Jules J. Mouton (1857 – 1932) was a relatively affluent member of the white Mouton family. His grandfather, Charles Mouton, was brother to Governor Alexandre Mouton, owner of Ile Copal Plantation. Jules’s father was Charles Eraste Mouton, an Infantry Captain in the Confederate army, attorney in Lafayette Parish, and Judge of the 16th Louisiana District. Jules, himself, engaged in the mercantile business. By the time he built the house at 814 East Vermilion, he had become a sugar cane planter.
Much of the land south of Jules’s house was open farm land. In 1893, Jules became a charter member of the Lafayette Business Men's Association which was formed to bring to the city a sugar refinery, an electric light plant, a system of water works, a cotton factory, and a street railway system. By 1898, the Lafayette Sugar Refinery Co. Ltd, was in production. Located on the railroad not far from the site of the original Ile Copal sugar house, it became one of the largest refineries in Louisiana.
814 Vermilion Street. (1897). Jules J. Mouton House. This Folk Victorian home is a multiple residence one-story wood-frame building set on brick piers and clad in vinyl siding. The main roof is a side gable covered with metal. Folk Victorian elements include the turned spindle work detailing and lace-like spandrels on the full-width porch. Other architectural elements including double-hung, one-over-one wooden windows, one paneled wood door, one partially glazed wood door, a main entry door with half lite arched glass door with transoms and sidelights, and a set of French doors. This building retains integrity of location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.