Nottoway Plantation Resort
White Castle, Louisiana
The “white castle” of White Castle, Louisiana, may very well be Nottoway Plantation, a striking white mansion that was completed in 1859. Sitting on more than 30 acres between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the 53,000-square-foot plantation home stuns visitors with its 64 rooms, 12 Italian marble fireplaces, 15-foot-high ceilings and countless other extravagant details.
Today, the Mississippi River-front resort is a destination for meetings and a retreat for attendees. Randolph’s Ballroom offers 4,600 square feet of space and shares a courtyard with the 3,600-square-foot Grand Pavilion tent; the two can be combined for larger events. The 2,500-square-foot Cypress Ballroom can be split into three smaller spaces. The White Ballroom is a lavish, oval-shaped, snow-white ballroom on the main floor of the original mansion that has been the setting of countless balls and celebrations since the 1860s. The Mansion Restaurant on the first floor of the mansion house offers a private group dining room.
“We really advertise for the retreat aspect because we’re in the middle of a sugarcane field; there’s nothing around us,” said senior sales manager Marie Stagg. “We’re out of New Orleans, so planners won’t lose their attendees to the excitement of New Orleans.”
That’s not to say Nottoway doesn’t offer activities. Guests can play a game of tennis on the resort’s courts or rent bikes and ride them along the levee. Groups can join one of the regular daily tours led by staff members in period costume or arrange for a private guided tour of the mansion. The resort also offers a murder-mystery dinner whose play was written specifically for Nottoway.
“It’s a fictional story, but it’s based on the original owners and their friends,” Stagg said. “[Guests] learn about the plantation, and it’s very interactive.”
Southern Cultural Heritage Center
Vicksburg, Mississippi
In Vicksburg, Mississippi, groups can gather in a historic five-building complex, a former convent and Catholic school that is now collectively known as the Southern Cultural Heritage Center.
The oldest building on the property is the 1830 Cobb House, which has been restored and furnished with period pieces. The Sisters of Mercy nuns built their convent in 1868. Although it’s not currently being rented while crews reconstruct a wall that collapsed — a project that should be done this summer — the convent offers a chapel that can seat up to 100, and two large parlors can accommodate about 150 guests.
The auditorium was built in 1885, and “it’s beautiful,” said Stacey Massey, executive director of the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation, which owns and manages the property. The Sisters of Mercy went to Chicago to tour various auditoriums and theaters before having plans drawn up, she said. The auditorium often hosts concerts and fundraising events, and was the film location for the scene in “O Brother, Where Art Thou” in which George Clooney and the Soggy Bottom Boys perform during the Homer Stokes Hoedown. The space can accommodate about 250 guests at tables or 400 in theater-style seating, and classrooms upstairs offer more breakout space.
The 1937 Academy Building once housed a Catholic school, and several of its classrooms serve as community space for cooking classes, painting workshops, afterschool programs, and meeting rooms or breakout space for conferences. The 1955 gymnasium is leased out for wrestling and fitness classes, so it’s not available to groups, but the buildings surround a central courtyard with big trees that’s popular for live music and receptions.
Main Street Station
Richmond, Virginia
The Main Street Station in downtown Richmond, Virginia, is hard to miss. With an ornate domed clock tower and little turrets jutting up from its red-tile roof, the historic red-brick building is both a city landmark and an architectural icon. Designed in the Renaissance Revival style and originally opened in 1901, the train station served two major railroads: the north-south Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the east-west Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad line.
A decline in passenger service and severe damage from hurricane flooding eventually led to the station’s closure in 1975. But a full renovation restored the city-owned property to its original elegance, and Amtrak restored passenger rail service to the station in December 2003. Plans call for it to serve as the northernmost stop for a high-speed rail corridor and as an intermodal station for city bus service.
The striking landmark is hugely popular for events. Giant, arching windows sit above the wooden entrance doors, and on the concourse, columns soar to ornate tray ceiling panels and globed chandeliers. The station can accommodate events for up to 730 people, but setups that include dancing or tables usually mean a maximum of 400 guests. On the second level, small groups of about 20 can use the Old Dining Room or the Old Retiring Room, which includes a working fireplace.
Crews are now renovating the station’s adjacent 100,000-square-foot train shed. When the nearly $90 million project is complete this spring, the building will include event space, retail shops, a welcome center and infrastructure for high-speed rail.
