Shadows tours return starting Saturday

Published 8:00 am Friday, October 15, 2021

It’s been a year and a half since Shadows-on-the-Teche has opened its doors for tours to the historic home, but employees say that the historic is back and better than ever starting this weekend.

Director Pat Kahle said the Shadows will once again offer tours starting Saturday, with a revamped program that emphasizes new historical perspectives and a guest lecturer who will speak at the Shadows Visitor’s Center.

Kahle said the last time that the Shadows regularly offered tours was around March of 2020 when COVID-pandemic restrictions hit southwest Louisiana.

“We did do a short spell of tours last December, but we really have not done tours since March,” Kahle said.

As a special treat, organizers are offering a special focus tour where those attending can receive a deep dive into research conducted about the 19th century at the antebellum home.

Kahle said the tour will give a perspective of the Shadows’ through the experiences of two

women who both lived at the home during that time period.

“One is a planter’s wife and the other is an enslaved housekeeper,” Kahle said. “They’re there at the same time and we’re looking at the Shadows through their perspective.”

The Shadows will be offering scheduled tours for Saturday, and reservations can be made online. A one hour tour will be offered for those interested, and thanks to several tour guides there will be two tours offered every hour.

The Shadows is also welcoming Charles Vincent to the visitor’s center as part of the day’s activities.

Vincent’s talk will be part of the “Telling the Full History” lecture series which features four respected Louisiana historians.

The free talk will be part of the reinterpretation work the Shadows is currently doing to tell a more complete history of the site and the people who lived, worked and were enslaved at the Weeks Family plantation.

Vincent’s talk will specifically focus on Reconstruction and Jim Crow history in Louisiana at 2 p.m. To reserve a space, you can contact the Shadows at 369-6446.

Starting Oct. 21, the Shadows will be open to the public each week on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tours begin 15 minutes after the hour, with the first tour at 10:15 a.m. and the last tour at 3:15 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Shadows Visitor Center.

Four respected Louisiana historians will speak in a series of lectures at the Shadows-on-the-Teche Visitors Center located at 320 E. Main St. in New Iberia. Here is the schedule:

• Saturday, Oct. 16, 2 p.m. — Charles Vincent, Ph.D., on Reconstruction in southern Louisiana.
• Saturday, Oct. 23 — Phebe Hayes, Ph.D., native and life-long resident of Iberia Parish, on Reconstruction and Jim Crow history in Iberia Parish.
• Saturday, Nov. 6 — Kenetha Harrington, Ph.D., on locating genealogical records for descendants of African Americans connected to the Shadows both during times of slavery and after freedom.
• Saturday, Nov. 13 — Ian Beamish, Ph.D., on the need for reinterpretation of sites of enslavement.