A native of New Orleans, Arthur E. LaSalle has spent the last 24 years restoring Springfield Plantation in Fayette and showing it to tourists from around the world.

&uot;It’s for you – the American people,&uot; LaSalle said about his work.

His work led LaSalle to be nominated as an Unsung Hero in this spring’s profile addition of The Democrat, something which LaSalle said was nice for Springfield Plantation. LaSalle said he sold his own historic home during the 1970s so he could restore the plantation house. His family has also donated many historic furnishings to the Historic Springfield Foundation. His goal is for future generations to be able to enjoy the house.

&uot;I saved it for the people,&uot; LaSalle said.

The plantation house, located about 11 miles off the Natchez Trace, was built in the late 1700s, and it is believed to be the first two story house with columns built west of the Atlantic Seaboard, LaSalle said.

&uot;That’s what fascinated me was those great columns so early,&uot; LaSalle said.

The building first caught LaSalle’s attention when he was only 16. He later made his first visit to the plantation at the age of 26. &uot;I could tell that the house wasn’t restored,&uot; he said.

This led him to work out an arrangement with the Williams family to lease the plantation in exchange for restoring it.

&uot;I knew something had to be done quickly or there wasn’t going to be a Springfield,&uot; LaSalle said.

So LaSalle, his sons and a teenage friend began restoring the house during a cold winter in 1977 that LaSalle remembers vividly.

&uot;The water froze when we were scrubbing the walls,&uot; he said.

But despite the bad weather and the house’s unfinished state, the family immediately opened the house for tourists.

&uot;I wanted people to see what we were doing,&uot; LaSalle said. &uot;Instead of shutting them out I was saving it for them.&uot;

Prior to the LaSalle family moving into the plantation the house had been locked up for 11 years, LaSalle said.

Today, LaSalle continues to live at Springfield Plantation surviving on tour fees to keep it open to the public.

LaSalle is not certain what will happen to the plantation after his death but he is not too worried about it.

&uot;If God wants it to survive it will survive,&uot; he said.

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