National Register of Historic Places
Briarwood: The Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve, Log House
Saline vicinity, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
The record
- Listed
- September 7, 2018
- Type
- Building
- Address
- 216 Caroline Dorman Rd., Saline vicinity
- Parish
- Natchitoches
- State
- Louisiana
- Contributing resources
- 1 building, 7 sites
- Coordinates
- 32.13226, -92.98190
- Reference number
- 16000761
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUSGS Historical Topographic Map Collection
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
Briarwood: The Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve, Log House is a log cabin near Saline in Natchitoches County. It was built around 1928 in the log-cabin style and is attributed to Caroline Dormon, who used it as her writing cabin.
Why it's listed
It was listed in the National Register under criteria A and B, with significance in conservation and in exploration and settlement at the national, state and local levels. Its period of significance runs from 1859, when the Sweat family bought the land, to 1971, the year Dormon died.
Physical character
The one-room log cabin sits on a log foundation, under a hipped roof of wood shake, with an original stone chimney and a covered porch across the front. In the 1970s the roof was rebuilt using metal, and hand-hewn wooden supports remain from the original construction.
Historical context
The Sweat family bought the property in 1859, the same year a burial ground began there, including a plot Dr. Benjamin Sweat set aside for enslaved people. Dormon moved to Briarwood in 1913 and lived there until her death in 1971. She published Wild Flowers of Louisiana in 1934 and in 1935 was the only woman appointed to the De Soto Commission.