The house and several original outbuildings on the grounds of Magnolia Mound Plantation are examples of the vernacular architectural influences of early settlers from France and the West Indies.

[citation needed] The land was owned originally by James Hillin, an early Scots settler who arrived in 1786, who lived there with wife Jane Stanley Hillin, five children, and six enslaved Africans: Thomas, John, Lucia, Catherine, Jenny, and Anna.

By the time of his drowning, on May 9, 1798, during a sailing trip from New Orleans to Mobile, Joyce held about 50 slaves at the plantation, who cultivated indigo, tobacco, cotton, and sugarcane under the supervision of an overseer.

Gay purchased the deed in the early 1860s and had several overseers run the plantation for him, including the years after the Civil War.

In 1951, Mrs. Duncan commissioned the architectural firm of Goodman and Miller of Baton Rouge to do extensive alterations and additions.

In 1998, the city installed an original, double slave cabin (c.1830) from Pointe Coupee Parish on the grounds to help interpret the lives of enslaved Africans.

It is authentically furnished with vintage utensils, such as spider pots, a clock-jack, sugar nips, waffle iron, olla jar, and reflector ovens.

Also individually enlisted in National Register of Historic Places as Magnolia Mound Plantation House Dependency.

Carriage house - Holds a collection of vintage tools, as well as a weaver's workshop, which depict plantation crafts c.1800-1820.