Givens Townhouse

Givens Townhouse was built by Sarah “Sallie” Lyle Torian, widow of Judge John Slye Givens (1835–1887). Sallie was the daughter of Dr. Thomas Torian of Halifax County Virginia and Agnes Glenn Bethel, daughter of a wealthy planter in North Carolina. When Sallie was 10 years old, her family suffered a tragic financial loss and moved to Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana to live with Agnes’ brother, Pinckney Bethel. Uncle Pinckney was a wealthy planter who owned several large sugar plantations and sugar mills along the Bayou Teche near Patterson, Louisiana. The Torian children lived the usual life of wealthy southern planter families, spending the “opera season” in New Orleans and visiting the resort hotel at Isles Dernières during the summer. Sallie was married 7 years after the Civil War ended, moving to Corpus Christi, Texas where her husband, John S. Givens, practiced law and later served as a Judge. In 1893, after the death of her husband, Sallie and her children moved back to Lafayette to be close to her two brothers, William Bethel Torian and Walter Scott Torian. The house features Eastlake detailing such asthe multiple bays and gables, spindle work, fish scale siding, pierced wood detailing, and the double bay façade under a gable roof with a double gallery.