Type
Spotting: Historic Building Styles in the French Quarter
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A keen eye and
quick list can unveil the salient patterns of French Quarter building
types. Most antebellum sorts come in "Creole," "American,"
and a mix of the two. Those built after the Civil War and later
are generally "Eastlake," or sometimes "Craftsman"
cottages. There are subtle but fundamental differences among the
types, and one must watch for variations not in "style"
or décor, but in roof framing, massing, and floor plan.
The entrance to a building is a clue to its original inside arrangement.
French & Spanish Influences
Public monuments on the Square include the Cabildo, begun in 1795
as a Spanish town hall in modified Baroque style. The Presbytere
or priests' home is similar but, not completed until 1813, it
was used as a courthouse. Both were built with Renaissance-style
roof balustrades, the Mansard roofs being added in 1847. St. Louis
Cathedral, built to designs of French architect de Pouilly, was
begun in 1849 and is the fourth church on the site. The flanking
Pontalba Buildings consist of two long rows of Creole townhouses,
built by the Baroness Pontalba in 1849 to embellish the square
and increase her rents.
Glorious Creole Townhouses
The glory of the Quarter is its mass of Creole townhouses,
with shops below and homes above. Of nearly equal significance
is the distinctive Creole cottage, of squarish form, with side
gables and steep, dormered half-story for children's bedrooms.
The walls are frequently built of French-style bricks-between-posts
and the roof slants front-to-back or may be hipped at one or
both ends. This salient feature contrasts sharply with the roof
of the later "shotgun cottage," where the roof slopes
side-to-side and is too low to accommodate an upper level. This
allows decorative jigsaw embellishments to dominate the façade
of the "shotgun."
The Creole townhouse took shape after fires of 1788 and 1794
removed the town's freestanding French Colonial houses. These
late Spanish years saw the rise of the tall, narrow, three-story
brick house, set at the side walk or banquette, with three bays
or openings, all doors. Inside the family entrance, but exterior
to the shop, the house has a ground-level flagstone passageway
leading to a loggia in the rear with curving stairway. This is
sometimes reached with a porte-cochere or carriageway. Stairs
are never in a hallway. Outside doors are tall and surmounted
by arched and barred transoms. Above them one should note the
narrow second-floor balcony, just two or three feet deep and
supported by scrolling brackets of hand-wrought iron from the
forge. The cast-iron "gallery" of later vintage is
different--wide and supported on columns, all cast from molds
in commercial foundries, not from mom-and-pop blacksmith shops.
These were frequently added in the 1850s to houses first built
with balconies in the 1830s.
Look for the "Entresol Houses"
One may occasionally find a balcony oddly high upon the
façade, as at Bourbon and Bienville (Old Absinthe House)
or Royal and St. Louis (Vieux Carré Restaurant), or Chartres
and St. Louis (Maspero's). These are examples of the enigmatic,
interesting "entresol house," special cases of the
Creole townhouse. With a short middle level or "entresol" between
the shop and the residence that was used for stock and storage,
these mezzanine spaces get light and air from extra high, arched
and barred, first-story transoms. They were an experiment with
full-service vertical living in the growing 18th century city.
American Townhouses
The American townhouse looks like the Creole, but has an interior
stair hall, post-and-lintel openings, and may have a five-bay
center hall façade as at the Xiques House, 521 Dauphine.
Dating from 1825 to the Civil War, they always have late Federal
or Greek Revival ornament and are found in superb rows with cast
iron galleries. The American-style store has heavy granite columns
and lacks an upper residence and thus a family entrance. The "corner
store-house," whether cottage or townhouse, has a beveled
corner doorway, but keep an eye for the subtle family entrance
with molded door surrounds on a side wall.
Watching for these features will make Quarter sightseeing more
readable for newcomers. The vigilant Vieux Carré Commission
has jurisdiction over exterior walls, both front and rear, which
preserves a fairly high level of historical accuracy in French
Quarter streetscapes.
Sally Reeves is a noted writer and historian
who co-authored the award winning series New Orleans Architecture.
She also has written Jacques-Felix Lelièvre’s New
Louisiana Gardener and Grand Isle of the Gulf – An Early
History. She is currently working on a social and architectural
history of New Orleans public markets and on a book on the contributions
of free persons of color to vernacular architecture in antebellum
New Orleans.
