$1 Million Transformation of Plaquemine Lockhouse

A crowd of about 70 people joined in celebrating the kickoff of the $1 million Plaquemine Lock restoration project by the Friends of the Lock on Aug. 13.

Among those attending were numerous officials, including Louisiana State Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter and State Rep. Chad Brown, who managed to get state appropriations totaling $650,000 between 2023 and 2024 for the project.

“We would not be here today without the hard work of Senator Kleinpeter and State Rep. Brown in the Legislature,” said Ellie Hebert, Chair of the FOL Restoration Committee. “We showed them the repairs and upgrades needed, and they listened. And then they went to work.”

The funding includes $110,000 secured from Lt. Gov. Billy Nungessor of the La. Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

After Kleinpeter and Brown secured the state funding, then-Parish President Mitchell Ourso, Jr. and the Parish Council had to put up $100,000, and Plaquemine Mayor Ed Reeves Jr. and the Board of Selectmen put up another $75,000.

The Lock facility is operated as a cooperative endeavor agreement between the Office of State Parks in the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, Iberville Parish and the City of Plaquemine.

However, the bids for the restoration came in $217,000 higher than expected, so some improvements had to be cut from the restoration. And the project also includes a new, modern and interactive exhibit, so the Friends group embarked on a fundraising program.

In a surprise announcement at the kickoff event, Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle announced he would ask the Iberville Parish Council for another $150,000 for the project in the 2024 budget amendments. If approved, the additional $150,000 from the parish would certainly help bridge that gap.

The Friends of the Lock noted that its vision for the site is three-fold:

• To get visitors and tour groups, and lots of them.
• To get school groups in order to teach young people about the Lock’s impressive history, the extraordinary engineering feat of building the lock in the late 1800s, the importance of our waterways and ecology.
• To have more events by working in concert with the parish and the city so that residents and visitors enjoy the Lock and grounds on a regular basis.

To make that happen, the FOL hired a nationally recognized exhibit company that has worked with the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service to design the new exhibit, which will be engaging, educational, modern and interactive, with things people can touch and do.

“This lock was responsible for the growth of Plaquemine from a tiny, sleepy town into a booming economy from the early 1900s until the 1960s,” Hebert said. “This facility brought tremendous economic development and people, and about 4,000 boats a year went through that lock carrying all kinds of cargo in its heyday.”

“Not only that! This lockhouse is the crown jewel of a downtown historic district that is superior to towns and cities across the country. The lockhouse is at the center of an award-winning bayou park; the new levee trail with seating to watch incredible views of the Mississippi River right out of its back door; the St. John cathedral on the bayou, one of the most beautiful churches in Louisiana; and the historic Iberville Museum across the street,” Hebert said. “This lockhouse, with its one-of-a-kind architecture in all of the United States, sits perched at the center of all this! So it’s vital that it not only be cared for, but that the Lock site be used and residents take pride in it. This project goes a long way toward that.”

The Friends of the Lock anticipates the Lockhouse restoration and exhibit installation will be completed by early April of 2025, with a grand re-opening of the facility expected in late April or early May.

The Friends group is also planning a Phase 2 of the project, which would include repairs and improvements to the boat pavilion and improvements of the grounds.