A Fully Renovated A. Hays Town Estate on Baton Rouge's Highland Road

What Is an A. Hays Town Home, and Is This One on Highland Road the Real Thing?

6222 Highland Road in Baton Rouge is a fully renovated A. Hays Town estate, built in 1958 and updated from top to bottom in 2020. It carries the architect's signature details — interior brick, antique pine floors, cypress beamed ceilings, and ten-foot ceilings throughout — on a 2.29-acre lot that backs to Bayou Fountain. The estate is listed at $2,375,000 through Craft Realty, making it one of the few true Hays Town homes available in Baton Rouge right now.

By Jen Burns, REALTOR® | June 18, 2026

Most people who want a Hays Town home can't buy one. They inherit it, they wait years for one to come on the market, or they settle for a newer build that borrows his details without his hand behind them. Right now, on one of Baton Rouge's most established stretches of Highland Road, an original sits on the market — fully renovated, ready to move into, and still unmistakably his.

If you've spent any time around Baton Rouge real estate, you've heard the name. If you haven't, here's the short version.

Who Was A. Hays Town?

Albert Hays Town was born in Crowley, Louisiana, in 1903 and trained as an architect at Tulane University, graduating in 1926. He spent his first two decades designing in a thoroughly modern vein, first in Mississippi and then back home in Baton Rouge, where he opened his own firm in 1939. For years, his office handled the kind of work that builds a young firm's reputation: banks, schools, government buildings, churches.

Starting in the 1950s and accelerating through the 1960s, Town turned his attention almost entirely to homes. He drew on the Spanish, French, and Creole building traditions that shaped Louisiana long before he was born, and he built a vocabulary that was entirely his own: salvaged materials, antique brick floors sealed with beeswax, reclaimed heart pine and cypress, and high ceilings designed to move heat up and out in a climate that doesn't forgive bad design. Courtyards, deep porches, archways, and landscaping blurred the line between inside and out in nearly everything he built.

He used his own Baton Rouge house as the place where he worked all of this out, testing colors, materials, and proportions before committing them to a client's home. Over a career that stretched past sixty years, he's credited with somewhere between 500 and 1,000 residential designs across Louisiana. He kept working into his nineties and died in 2005, but his influence didn't stop there. Most traditional-style homes built across the state since then carry some trace of his thinking, whether the builder knows his name or not.

That's the context worth knowing before you walk through 6222 Highland Road. This isn't a home built in the style of Hays Town. It's one of his.

What Makes 6222 Highland Road a True Hays Town Estate

The bones of this house go back to 1958, set on a 2.29-acre double lot that backs directly to Bayou Fountain — exactly the kind of site Town liked to work with, where the landscape does as much of the work as the architecture. The current owners completed an extensive renovation in 2020, updating the systems and surfaces a 1958 home needs updated, while leaving the details that make it his alone.

Walk through it and you'll see them right away. Interior brick floors. Antique pine throughout. Cypress ceilings and beams in the main living spaces. Ten-foot ceilings and classic archways connecting one room to the next. These aren't decorative flourishes someone added later. They're the same materials and proportions Town built his reputation on, decades before "modern Acadian" became a marketing term for builders trying to copy him.

The home spreads across 6,778 square feet with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms (six full, two half), along with a room layout that's hard to find in new construction: a formal living room, a separate family living space, and a private library. The kitchen is a full working version of itself — a gourmet kitchen backed up by a scullery kitchen with its own sink, refrigerator, wine storage, pantry space, and a pellet ice machine, alongside Viking appliances and a six-burner gas range.

The primary suite functions as its own retreat, with dual vanities, an oversized walk-in shower, a freestanding soaking tub, and a custom closet built around an island, complete with its own washer and dryer.

Outside is where the Bayou Fountain lot really earns its keep. There's a gunite pool, a pickleball and basketball court, a commercial-grade outdoor grill setup, gated entry, and parking for more vehicles than most Baton Rouge homes can offer. A detached guest house with a full bath sits apart from the main residence, and a separate pool house adds a half bath and a cold plunge, the kind of resort-style layering you'd expect from an estate at this price point, built around the same indoor-outdoor philosophy Town built his career on.

Why a Listing Like This Doesn't Come Around Often

Highland Road listings of this size and caliber don't follow typical price patterns. Recent activity along this same stretch has ranged from just over $2 million to nearly $5 million, depending on lot size, waterway frontage, and how much of the original architecture survives a renovation. At $2,375,000, this estate sits solidly within that range while offering something most of those other listings can't: verified Hays Town provenance paired with a complete 2020 renovation.

That combination is genuinely rare. Original Hays Town homes don't turn over often, and most owners hold onto them for decades or pass them down within the family. New construction can borrow his vocabulary, the archways, the brick, the cypress, but it can't replicate the fact that he was the one who built it.

If you've been searching for a home with real architectural pedigree in Baton Rouge, this is exactly the kind of property I walk my buyers through, weighing what's original against what's been updated, before they make an offer. It's the kind of opportunity that doesn't sit on the market long once a buyer understands what they're looking at.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a home an "A. Hays Town" design?

A. Hays Town was a Baton Rouge architect who designed an estimated 500 to 1,000 homes across Louisiana between the 1950s and his death in 2005, drawing on Spanish, French, and Creole building traditions. His homes are recognized by specific signatures: antique brick floors, reclaimed heart pine and cypress, high ceilings, archways, and a layout that blends indoor rooms with courtyards and outdoor living space. A true Hays Town home was designed by him directly, not simply built in a style that resembles his work.

How rare are original A. Hays Town homes in Baton Rouge?

Original Hays Town homes are uncommon on the open market because most owners hold onto them for decades, and many have been passed down within families. Estimates put his total body of residential work somewhere between 500 and 1,000 homes statewide, which means any single listing represents a small fraction of what's out there. When one does come up for sale, especially fully renovated, it tends to draw serious interest quickly.

Does renovating a Hays Town home reduce its value or character?

Not when it's done well. A thoughtful renovation typically focuses on updating systems like plumbing, electrical, and HVAC while preserving the materials and details that define the architecture, the brick floors, the cypress beams, the archways. The 2020 renovation at 6222 Highland Road followed that approach, modernizing the home throughout while keeping its original character intact.

Is 6222 Highland Road still available?

As of this post, 6222 Highland Road is actively listed for sale at $2,375,000 through Craft Realty. Listings like this can move quickly once buyers recognize the combination of a Highland Road location and verified Hays Town architecture, so reach out directly for current availability and to schedule a private tour.

What should I know before touring a historic Baton Rouge estate like this one?

It helps to go in with a clear sense of what's original to the home and what's been updated, since both affect long-term maintenance and insurance considerations. It's also worth understanding the lot itself. This property's 2.29 acres and Bayou Fountain frontage carry their own considerations around flood zone status and insurance that are worth discussing with your agent before you make an offer.

If you've been looking for a Baton Rouge home with real architectural history behind it, 6222 Highland Road is worth seeing in person, the kind of property where photos only tell part of the story. I'd love to walk you through it, talk through what makes it a true Hays Town estate, and help you figure out if it's the right fit for what you're looking for. And if it's not exactly right, I can help you find the next one that is.

Reach out anytime for a private, no-pressure tour or buyer consultation: call or text me at 225-907-3305, or call the office at 225-228-1361.

Jen Burns, REALTOR® | CRAFT REALTY | 9114 Jefferson Hwy., Baton Rouge, LA 70809 | Licensed in the State of Louisiana

About Jen Burns, REALTOR®

I'm Jen Burns, your go-to REALTOR® for all your home buying and selling needs in Baton Rouge. Born and raised right here in Baton Rouge, my roots run deep, and my passion for this community is unwavering. I've been a REALTOR® since 2010, and from 2021 to 2025 I had the privilege of helping over 300 families buy or sell their homes, including 148 listings and 167 buyers, representing more than $102 million in total sales volume. I was voted Best Realtor in Baton Rouge through The Advocate's Best of Baton Rouge awards in both 2025 and 2026. CRAFT REALTY | 9114 Jefferson Hwy., Baton Rouge, LA 70809 | O: 225-228-1361 | C: 225-907-3305 | Licensed in the State of Louisiana.