Cane River Creole Community

Glossary

arpent
a French land measurement that equals .8849 acre.
bousillage
Mixed clay and Spanish moss or deer hair often used as nogging material in French and Spanish colonial era construction.
cabinets
Small, enclosed rooms, often with access only to the gallery.
garçonnières
Small, often detached structures where male guests or male teenagers stayed. In the case of Melrose, these are additions to the big house and not separate structures.
hipped roof
A roof with the sides and ends inclined.
line village
a village extended along the banks of a river.
maison sur selles
House on sills
Nonc
French - uncle
poteaux-en-terre
Posts in the ground.
poteaux-sur-solles
Posts on sills.
sense of place
A consciousness of one's physical surroundings or collective awareness of place expressed in cultural forms. Sense of place is generally associated with one's neighborhood, community, city or region.
Tante
French - aunt
vernacular architecture
Concerned with ordinary rather than monumental buildings; domestic architecture. In the Cane River Creole community and throughout Louisiana, the vernacular architecture reflects a combination of French, Spanish, Native American, and African influences.