It’s possible we were born in the wrong time period,” Liz Creel speculates amusedly, speaking of her and husband Terry’s love of historic architecture and renovating grand old homes. For years the New Orleans couple has turned buying and renovating historic homes and landmarks into a profitable and passionate pastime. In what may be their last big venture, their most recent acquisition of Albania Mansion near Jeanerette, the Creels are not only preserving a piece of local history but creating new history as they help to revitalize Jeanerette.

Always up for an architectural preservation challenge, the couple fell in love with Albania 20 years ago when they reached out to its ailing owner and made a verbal agreement to purchase it. While they were obtaining financing for the buy, the owner passed away, and, in an unexpected turn of events, the estate was sold to someone else. Last year when the opportunity presented itself again, the couple purchased the 186-year-old manor.

Renovating Albania was a labor of love for the Creels, who have revitalized several homes, from Greek revivals and Victorians to Queen Ann styles, as well as their own residence, a mid-1870s Italianate. Their properties also include historical sites like the ParkView Historic Hotel, The Newcomb Pottery School, and one of the five 1861 Freret Follies.

Passionate collectors of Victorian furniture and other antiques acquired around Louisiana and Mississippi, the Creel’s collections are disbursed among their properties, including Albania.

“Given our experience and knowledge, we didn’t take shortcuts anywhere,” says Liz. The restoration, which took a year, included the much-needed painting of every wall in the house, a total renovation of seven bathrooms, making them functional again, and the addition of a half bath. In all the challenges, there were plenty of joys and one or two discoveries, like a small hidden staircase that was restored. On the mansion’s third floor, where French doors once opened to a majestic balcony, there was only a tin roof. Using the only known visual record of the terrace as a guide, skilled woodworkers and craftsmen restored the balcony down to replicating the finials and the few 150-year-old balusters found in storage. “Now the balcony is back, looking as it once did in its place of pride. It’s my favorite place in all the world,” proclaims Liz. 

Now ready for events and overnight stays, the three-story home features nine bedrooms and nine and a half bathrooms, and sleeps 22 guests comfortably.

The grounds on the back acre were redesigned to reflect a more formal landscaping that one would expect from a home of its time and grandeur. Water oaks were replaced with a stately raised terrace overlooking the Bayou Teche. “This spring we’re adding bees to a bee yard we’ve brought to Albania,” adds Liz. A different driveway is underway so that visitors can take in the camellias, oaks and sweet olives as they approach the grand home. 

Liz and Terry make a crackerjack team who share a vision. “You can’t get through 31 years of marriage without reading each other’s mind,” Liz shares. “We’re like two oak trees growing together.” She describes Terry (an emergency room physician at East Jefferson Hospital for 30 years) as “incredibly practical and knows exactly how to get where they need to go” and commends his sense of humor when situations get stressful. Terry says Liz (who manages their ParkView Historic Hotel) is the creative mind in the couple, who is “able to take a simple item and make it look spectacular” and has the gift of gab. 

While Terry says they’ve enjoyed the renovation, Liz is mindful of the notion that “you never own an old building; you’re just a caretaker of history until the next generation takes over.” She adds, “We can only hope that each owner builds on what the previous caretaker accomplished. We’re all putting touches that allow the house to exist in the modern world and still be the historical home that it is, with a past that will never be forgotten.”

Part of the historic research of the home included getting in touch with biracial descendants of slaves who had lived there and hosting a family meeting of the Grevemberg family at the beginning of the year. “We cooked gumbo and sat at the table,” says Liz, who recognizes the good and bad history of the home. “The most moving moment was when one of the guests said her ancestors in heaven are celebrating and joyful because they would never, in their wildest dreams, have imagined she would be invited to dine at this table.”

Beneath a bell tower on the grounds, the couple placed a plaque that invites visitors to ring the bell in remembrance of all those in the home’s history who were not free people and for those who continue to be enslaved even today. It reads: “May we learn from the past so we can move forward together toward a better future.”

In another show of unity, the Creels opened Albania Mansion to the public, for the first time in nearly 50 years, as the site of this year’s Jeanerette Creole Festival, held on March 25, during which tours of the home were given by Creoles of color and their white cousins. Proceeds from the festival are 

earmarked to benefit Jeanerette and its efforts at beautification and revitalization, a cause with great meaning to the Creels.

Looking back, Liz says “Not getting Albania 20 years ago was the best thing that could have happened to us at the time. We didn’t have the maturity to understand everything that comes with the responsibility of being its custodians.” She says what surprised her the most since acquiring Albania is “how it has become part of this extraordinary effort to enhance the town of Jeanerette.”   

“We found that residents had lost hope in improving the city,” explains Terry. “There was a saying in town that there were more pieces of wood boarding windows than there were street lights. We want Albania to provide a spark of hope in renewing the town by bringing visitors.”

In ongoing efforts to enhance the local economy, the Creels have purchased two buildings downtown: a former bank built in the early 1900s, that will become an art and antiques gallery, and the adjacent building, formerly a discotheque, slated to be an emporium for various retail shops. Both are planned for completion by the end of the year.  

If Albania Mansion provides a chance for economic growth, it has also presented the Creels an opportunity for personal growth. As Liz puts it, “If you had told us a year ago that we’d be at the epicenter of racial reconciliation and such a difficult topic for so many, we would not have believed it. We’re the types that want everyone to be happy. But, it’s not something you can look away from. It’s taken a great amount of courage to look at the history of this place and what it means to African Americans of Jeanerette. We have no choice but to try to undo the damage that has been done by the plantation way of life.”

As to why Jeanerette is important to two people from New Orleans they say, “It’s about redeeming the soul of this beautiful old home and this town,” says Terry. “We want to give back to the community.” ■