Step Into Another at the Heritage Village in Benton. Time & Place Time & Place

By Adam Bailey

You and your family can become time travelers with a visit to the Heritage Village in Benton—a late 19th century village just outside of downtown Benton.

Benton, LA. It’s so much fun to experience history—and a visit to the Heritage Village in Benton is the perfect setting for learning about the region’s past. Did you even know such a place existed? Upon arrival, you’ll be transported to another time and place.

Heritage Village, as it’s known, is an outdoor history museum that includes six historic buildings within a one-square-block— complete with an extensive antique artifact collection dating from the 1800s to the 1930s. It’s all hiding right in plain sight. Visitors can easily find it located next to the Bossier Parish School Board Office, about two blocks off LA-3 and LA-162 in the center of downtown Benton.

The square surrounding Heritage Village presents a bygone era with an 1840s dogtrot home, an 1884 log cabin, a one-room schoolhouse, a moveable plantation kitchen, a corn crib, and a blacksmith shop among other sites. Most are authentic, pluckedfrom-the-1800s structures that were saved from demolition and moved to the Village, and a few are carefully recreated replicas of historic buildings.

According to Chris Tucci, Tour Director for the Heritage Village, “it was founded in 1995 as an ongoing preservation project and is maintained by local volunteers.” Over the years, the Bossier Restoration Foundation has collected, restored, and moved buildings to be an inclusive historical site for all to see. It is operated by volunteer members and funded by donations and grants with the mission to preserve and promote the cultural and architectural heritage of rural northwest Louisiana through authentic exhibits.

Tours of the Village are by appointment only. Most visitors wander around and often remember seeing similar objects at grandma’s house. The guided tours are led by knowledgeable interpreters dressed in authentic 19th-century attire who demonstrate an extensive knowledge of the history of the building and artifacts. Village must-visits include the Hughes House, the Heath Log Cabin, a plantation kitchen, a blacksmith shop, a corn crib, a one-room schoolhouse.

The Hughes House is a six-room, Greek Revival dog-trot building. It was originally built in Rocky Mount around 1845 by Alex B. Hughes as a single-story commercial office for the Stewman and Hughes Plantation (and is considered the oldest commercial building in North Louisiana). In the 1860’s the structure was then turned in to a home by William Josiah Hughes for his wife and four children.

On November 26, 1860, The Hughes House was the site of the secession of Bossier Parish militia from the Union—the first to be done in Louisiana (and one of the first in the nation). It was also the boyhood home of William Clark Hughes, who was Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1928. Since then, the house has been used as an office, home, schoolhouse, and museum, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

The Heath Log Cabin is in remarkable condition and was built by Thomas William Isaac Heath, an early resident and lawman who died in the line of duty. The original structure was built in 1884 on property located two miles from Rocky Mount, using locally sourced pine trees. The only tool used to by Heath to build the cabin was a shop axe, froe, and adze. A froe (or frow) was used for cleaving wood by splitting it along the grain. The adze—also a tool of yesteryear—was a tool similar to an axe but with the cutting-edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel.

The Plantation Kitchen was originally located on the Oakland Plantation, located south of Haughton. Mules moved the detached kitchen anywhere field hands were working the 8,000-acre plantation.

The Blacksmith Shop was built with logs from the home of a former slave. The Corn Crib was built of cypress boards and moved to the Village from the Bradford Plantation. Corn Cribs were a necessary structure on most Southern plantation to not only store corn, but also tools and implements.

A schoolhouse was needed once the first homesteaders started families, so the Heritage Village included a one-room schoolhouse from the community of Rocky Mount, Louisiana.

Built in in the 1930’s, the school is complete with original wooden desks, books, a wood burning stove, a dunce cap, classroom rules, and a teacher’s desk with a list of jobs that were expecting to be done by the teacher—such as cutting wood, sharpening the quills to each student’s specifications, and fetching water. The school shows the stark difference of how children learned 100 years ago compared to today. One unexpected lesson learned at the school is why there are so many windows—to let in light before electricity was installed.

Tours are designed for all ages. The sessions present a glimpse of the past and may include demonstrations by docents attired in period clothing.

“Heritage Village is one of Shreveport-Bossier’s most unique hidden gems,” says Tucci. “It breaks my heart that no one knows we are here. This place is a well-preserved glimpse into the area’s history and heritage, and it’s just waiting to be explored.”