A Garden District Historic Treasure
by Melissa
Haug
A famous
historic New Orleans mansion, previously the home of
author Anne Rice, is for sale.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One of the world's most dazzling residential neighborhoods
–
containing a time capsule of historic southern mansions – is
located in the Louisiana city of New Orleans. The
Garden District, a large square area bounded by Jackson
Avenue, Louisiana Avenue, Magazine St. and St. Charles Ave,
is the live oak tree-lined "American" sector of this
southern city. For the most part, Americans who settled in
the Garden District during the nineteenth century shunned
local Creole influence. They were more interested in
something more permanent that clearly showed their wealth
and taste. The architecture of these homes is a fusion of
classic styles with influence of Spanish, French, Italianate
and English, as well as Greek Revival. These stately homes
represent some of the best work of some of the leading
architects and builders of the 1800s.
|
|
|
|
Today a stately Garden District mansion is on the market for
nearly for $4.5 million. This historic house, located at
1239 First Street, was previously owned by author Anne Rice
and is the setting for her novel, The Witching Hour.
In the story, the house was the ancestral home for the
Mayfair family and their generations of male and female
witches. |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The mansion, originally known as the Brevard House,
is a particularly fine example of the large, narrow and
long, two story residences built in the Garden District in
the prosperous decade that preceded the Civil War. The
1850s Greek Revival style residence boasts nearly 9,000
square feet on three floors with five bedrooms and six full
baths. The home features period touches such as murals in
the dining room, ornate millwork and beveled mirrors. It
also has a large, heated salt-water pool, fish pond, guest
house, staff house and "lush grounds with maintained
gardens." There are five bedrooms, six full baths and two
half-baths. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
In
1852, Albert Brevard purchased the property; in 1857 he
commissioned architect James Calrow and builder Charles
Pride to construct the stately two story brick building.
Brevard died within two years and the mansion was inherited
by his daughter, Elizabeth Brevard Woods. The First Street
façade has a tetrastyle, two-level entry porch with four
square end columns, four round columns, and ornamental iron
grillwork.
The two centrally located round columns of the first level
are of the Ionic order, and those of the upper level are of
the Corinthian order. A small, two-level, wrought-iron
porch on the Chestnut Street side leads into the “hexagonal”
library wing. This porch and a larger, two-level porch on
the southeast garden side of the main block are both fairly
typical of the wrought-iron porches added to new Orleans
domestic structures in the mid-nineteenth century. |
|
|
|
The prominent doors and doorways of the first floor main
entry hall all have Greek Revival narrow moldings and low
pediments with decorative scrollwork. Moreover, each of the
major rooms of the first floor has a wide, elaborate molded
cornice and a large decorative plaster medallion in the
middle of the ceiling. |
 |
|
|
|
 |
One of the most notable decorative features of the Brevard
House is the flattened elliptical archway that separates the
double parlors. The moldings, rosettes, and supporting
scroll-brackets are all fine examples of the decorative
trimmings of the Greek Revival at the mid-nineteenth
century. |
|
|
|
Detail of the first floor parlor fireplace topped with a
custom-fit beveled mirror. Note the decorative plaster
medallion in the middle of the ceiling. |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
The first floor dining room is decorated with wall murals.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
IMAGES:
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division [HABS
LA,36-NEWOR,66] |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
