LSU Rural Life Museum

🔨 Interested in volunteering at the LSU Rural Life Museum? 📚

Join us for a Volunteer Information Meeting on Saturday, July 25, at 11:30 a.m., immediately following the Junior Docent Information Meeting.

⏳ Time: 11:30 am
📍Location: Movie Room
LSU Rural Life Museum
4560 Essen Lane
Baton Rouge, LA 70809

Come learn about volunteer opportunities, meet our volunteers and volunteer coordinator, and discover how you can help preserve and share Louisiana history with our community. We look forward to meeting you!

Building this house took six years.

Known as the Thomas Neal family home, this house originally stood in Gardner, Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Construction on the Dogtrot House began in 1863, and wasn't completed until the late 1860s.
The house was built from hand hewn pine logs. The design is simple but smart. Two rooms under one roof and connected by the "dog-trot," an open breezeway. Long before air conditioning, the open central corridor kept air moving through the Louisiana heat.

The Neal family lived in this house until 1976. That's over a century of history inside these same log walls.
In 1979, the Neal family donated the house to the LSU Rural Life Museum — where it was reconstructed on museum grounds and still stands today.

Swipe to see then and now.
📍 Rural Life Museum 🏛️ Dogtrot House, c. 1863