Stoker House
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The Stoker House, or Old Stoker House, in
Sabine Parish, Louisiana Sabine Parish ( French: ''Paroisse de la Sabine'') is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,155. The parish seat and largest town is Many. Sabine was one of five parishes created in ...
, northeast of
Many, Louisiana Many () is a town in, and the parish seat of Sabine Parish in western Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,853 at the 2010 census, a decrease of 36 or 1.246% from 2000. History The site where Many currently sits was originally a Belg ...
, dates from 1848. It is the oldest house in Sabine Parish still at its original site, and it was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1976. The main historic resource is a house originally built as a dog-trot
log house A log house, or log building, is a structure built with horizontal logs interlocked at the corners by notching. Logs may be round, squared or hewn to other shapes, either handcrafted or milled. The term "log cabin" generally refers to a smal ...
built by Riley Stoker and his wife Elizabeth in the late 1840s, built with
slave labor Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
. Riley was one of four sons of Henry Stoker and his wife Nancy Varnell Stoker, who had settled on the land in 1818 and had built a lean-to on the listed property, which is less than one acre in area. Henry and Nancy had acquired a large number of acres between Rio Hondo and the Sabine River and had become wealthy. Henry Stoker was one of about 80 first settlers of the original Spanish land grant Rio Hondo lands in Sabine Parish who filed in 1824 for ownership; legal title was finally obtained by descendants only in 1878. After the death of two of his brothers in the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, Riley probably bought out the interest of his remaining brother, and in any event became owner of all of Henry and Elizabeth's holdings. The original house was in plan. It included two log pens each consisting of a front room and a smaller back room; the pens were separated by a breezeway in between. The walls were hewn logs closely fit together and notched/dove-tailed at the corners. With It was built upon heavy sills, built of
long leaf pine The longleaf pine (''Pinus palustris'') is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as ...
about in dimension and in length, set upon stone pilings. These foundations were, and remain, open to the air. A later renovation sheathed the walls, inside and out, with boards. The listing includes a second
contributing building In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...
, a barn. The house is located about northeast of
Many, Louisiana Many () is a town in, and the parish seat of Sabine Parish in western Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,853 at the 2010 census, a decrease of 36 or 1.246% from 2000. History The site where Many currently sits was originally a Belg ...
, "on the old San Antonio Trace." It is located on, and is visible from, the Natchitoches Highway (
Louisiana Highway 6 Louisiana Highway 6 (LA 6) is a state highway located in western central Louisiana. It runs in an east–west direction from the Texas state line southwest of Many to U.S. Highway 71 (US 71) and U.S. Highway 84 (US 84) in Cla ...
). The NRHP nomination was written by Rebecca Stoker Kyle, a fifth generation descendant of Henry and Nancy, who had plans in 1976 to restore the house. The barn, about west of the house in 1975, was built at approximately the same time, and is also a double-pen structure built of logs notched together. Its sills were hewn from solid oak logs. The barn was used in support of the property serving as a stagecoach stop. The barn, and Mrs. Stoker, was noted by architect
Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
(1822-1903) in his book ''A Journey Through Texas, or a Saddle Trip on the Southwestern Frontier'', published after his 1856-1857 trip. The Stoker Barn was moved from the property and is now on the grounds of the Burden Plantation in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...
, in
East Baton Rouge Parish East Baton Rouge Parish (; ) is the most populous List of parishes in Louisiana, parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its population was 456,781 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The county seat, parish seat is Baton Rouge, Louis ...
, in what is now the LSU Rural Life Museum.Stoker Barn - Baton Rouge, LA - Barns on Waymarking.com
/ref> It was donated by Rebecca Stoker Kyle, her brother James Stoker, and their father Riley Stoker in 1999. Note there is a typo/error in the book referring to Frederick Law Olmsted's journey or book as being from 1822-27: in fact Olmsted was born in 1822 and his journey was in 1856-57.


References

{{National Register of Historic Places Dogtrot architecture in Louisiana Log buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana National Register of Historic Places in Sabine Parish, Louisiana Houses completed in 1848 1848 establishments in Louisiana Relocated buildings and structures in Louisiana Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana