Southern Folk Artist & Antiques Dealer/Collector

Friday, November 1, 2013

All Saints Day in New Orleans -- Decorating the Tombs in One of the City Cemeteries1885

All Saints Day in New Orleans -- Decorating the Tombs in One of the City Cemeteries, a wood engraving drawn by John Durkin and published in Harper's Weekly, November 1885.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Ann Rice's House 1239 First Street, New Orleans Louisiana

Ann Rice's House 1239 First Street.

Built by James Calrow and Charles Pride in 1857, 1239 First Street is "transitional" in style, containing both Greek Revival and Italianate elements. The double galleries have Corinthian columns below and Ionic columns below, set between square pillars at the corners. Albert Hamilton Brevard, who commissioned the house, was a wealthy merchant with a taste for the finer things in life. At the time of its construction, the house contained many conveniences, such as hot and cold running water in all four of its bedrooms. However, Brevard had little time to really enjoy his mansion; he died there, only two years after he moved in. The Reverend Emory Clapp acquired the house from Brevard's daughter in 1869 and contracted with architect Charles Pride to add the hexagonal bays.

They were designed to enlarge an existing room for use as the Episcopalian clergyman's library. But Rev. Clapp found more pleasure in tobacco, and his library quickly became his smoking room. As newlyweds, the Clapps wanted their residence to reflect their style and refinement, so they began their occupancy by installing massive, beveled French mirrors in the double parlors downstairs.

After Rev. Clapp passed away, his wife continued to occupy the house until 1934, taking a loving interest in maintaining it. In her later years, Mrs. Clapp enclosed part of a gallery and installed an elevator on the Chestnut St. side of the house. From 1989-2004, the house was the home of Stan and Anne Rice.

This house is also the inspiration for Mayfair Manor, the Garden District home of Anne's Mayfair Witches. Both of these locations figure prominently in Mayfair Family history. In Anne's Mayfair Family, the swimming pool in the backyard garden was installed by Stella Mayfair in the wild years of her youth. It is the pool that Michael Curry is found floating in on Christmas morning, 1989, after suffering a heart attack while fighting Lasher.

Deirdre Mayfair sits on the side porch in silence for over thirty years, refusing to speak so as not to allow Lasher to enter her thoughts. During this time, Lasher is often seen standing beside her rocking chair, whispering into her ear. The side porch is two stories high with very ornate cast iron decorations. It fronts on two attic windows on the third story of the house. Ancient Evelyn, when she was a young girl, paid secret visits to Uncle Julien by climbing this iron balcony to the second story. Antha Mayfair climbed through one of the attic windows onto the porch roof, where she jumped to her death rather than become part of the Mayfair legacy.

Behind those windows, Carlotta Mayfair poisoned private investigator Stewart Townsend, and then wrapped his body in a rug bound with chains, and stored him in the attic for fifty years to be discovered by the engaged Rowan and Michael. Michael also throws Lasher, in a Taltos body, from one of these windows to his death on the flagstones below.

Greek Revival Mansion from “American Horror Story” the Buckner Mansion

My favorite house in New Orleans is Miss Robicheaux’s Academy aka Buckner Mansion from “American Horror Story”

1410 Jackson Ave. in the Garden District

This 1856 home was built by cotton factor Henry S. Buckner in overt competition with the famous Stanton Hall in Natchez, built by Buckner's former partner. Among the luxurious details are 48 fluted cypress columns and a rare honeysuckle-design cast-iron fence. The triple ballroom was used by debutantes practicing their walks and curtsies. Now privately owned, the house served as the campus of Soulé College from 1923 to 1975.

The Greek Revival style Buckner Mansion was built in 1856 by cotton magnate Henry S. Buckner. The mansion was built to outdo his ex-business partner’s well-known Stanton Hall mansion in Natchez, Mississippi. The Buckner Mansion has galleries on three sides, an amazing honeysuckle motif cast iron fence and a triple ballroom. The mansion served as a home to the Buckner family until 1923, when the prestigious Soule Business School moved in.

Detail of the amazing honeysuckle motif cast iron fence

Soule was the best business school in the South until it closed doors in 1983. The mansion is now a private residence, available as a vacation rental for the tidy sum of $20,000. According to the show’s Facebook page “Extreme precaution was taken to not damage the 156-year-old mansion.”