Suspicious night fire destroys historic 1850s LeBeau Plantation House in Arabi near the river; Sheriff’s Office developing information on suspicious people seen lately at the rear of the property

LeBeau Plantation House

Suspicious fire destroys historic LeBeau House in Arabi.

From its perch near the Mississippi River in Arabi, the LeBeau Plantation House weathered many a hurricane since it was built in the mid-1850s but had no chance against a suspicious fire early Friday morning which all but destroyed the mostly wooden structure that was the largest pre-Civil War mansion remaining in the New Orleans area.

“It’s a shame and a terrible loss for our community,’’ said St. Bernard Parish Fire Chief Thomas Stone, who was at the scene of the blaze that was reported just after 2 a.m. He said there was “a wall of fire’’ engulfing the two-story structure when he arrived.

Firefighters had no chance to save the mostly wooden building at the end of LeBeau Street in Old Arabi, next to the Domino Sugar refinery near the Mississippi River. The building, shown over the years on TV specials about South Louisiana mansions along the river, was reduced to its brick chimney stands and just portions of the frame.

Fire Department officials said the cause of the fire is under investigation and Stone described the blaze as suspicious. The state Fire Marshal’s Office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are expected to be consulted.

The property is owned by the Meraux Foundation of St. Bernard Parish.

No one was injured in the fire, which was visible for miles and caused damage to at least one vacant house on nearby Friscoville Avenue because of embers sent flying by wind, officials said.

St. Bernard Parish sheriff’s deputies developed information overnight from area residents who said they have seen suspicious young people toward the rear of the LeBeau House property in recent days. No arrests have been made.

St. Bernard Parish Historian William Hyland said the LeBeau House – built by Franciose Barthelemy LeBeau – was the largest pre-Civil War mansion remaining in the New Orleans area.

“It was 10,000 square feet and was truly a grand house,’’ he said. The building was probably the latest known example of the “brick between post’’ architecture common in the 1700s in Louisiana, Hyland said.

It stood on land that was an indigo plantation in the 1740s. There was an older and smaller home which existed on the land prior to the LeBeau House being built in the 1850s, Hyland said. The LeBeau family owned the property from the 1850s to 1906.

In the 20th Century, the house was used as the Friscoville Hotel and then a gambling casino in the 1920s.

In 1967, Joseph Meraux purchased the house but it deteriorated badly since then, some observers have noted. The Meraux Foundation of St. Bernard Parish has owned the property for years. It had a chain link fence around it but there were indications the fence had been pushed down, making it possible for someone to enter, according to a Sheriff’s Office incident report on the fire.

In 1986, a fire damaged the interior and roof of the building when people were living there. Afterward, some restoration efforts were undertaken in the next few years, but the place was never fully refurbished.

Former St. Bernard Parish resident Michelle Buuck wrote a book in the 1990s about the house, later re-issued in 2012, called “The Historic LeBeau Mansion: A Forgotten Monument.”