Layton Castle presents Mother's Day Tea and Tour

Monroe, Louisiana is a city of about 47,000 people. The surrounding area in Ouachita Parish adds about another 120,000. Chances are that if you live in Ouachita Parish, you have heard of Layton Castle. In fact, if you’re of a certain age, you may have attended a gathering there or taken ballroom dancing lessons inside. I am not one of those individuals. However, I have been curious about what stands behind those beautiful old wrought iron fences for the nearly 30 years I have lived in town.  My curiosity got the best of me, and I made a phone call that got me an afternoon filled with history, and beauty and got me on the other side of the gate.

This year they are offering an incredible Mother's Day Tea and Tour! Treat your mother to an afternoon cup of tea (and local baked goodies) and then a talk on the history of tea and a tour of the historic family floor of Layton Castle. The Spice and Tea Exchange's Karen Laban will be co-hosting. Bring your Mum, or a friend - and a favorite teacup to tell us about! Limited seating.

RESERVE NOW!

More About Our Experience

On an overcast Good Friday, I arrived with my heart racing, was I REALLY about to check out THE Layton Castle?!   When I punched in the code to enter, and the gates slowly began to open, the lump swelled in my throat.  As I drove up the driveway, I noticed the azaleas in bloom.  The bright whites and dark pinks contrast up the path.  But there was also an immense amount of wide-open grass. Such a beautiful, lush green swath of lawn.  As I got closer, the clay tile roof caught my eye.  That bright red terra cotta roof just stuck out, even on an overcast afternoon.  It’s just not something you see in a small Louisiana city every day.  Nor do you see a castle in town every day either.   

Layton Castle didn’t start as a castle, though. Its immense beauty and architecture don’t exactly date back that far.  While the property was originally owned in the early 1800s by Henry Bry, an immigrant from Switzerland, it did not become a “castle” until early in the twentieth century.  And the story is an interesting one, to say the least.

Pam Dupuy is currently taking care of the property for herself and her three siblings who were left the home after their mother, Carol Layton Parsons, recently passed away.  I mentioned the dancing lessons earlier.  Well, Carol’s mother was the one hosting those back around the time of the Great Depression on the big dance floor on the third floor.  But I digress.  Pam shared a lot of the history of the property on our midday tour.  She showed me the painting hanging over the fireplace of Judge Henry Bry, a man who was a Swiss clockmaker turned immigrant to the United States.  He would become a district judge, a friend of Thomas Jefferson, and attended the first Constitutional Convention for Louisiana.  He somehow acquired a portrait of Thomas Jefferson’s Secretary of the Treasury and fellow Swiss-American, Albert Gallatin, that still hangs in the house today.  Bry (pronounced “bree”) moved to Monroe from New Orleans with his wife Marie Agnes after they were married, and originally called the place “Mulberry Grove”.  

It was a comfortable living space built on top of massive columns, the bottom of the house was left open as the property was along the Ouachita River with no levee system or seawall, so the ground “floor” would flood a lot. Marie Agnes died in 1821 and was buried on the grounds in the family cemetery. Bry went on to remarry Anne Tennelle Barlow, a widow.  They had seven children with only one making it to adulthood, Melinda Tennelle Bry. As the last child living on the property, Melinda would acquire the property after her parents died.  She married Robert Layton.  Melinda and Robert had two children, Dr. Robert Layton and Mrs. John B. Stone.  This Robert married Eugenia Stubbs, another historical last name to Monroe.  Her father was a Colonel by the name of Frank. Her mother was Georgia Tucker Stubbs. (Talk about a family lineage!)  

When Dr. Robert Layton died in 1892, Eugenia went about grieving in her own way.  She packed up her two children, Robert III and Marguerite, and took them to Europe for a few years.  It is believed that while they were traveling in Switzerland, she decided she wanted to transform the Bry property in Ouachita Parish to resemble the homeland of Henry Bry and make her own castle.  The project began in 1905 and was completed in 1912.  The floors had to be extended, rooms were widened, and many MANY bricks were laid.  The original hand-hewn floors remained. The exotic wood furniture from Henry Bry stayed.  The magnificent Audubon prints of birds and mammals found in Louisiana are there. Robert III inherited the property from his father and married Carol Flower.  They had two children:  Robert IV and Carol.  So for five generations, members of the Layton family have taken care of this magnificent property.  Carol Layton Parsons was a significant part of Monroe, taking part in many events and hosting several at Layton Castle.  Her children now maintain the castle which still serves as apartments, much like they did back during the depression.

The elegance and beauty are not lost.  The old wine cellar from the 1700s is still on-site next to the refurbished carriage house which is available for short-term getaways. In fact, while we were touring, the caretakers were preparing it for a bridal shower.  And a mother-daughter weekend getaway was booked for the coming weeks. May is the month to celebrate moms...this is the perfect way to say, "Thank you." 

The beauty, history, and elegance of this castle were enough to make me want to go back and dive deeper into the place.  I want to go back to see exactly what books Henry Bry enjoyed reading and what interested the Laytons. I want a closer look at some of the 19th-century paintings and I want to talk to those people in them.  I want to visit with Carol Layton Parsons in her portrait that hangs in the hallway and enjoy tea with the people whose names I have heard since I arrived in Monroe to attend college:  Bry, Stubbs, and Layton. I want to enjoy desserts from Anne Tennelle Bry’s cookbook dated 1853 while hearing stories.  But that’s for another day.  

As this day closed, and the azalea flowers were blown from the driveway by one of the grounds crew, the skies opened up and the rains fell.  Pam and I talked over the large raindrops tapping on the umbrella on the way to the car. She welcomed me to come back anytime. And I promise I will be back to visit with Henry Bry and his descendants over tea one day soon.