The mansion at Nottoway Plantation, a 166-year-old building in White Castle, Louisiana, was destroyed in a fire Thursday.
The cause of the blaze is being investigated, the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal said on Facebook Friday.
No guests were present during the fire, which started at around 2 p.m. The cedar wood used to construct the mansion in 1859 helped contribute to the intensity and speed of the flames.
“Nottoway Plantation was destroyed. It’s a shell. It’s an extensive fire. When you have a building that’s that old, made out of cypress wood, it’s a tinder box that went up pretty quick and burned very hot,” Louisiana State Fire Marshal spokesman Ken Pastorick told USA Today.
Iberville Sheriff’s Office Capt. Monty Migliacio told ABC News that “it was the biggest fire I’ve seen in my entire 20-year career.”
There were no injuries, Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle wrote on Facebook, adding that the loss of the property, the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the South, was a blow to the area’s tourism economy. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980.
“It stood as both a cautionary monument and a testament to the importance of preserving history — even the painful parts — so that future generations can learn and grow from it. … The loss of Nottoway is not just a loss for Iberville Parish, but for the entire state of Louisiana. It was a cornerstone of our tourism economy and a site of national significance,” Mr. Daigle wrote.
The mansion was built for sugar magnate and slave owner John Hampden Randolph and named after Nottoway County, Virginia, which his family had moved from when he was a child in 1819, according to a 1936 thesis from Louisiana State University.
After his death in 1883, the property was sold. At least 155 slaves lived at Nottoway, some of whom were taken to Texas by Randolph in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War, according to Baton Rouge’s Advocate newspaper. Some of them, along with Randolph, returned to Louisiana after the war ended in 1865.
The property was used for weddings, tours and other events prior to the fire. The current property owner, Dan Dyess, told The Advocate that “we’re very devastated, we’re upset, we’re sad. We put a lot of time, effort and money to developing this property,” and that he will consider rebuilding the mansion.
