Museums offer a glimpse into local history and culture

Local museums highlight culture and heritage

Schoolchildren tour the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building in Lockport. [SUBMITTED]

Louisiana’s rich history provides fertile ground for learning. There are several museums that highlight and celebrate our area’s dynamic culture.

Here are some places you don’t want to miss: 1. Finding Our Roots museum, at 918 Roussell St. in Houma, showcases various periods of black history in Terrebonne, Lafourche and other area parishes including slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, Reconstruction and contemporary times. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Admission is $7 or via a $40 museum membership. 2. Terrebonne Folklife Culture Center, 317 Goode St., Houma, 873- 6406. Activities, classes, workshops and exhibits about local life, art and culture, past and present. 3. Southdown Plantation House and Terrebonne Museum,1208 Museum Drive, Houma, near La. 311 and St. Charles Street, 851-0154 or southdownmuseum.org. Daily tours, exhibits on Terrebonne Parish history and former plantation owners’ lives. 4. Edward Douglas White Historic Site, 2295 La. 1, Thibodaux, 447-0915. Exhibits on Gov. E.D. White and U.S. Chief Justice E.D. White II are inside the antebellum Creole cottage. 5. Bayou Lafourche Folklife and Heritage Museum, 110 Main St., Lockport, 532-5909. Housed in National Register of Historic Places building. The museum features artifacts of early life along Bayou Lafourche and other rotating exhibits. 6. Laurel Valley Plantation, 595 La. 308, Thibodaux, 446-7456. The oldest standing sugar plantation in the country has a farm with various animals and an old store with various historical artifacts. 7. Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building, 202 Main St., Lockport, displays and works to preserve some of the boats that are intrinsic to our way of life in the swamps, marshes and bayous of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. It’s open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Call 532-5106 or visit the center’s Facebook page. 8. Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum offers displays and interactive panels to introduce visitors to the industries, traditions and personal stories that collectively comprise the area’s unique culture. The museum, 7910 West Park Ave. in downtown Houma, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for kids ages 2-12 and $2.50 for seniors. Group rates are available. Call 580-7200 or visit the museum’s Facebook page.