The French Azilum

After passing through an area in Pennsylvania where my parents grew up, I continued driving to my intended destination, known as the French Azilum.  When I was a Littlefoot, my family would drive from our home in New York to visit our relatives in Pennsylvania.  Part of our route was along U.S. Route 6.  I remember seeing signs for the French Azilum, but until today, I never visited the place.

The French Azilum was originally a planned settlement for French refugees escaping the French Revolution or slave uprisings in what became Haiti.  Over 50 structures were built, starting in 1793.  According to one story, Queen Marie Antoinette and two of her children were to settle at the place, but as history tells us, she literally lost her head.  By 1803, the French Azilum had been abandoned.  Some of its settlers returned to France or Haiti, while others moved to other places in the United States, such as New Orleans.  Still others stayed in Pennsylvania.  In 1836, the site's main house, known as the LaPorte House, was built by the son of one of the settlement's founders.  Other structures were built, but none from the original settlement remain.  The LaPorte House is now a museum.

After entering the site, I wandered over to a log cabin, which houses a small museum.

There was also another log cabin.

I walked over to a labyrinth, but couldn't get it all in one shot.  Here's part of it.

And here's the rest of it.  The large white building in the background is the LaPorte House.  The red building is a barn that's on an adjacent property.

The site includes this gazebo.

This is the LaPorte House, its entrance being toward the left from this angle.

The site includes this blacksmith shop.

These two buildings are a smoke house on the right and a scale house on the left.  The building with the red roof behind them is a wagon house.  If you're wondering what a scale house is, so was I.  There were several definitions that I could find on Google, but the most pertinent is probably a building that includes a scale for weighing animals, as explained by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.

Here's the wagon house from its front side.

As I was looking exploring around the smoke, scale and wagon houses, it started to rain and I could hear thunder in the distance.  I thus realized that it was probably time to leave.  I found my way back to the aforementioned Route 6 and drove eastward to the Marie Antoinette Overlook, from which I could see the French Azilum.  Although the weather was cloudy, rainy and hazy, I was still able to take a shot which shows the LaPorte House and the nearby red barn.  The Susquehanna River is to the right.

The overlook's parking area includes two cylindrical structures, each with a roughly conical roof.  This is one of them.

To learn more about the French Azilum, besides the links above, go to Bay Journal, Pennsylvania Center for the Book and Mainly Museums.