Frenier

Overview

Cabbage, the railroad and the storm

Frenier sits on the western shore of Lake Pontchartrain, less than 4 miles northeast of LaPlace by Wikipedia's account, where the swamp meets the lake. German families settled there in the 19th century, in 1836 by the Historic New Orleans Collection's account and in 1850 by Wayne Norwood's. The place was first called Schlösser, after Martin Schlösser, who with his brother Adam cut timber before turning to farming.

Cabbage grew well. Norwood, quoted in L'Observateur, describes the settlers digging trenches four or five feet wide in the swamp and pumping them out to grow it. When the railroad came through in the 1850s they shipped cabbage and sauerkraut to the French Market in New Orleans and as far as Chicago. The Historic New Orleans Collection says the area had no local transport and the trip to LaPlace was a 10-mile slog through the swamp; women flagged down the Illinois Central train, handed the engineer a grocery list and money, and waited for the supplies to come back.

On September 29, 1915, the New Orleans hurricane of 1915 struck. Mental Floss and Wikipedia say 25 people died at Frenier when the railroad depot they had sheltered in collapsed; the Historic New Orleans Collection puts the wrecked rail station at Ruddock instead. Norwood, writing from a survivor's memories, says the house where a wake was being held washed away with the mourners inside. The Historic New Orleans Collection says Frenier was rebuilt after the storm, unlike Ruddock to the north. USGS maps show a small cluster of buildings there through the 1950s, and rows of small buildings along the shore after that. We found no account of when the rebuilt farms gave out.

Timeline

From Schlösser to Frenier Landing

1. After 1721German colonists who landed at Biloxi in 1721 spread along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, by the Historic New Orleans Collection's account.
2. 1836–1850Their descendants found a farming settlement on the lakeshore. The Historic New Orleans Collection (2023) dates it to 1836; local historian Wayne Norwood (2021) says 1850. It is first called Schlösser, after the immigrant Martin Schlösser.
3. 1850sThe railroad is built along the lakeshore. Wikipedia and L'Observateur (2022) date it to 1854; a 2011 L'Observateur article says 1852. Frenier ships cabbage and sauerkraut to New Orleans and Chicago.
4. 1892The USGS Bonnet Carre sheet marks Frenier on the railroad, with one small building mark beside the track.
5. 1909An unnamed tropical storm with 15-foot storm tides kills eight people at Frenier, by the Historic New Orleans Collection's count.
6. Sep 29, 1915The New Orleans hurricane of 1915 strikes on the day of Julia Brown's funeral. She was a landowning Black woman known for her folk magic. Mental Floss and Wikipedia say 25 people died when Frenier's railroad depot collapsed; the Historic New Orleans Collection puts the wrecked rail station at Ruddock and says Frenier and Ruddock were "wiped out completely."
7. After 1915Frenier is rebuilt; nearby Ruddock is not (Historic New Orleans Collection).
8. 1935–1952USGS sheets show Frenier as a cluster of buildings where a road from the highway crosses the railroad to the lake.
9. 1967–1998USGS sheets add Frenier Beach, rows of small buildings along the shore and a canal, and by 1998 a boat ramp.
10. 2016Louisiana Sea Grant photographs Frenier Landing from the air: a boat-launch channel between rock jetties and a few raised houses.
11. 2023The Historic New Orleans Collection writes that Frenier and Ruddock are now kept "by more gators than people," in the part of the Pontchartrain Basin with the highest rates of shoreline erosion.
12. Feb 2025The River Parishes Tourist Commission lists a month of live music at Frenier Landing Restaurant & Oyster Bar, 113 Dottie Lane.
13. Apr 2025St. John the Baptist Parish announces the completion of 1.8 miles of breakwaters near Frenier Landing, built to reduce wave energy and shoreline erosion. They run from an existing Corps of Engineers structure to the St. Charles Parish line.
14. Sep 2026WWOZ's events calendar, in a listing posted August 13, 2026, puts a Labor Day concert, Jazz on the Lake, at Frenier Landing Restaurant & Oyster Bar on September 7, 2026. This is the newest dated report we found.

Legend

The legend of Julia Brown

Julia Brown was a real person. The Historic New Orleans Collection describes her as a landowning Black woman, born around 1845, who inherited a 40-acre homestead at Frenier and was known for folk magic and for the songs she sang on her porch. She died of old age in 1915, and her funeral was held on September 29, the day the hurricane struck. The Times-Picayune of October 2, 1915, as quoted by Mental Floss and the Historic New Orleans Collection, reported that the mourners fled the storm at 4 o'clock and left her body behind. The body was found the next day; the casket had not been.

The rest is legend. Survivors later told of a song in which she promised that when she died she would take the whole town with her, and some said she had foretold or caused the storm. Wikipedia calls her a voodoo priestess and notes that some sources say she practiced hoodoo instead. The Historic New Orleans Collection writes that airboat guides now show tourists a staged crucifix they pretend marks her grave. Treat the curse as folklore.

What's left

Houses on the shore

We found no account of anything left from the 1915 settlement. Wayne Norwood, whose Louisiana Treasures Museum holds artifacts from Frenier's German families, says every house but one was destroyed in the storm. Louisiana Sea Grant's aerial photos of January 2016 show a small cluster on the lakeshore, with a boat channel between two rock jetties, a few raised houses on a grassy point, trailers and boats, and the railroad running through the swamp behind. The Historic New Orleans Collection (2023) notes that Frenier sits in the part of the Pontchartrain Basin with the highest rates of shoreline erosion. In April 2025 the parish announced the completion of 1.8 miles of breakwaters along the lakeshore near Frenier Landing to reduce wave energy and erosion.

The USGS sheets in the historic maps below show the change. The 1892 sheet has Frenier on the railroad with one small building mark beside the track and nothing else around it. The 1935 sheet shows a road from the highway crossing the railroad to the lake, with a dozen or so buildings on both sides of the track. The 1952 sheet has fewer. The 1967 sheet adds Frenier Beach with rows of small buildings along the shore and a canal, and the 1998 sheet adds a boat ramp.

• Nothing known from before 1915
• Railroad line
• Modern houses
• Boat ramp and channel
• Frenier Landing restaurant

Historic maps

Frenier on USGS maps, 1892–1998

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18921:62,50019351:31,68019521:24,00019671:24,00019981:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

LaPlace is the nearest city. Both routes take US 51 and Old US Highway 51 north, then Peavine Road east across the railroad. They end on Peavine Road about 100 yards past the tracks, at the mapped townsite. On OpenStreetMap the road goes on about 0.15 mi to its end near the shore, where short lanes lead to the boat ramp, the houses and the restaurant.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Frenier in photos

Frenier Landing from the air: boat channel, jetties and raised houses, January 2016The Frenier shore from farther out, with the swamp and highways behind, January 2016

Visitor reports

Been to Frenier?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

Farm and ranch

More farm and ranch ghost towns

The nearest in Louisiana, then the nearest elsewhere.

Guide

Bayou Chene

30.14, -91.54

St. Martin Parish, Louisiana

A community of planters, loggers, fishermen and moss pickers deep in the Atchafalaya Basin, reached only by boat. Floods drove it out between 1927…

Buried site, per a 2013 visitFarm and ranch

Guide

Rocky Springs

32.09, -90.81

Claiborne County, Mississippi

About 2,600 people lived around this spring on the Natchez Trace in 1860. War, yellow fever and the boll weevil emptied it, and the spring itself ran…

National park siteFarm and ranch

All 114 farm and ranch ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Frenier

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Louisiana index.

• Ruddock6.7 mi N · St. John the Baptist
• Good Hope8.2 mi S · St. Charles
• Fazendeville28.5 mi SE · St. Bernard
• Burtville45.0 mi W · East Baton Rouge
• Bayou Goula45.4 mi W · Iberville
• Morrisonville49.9 mi W · Iberville
• Anchorage53.5 mi NW · West Baton Rouge
• Cheniere Caminada65.9 mi S · Jefferson

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Frenier, Louisiana", retrieved October 2026: Schlösser and the Schlösser brothers, over 25 families, cabbage and sauerkraut, the 1854 railroad, the 1915 hurricane and the depot collapse, the Julia Brown legend, location, elevation and coordinates.
2. The Historic New Orleans Collection, "Julia Brown's Curse and the Storm That Swamped Ruddock", Sarah Drago, October 25, 2023: the German colonists, the 1836 founding, crops, three houses in 1915, the Illinois Central grocery runs, the 1909 storm, the 1915 hurricane and the Ruddock station, Julia Brown's life and funeral and the Times-Picayune's report of it, the rebuilding of Frenier, erosion, the staged grave.
3. Mental Floss, "The Legend (and Truth) of the Voodoo Priestess Who Haunts a Louisiana Swamp", Bess Lovejoy, first run in 2016, updated June 13, 2023: the 1915 hurricane at Frenier, the depot collapse and its 25 deaths, the Times-Picayune of October 2, 1915, on Julia Brown's funeral, the prop graveyard on swamp tours.
4. L'Observateur, "Frenier's German culture shapes local history", Lora Luquet, July 27, 2022: the Schlösser name, cabbage trenches in the swamp, sauerkraut, the 1854 railroad, Norwood's "every house was destroyed except one."
5. L'Observateur, "Heroes of the Hurricane of 1915", Wayne Norwood, February 17, 2021: settlement in 1850, the wake swept away, survivors and rescue parties.
6. L'Observateur, "The devastating hurricane of 1915", Wayne Norwood, September 20, 2011: cabbage shipped to Chicago, the railroad in 1852, grocery orders by train, the morning of September 29, 1915.
7. River Parishes Tourist Commission, "Live Music @ Frenier Landing", February 2025 event listing: the restaurant at 113 Dottie Lane.
8. St. John the Baptist Parish, "St. John Parish Celebrates Completion of Major Coastal Project", April 21, 2025: 1.8 miles of breakwaters near Frenier Landing, from the Corps of Engineers structure to the St. Charles Parish line.
9. WWOZ New Orleans 90.7 FM, "Jazz on the Lake" event listing, posted August 13, 2026: a Labor Day concert at Frenier Landing Restaurant & Oyster Bar, 113 Dottie Lane, on September 7, 2026, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
10. St. John the Baptist Parish, "Boating and Fishing", read October 2026 (undated listing on a 2026 page): the public Peavine boat launch at 103 Dottie Lane, generally accessible 24/7, a $2 daily launch or parking fee that typically applies, and Frenier Landing in the immediate vicinity.
11. Louisiana DOTD, "I-55 Frontage Rd. (Old US 51 Low Rd.), Lane Shifts near Peavine Rd", July 22, 2026: the bypass near Peavine Road from July 24, 2026, through September 2027, the floodwall and gate work, the 12-foot wide-load limit.
12. USGS Bonnet Carre sheet, 1892, and Laplace sheets, 1935, 1952, 1967 and 1998 (in the historic maps below): the 1892 building mark, later buildings, Frenier Beach and the boat ramp.
13. Photos: Louisiana Sea Grant on Wikimedia Commons, credited below. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; OpenStreetMap also for the railroad crossing and the rest of Peavine Road. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Frenier Landing from the air: boat channel, jetties and raised houses, January 2016: Louisiana Sea Grant, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• The Frenier shore from farther out, with the swamp and highways behind, January 2016: Louisiana Sea Grant, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Bonnet Carre 1892, 1:62,500; Laplace 1935, 1:31,680; Laplace 1952, 1:24,000; Laplace 1967, 1:24,000; Laplace 1998, 1:24,000.