(The Telesphore and Joachim Oaks are located on the property of the Robichaux family [Dickie Robichaux and Phyllis Toups Robichaux] at 2117 LA. Highway 308. The Joachim Oak is the moss-draped tree closest to the highway.)
The Robichaux’s home is a French Creole Cottage with Greek Revival details. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Lafourche Parish as the “Ledet House.” Misses Leah and Cecilia Ledet, daughters of Joseph Paulin (J.P.) Ledet, were the most recent Ledet family members to occupy the home. Mr. Ledet was born in this house and it’s assumed that the house belonged to his father, Joachim Ledet, the namesake of the Joachim Oak (approximately 21 feet 6 in.).
The Telesphore Oak (22 ft. 4 in. in girth) is named after Telesphore Toups, a relative (several generations back) of Phyllis Toups Robichaux. Telesphore Toups’ son Zephirin once owned the adjacent property to this home’s location. As covered in another post on the Albert and Cecilia Toups Oaks, Telesphore was an early settler of the St. Charles area. The first reference to this land can be traced back to 1817 when Telesphore Toups Sr. settled there.
Even though the Ledet House has received a fair amount of alteration over time, it is historically significant as a rare example of the “pre-Queen Anne Revival style structure” in Lafourche Parish. Before the 19th century (the 1800s), the dominant style of rural homes was French Creole and Spanish architectural designs. In the early 1800s, ushered in by a wave of economic prosperity, an interest in Greek Revival style architecture began to be seen in several new and remodeled homes, especially in the more grand plantation homes.
The Lafourche Live Oak Tour was created through the generous support of the Bayou Lafourche Convention & Visitors Bureau. For more information on Lafourche Parish events and activities, visit their website at LACajunBayou.com.