family heirlooms continue throughout the house and the walls display a hand painted Putnam coat of arms, family photos across generations, and art work from family and friends including beautiful works by Sylvia Putnam, herself.
The house has three bathrooms all with their original ceramic tile. One in particular holds the original bathinette specially built in a size for three little splashing babies!
Mr. Putnam built several homes and buildings in Abbeville and started the Abbeville Lumber Company located on South State Street where the original building still stands. His sons continued the business in a new facility south of town until their retirement. Some of the homes built by Mr. Putnam were for Mary and Frank Godchaux, Jr., Mary and Elijah Kirkpatrick, Sr. (now the home of Mrs. Frank Summers), Hazel and Paul Moresi, Charlotte and Dr. Marion Young, and Elaine and Dr. Ardly Hebert. Smaller homes that he built such as those now occupied by this writer on Second Street and Sondra Corcoran on Young Street (also on the Tour of Homes this year) are scattered throughout the city.
The Putnam home has never left the family. However, none of the children who grew up there lived there after they reached adulthood. The older brother, Emmet Perkins Putnam III (“Putt”) and his wife Marilyn Putnam (“Mellie”) built their home in Abbeville and raised their son and daughter here. The two triplet girls, Ruth and Lise, married and moved to Houston where they had their families. The third triplet, George, married Sylvia Brown from New Iberia and they have resided in Abbeville where their three sons ( George Jr., Thomas, and John) grew up. But although they did not live in the home as adults, they have left or contributed several items to the home which will be noted in the tour.
After the widowed Mrs. Ruth Putnam died in 1987, the home was “held” for one of George and Sylvia’s sons who had expressed interest in living there. Tommy Putnam and his wife Delie bought the home in 1995 and lived there with their son and daughter for fifteen years. They made substantial contributions to the house and property. They modernized the kitchen; they opened up the breakfast area. They built a 40,000 gallon swimming pool, an elegant, comfortable pool house, and landscaped the back yard area. Ted Viator of Viator and Associates of Lafayette was the contractor. Of particular interest to local Abbevillians is the three car garage, breezeway, and outside bathroom because they are paneled with the planks from the old Abbeville High School gym floor, replete with red and grey markings. (Tommy’s dad and uncle had the contract to replace the Abbeville High School gym floor after one of the hurricanes.)
In 2009 Tommy and Delie Putnam felt they had to move on to Lafayette and sold the home to Tommy’s parents. Their fifteen year stewardship is a heart-warming and positive part of the Putnam House story; they left the property better than they found it. George and Sylvia are using the property as their Guest House for the times that their large extended family and friends come to visit. They have employed a manager to oversee its upkeep. They have graciously allowed the property to be shown in the Visite des Maisons and Sylvia Putnam herself will conduct the tour of the home.
| | | THE RAMKE HOUSE
Would you believe?! A touch of New Orleans with a shake of Caribbean right off Charity Street?! Sprinkle in a passion for antique church artifacts and wood trimmings in shiny white! Stir in interesting colors with names like Tropical Nut Red and Sandy Cove Gold. Anchor it all with granite! Allen and Peggy Ramke have blended these eclectic ingredients stunningly in their newly acquired home that will be on the Visite des Maisons Saturday, November 6, 2010 the week-end of the Giante Omelette Celebration in Abbeville.
The house sits on a tract of land within the original boundaries of the city of Abbeville, known as the Megret portion. Pere Antoine Desire Megret, the Roman Catholic priest who founded the city of Abbeville, owned property that bordered the eastern boundary of the original town that was East Street. The site of the Ramke home was part of the property of the residence next door which stands on the corner of East Street and Charity Street. A house was not built on the site until George Wood and Jenny Young Wood bought the lot from Dr. Robert J. Young, Sr. and Olive Broussard Young in 1929. At the time the lot extended north to St. Victor Street. The architect was New Iberia’s Owen Southwell, who designed the Putnam house that is also on the Tour.
The next owners were William and Isabel Garrett who owned a tugboat company on the Vermilion River. They bought the house and property in 1954 and it was sold in 1988 to James (Jim) and Angie Russo. At this time the house had a porch that wrapped around from the east to the south. The Russos enclosed the southern part of the wrap around porch and built a large bathroom off the master bedroom. In 1992 Terry and Dena Kashner bought the house and property and sold the corner lot to Larry and Sharon Campisi. The Kashners added a patio in the back and the Kashners and the Campisis built a stucco fence designed by Beverly and Eugene Sellers.
Allen and Peggy Ramke bought the house November 26, 2008 after their own home south of Abbeville had been flooded twice by Hurricanes Rita and Ike in a three year period. They began a new life! In approaching redecorating the home they decided they would have just what they liked. They loved New Orleans and they loved the Caribbean. Never mind what decorators might say. Never mind the “style” or what was in “vogue.” Never mind the resale value. This may be their last house and they would have what pleased them! If they liked the color, if they liked the structure, if they liked the fit, that’s what they would do! And with flair and whimsy they did!
The exterior of the house is solid cypress. They repainted the outside of the entire house. That’s where Tropical Nut Red and Sandy Cove Gold comes in. They added wrought iron fencing to the grounds and to the front porch. Two white lions from their former home stand guard on either side of the front steps. The mailman has a choice of depositing the mail in the attractive rural mailbox from their former home planted in the flower bed to the right or the mail deposit in the front door.
Every room inside was repainted in muted tropical colors. Wooden trims were painted ‘shiny’ white…not cream…’shiny’! There are four coal-burning fireplaces in the home. On the fireplace in the living room they added a granite enclosure and mantle piece. They plan to do the same with the other three fireplaces. The same granite appears somewhere in all of the other rooms … on a shelf, on a table top, over a fireplace mantle piece. Its nice. It has a way of tying everything together.
Their major work was in the kitchen and breakfast area. They removed the former half wall dividing the two areas and replaced it with a lower and narrower counter. They built new cabinets on either side of the stove so that the counters on both sides of the kitchen were uninterrupted. They added new wooden facing to all the cabinet doors and drawers and they painted them all in ’shiny’ white. Peggy’s sister made beautiful curtains that grace the windows of the breakfast area and kitchen. The rear porch was reconstructed to include a lattice enclosure. They relandscaped the yard using ‘lush’ tropical foliage.
Throughout the house are pieces of Allen’s passion. He loves antique artifacts from Christian cathedrals! He loves the beauty and the antiquity of the pieces. They are incorporated into the life of the room, not merely ’displayed’. This the reader must see! Allen will be there to talk about them on the Tour.
Peggy and Allen did most of the remodeling and all of the redecorating themselves. In a time of loss, they drew upon the things of beauty and personally escorted them into their personal space. With a hammer and nail and a dipped paintbrush they restored their lives … as many south Louisianians have had to do. Now they share their home with us.
| | | THE VINCENT HOME
Early residential and business growth in Abbeville took place along the Vermilion Bayou north and south of the original town and west across the bayou. At the start of the 20th century, a new spirit of expansion and optimism gripped the country. The Civil War was yesterday; the two world wars will be tomorrow. Today, in 1901, a very young and energetic Theodore Roosevelt, who had led his rough riders to victory in a conflict with Spain and is to visit Vermilion Parish on hunting expeditions, is elected President. A railroad connects Abbeville with New Iberia. A street, described on an old map by Father Megret, as the “street leading to the residence of the Sisters of Charity” is simply called Charity Street. (The residence for the Sisters of Charity was never built). A postcard at the time depicts Charity Street as the “residence district”. New development takes place east of town, away from the river.
New people come to town!
Felix Joseph Samson and his bride, Alice Clement Tircuit Samson came to Abbeville from Pointe Coupee parish in 1903. The following year they built a Queen Anne style home facing Charity Street. To old-timers the house is known as the ‘Samson House’; to younger people it is known as ‘Dr. Ardley Hebert’s house‘. This house will be on the Visite Des Maisons, Saturday, November 6 as part of the Giante Omelette Celebration.
The Samson family and later Dr. Ardley Hebert and his wife, Bebe, were the only residents of the house on Charity Street until 2008, when Virgil and Phyllis Vincent bought it. After Felix and Alice Samson built it in 1904, little was done to change it during the 80 years that the family owned it. After the Heberts bought it in 1984, they did extensive renovation to modernize the home while maintaining, often with great effort, the original character of the home. The Vincents have made no structural changes and have redecorated the home by maintaining the original style and character. The home’s rich Catholic tradition was honored by painting the exterior in the color “Notre Dame”. Virgil’s parents, Rayward and Gerry Vincent of Maurice, assisted in most weekday repairs and the weekends became a family event in reviving this lovely home.
The Queen Anne influence can be seen in the house’s polygonal bay in the front of the house along with the wraparound porch. The multi-plane roof is further evidence of the Queen Anne character. The Barras home on Fairview in last year’s tour, (that’s Mrs. Berry home, old-timers) has these features.
A breathtaking grand majestic oak staircase greets the visitor at the front door. However, the upstairs has remained unfinished. This may seem strange to us, but it was common practice of people with means at this time to build a large house and finish the upstairs only if the growing family required the extra room. They tended not to “start” with a small house and later move to a larger house if the family “outgrew” it. The Barras home on last year’s tour and the Ramke home on this year’s tour also have unfinished second floors. The upstairs was finished in the home of the Putnam triplets where space was required all at once.
Beautiful oak floors, original to the house, lead into the formal living room, then the formal dining room and then throughout most of the rest of the house. Chandeliers of the same style hang in both formal rooms. The modern visitor is surprised and charmed by grand pocket doors that, when closed, are not only magnificent but provide privacy between the two formal areas. The doors are easily moved between the walls.
There is a small room to the left of the grand staircase that can be entered directly from the wrap around porch. This room has been a guest bedroom, a small parlor, and a home office. There is a beautifully decorated master bedroom and modern bathroom. The other bedroom is located in the central part of the house. A very comfortable informal living room or den is located on the original back porch which has been enclosed. The kitchen has been modernized and large beautiful windows allow the morning sun to enter the breakfast area. These and other features will be shown on the Tour.
Felix Samson, was an attorney; his law degree was from Tulane University. He had previously attended Jefferson College in Convent, Louisiana, where many Catholic families sent their sons at that time.
If ever there was a couple that characterized the energy and spirit of the new 20th century, it was the Samsons. They immediately entered the bustling civic and religious life of a growing town. He started the Rotary Club in Abbeville and served as its first president; he was the first Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus; he served as a trustee for St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church and was the first president of the Ushers Society. In his political life, he served three terms as city attorney and twelve years as state representative. He gave time, effort and leadership to numerous organizations such as the American Red Cross, the Boy Scouts, the Woodmen of the World, and Chamber of Commerce projects.
Alice worked with the Red Cross in selling War Bonds in both World War I and World War II; she worked tirelessly in relief efforts during the 1940 and probably the 1927 floods; she promoted the first girl scout troop in Abbeville; she was a charter member of the Woman’s Club and also served as president. Alice is still remembered as the organist and choir director of St. Mary Magdalen Church, a service she gave the community for 56 years. She received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal from Pope Pius XII in 1949, the highest honor that the Roman Catholic Church bestows upon a lay person.
The couple had three daughters. The youngest Samson daughter, Hazel Fabiola LeBlanc, lived in the Queen Anne house on Charity Street after both of her parents passed away (1967). Her husband was Adam D. LeBlanc who owned A.D. LeBlanc Oils, Inc. in Abbeville. When Hazel died in 1982, seventy-eight years of active Samson occupancy came to an end.
It was now time to update and renovate. This Dr. Ardley Hebert and his wife Beatrice, ‘BeBe’ did with style, grace, and sensitivity. They bought the home in 1984. They modernized the kitchen and the breakfast area. They built the den on the original back porch and added a new back porch behind it. They redecorated and restored the formal living room and dining room. They relandscaped the yard. BeBe selected plants such that there was always something in bloom every day of the year.
Dr. Hebert was a prominent surgeon in town. He graduated from Abbeville High School in 1940, S. L. I. (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) in 1943, and from the LSU Medical School in 1946. His surgical residency was with Tulane Medical School and he trained under Dr. Alton Ochsner, Dr. Michael DeBakey and Dr. Ernest DeBakey at Charity Hospital in New Orleans from 1946 to 1950. He began the practice of general surgery in Abbeville in 1950 and served as the Vermilion Parish Coroner in his later years. He was a member of the Kiwanis Club, served as president, and was active in the start of the Annual Kiwanis Tarpon Fishing Rodeo.
On a Friday in 2008, Hurricane Ike came roaring into Galveston and Houston. Destruction in Galveston was devastating and the City of Houston came to a standstill. On Sunday of that week-end, the Abbeville Meridional announced that Dr. Ardley Hebert’s widow had placed the home on Charity Street on the market. Mrs. Imae Primeaux of Abbeville, called her daughter, Phyllis Primeaux Vincent in Katy, Texas, just outside of Houston and informed her of the announcement.
Houston was flooded, buildings were damaged and electricity was lost in most places. Cell phones worked sporadically. Phyllis Vincent’s home in Katy was unharmed, but all downtown Houston businesses would be closed Monday.
That Sunday after her mother’s call, Phyllis Vincent packed her bags, picked her way out of Houston and gingerly headed for Abbeville arriving before roads were blocked off. She was shown the house on Monday and she made an offer that day. On Tuesday, she held her breath and wrote the check that was the deposit on the house without her husband seeing the house. (He came in later and thoroughly approved it, but you’ve got to admit…that was brave!) She was first on the list; there were six people behind her. Many interested buyers in Abbeville had evacuated and could not get on the list in time. It was ironic that the buyer was an “evacuee” from Houston who escaped the Ike aftermath by coming to Abbeville which had been evacuated by Ike. In fact, if Ike had not happened, she could not have gotten away from her paralegal job in time to put a bid on the house before it was sold. So this couple credits Ike for giving them the opportunity to buy the house that they want to retire in.
Phyllis Primeaux Vincent had grown up in Abbeville, graduating from Abbeville High School in 1976. She had always admired the house on Charity Street, although she had never seen the inside. She had told her mom if the house ever went up for sale to please call her. Her husband, Virgil, a graduate of Maurice High School before North Vermilion was built, is an engineer with an oil company near Houston. Their children are grown and live in the Houston area. They both have family and friends in Vermilion Parish. They want to come home.
The Queen Anne House on Charity Street enters another century with a couple of its time!
Tours begin at 9:30 a.m. at Abbey Players on the corner of S. State and Lafayette Sts. on Sat., Nov.6. Tickets ($10) can be purchased at The Depot through Fri., Nov. 5. The depot is open Tues. through Fri. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sat. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Some tickets may be available at Abbey Players on the day of the tour. (Sorry. No children allowed.)
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Celebration Highlights
Saturday, November 5th
Walk for Charity
Tour of Homes (2011 Tour of Homes cancelled)
Juried Art Show
Food Vendors
Live Entertainment
Kid's World
Antique Implement Show
Antique Tractor "Egg Cracking" Competition
Sunday, November 6th
Official Mass
Poker Run
Juried Art Show
Food Vendors
Antique Car/Implement Show
Live Entertainment
Procession of Chefs
Petite Omelette Cooking
Giant "5000 Egg" Omelette CookingFuture Omelette Dates
Nov. 5th & 6th, 2011
Nov. 3rd & 4th, 2012
Nov. 2nd & 3rd, 2013
Click here for full schedule
Our new video is online! Click here for a virtual visit.
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