Laurel Valley Sugar Plantation

Laurel Valley Sugar Plantation is located in Thibodaux, Louisiana. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History.
The plantation was owned by Joseph Tucker, a Virginian, who bought more than 50,000 acres of land along Bayou Lafourche. The earliest structures on the property date to the 1830s. It was at one time the largest producer of sugar in Lafourche Parish, and a mill was built on the property for this purpose. 
As many as 135 slaves lived and worked on the property prior to the Civil War. While the main house built by Tucker was destroyed during the Civil War, shotgun houses (slave quarters) and Creole cabins remain on the property. The mill stopped production in the 1930s, and sustained significant damage during Hurricane Betsy in 1965.
It is named after where it is located.
Laurel Valley today.
With over fifty original structures remaining it is the largest surviving 19th- and 20th-century sugar plantation complex left in the United States and is still a working sugarcane farm. The general store on the property is open to the public, displaying tools and farm implements used in the cultivation of sugar cane as well as locally made arts and crafts. The store wasn't originally at the plantation, it had to be moved there. Its proprietor was Leon Z. Boudreaux.
Laurel Valley Plantation was added as a historic district to the National Register of Historic Places on March 24, 1978.
Contributing properties.
The historic district comprises about 80 buildings and structures dating from c.1850 to c.1910:
Popular culture.
Several movies have been filmed at Laurel Valley, including "Angel Heart", "Crazy in Alabama", "A Gathering of Old Men", "Interview with the Vampire", "A Lesson Before Dying", "", and "Ray".The Depeche Mode Music Video "Freelove" was also filmed on the plantation. 