This is the house that Dorothée Lassize built, New Orleans Free woman of color

Greek Revival town house built between 1827-1828 by Dorothée Lassize New Orleans free woman of color

When I first moved to New Orleans in the mid 1990's I fell in love with this imposing 1820's Greek Revival Townhouse. One of it's many appeals is that the home appeared to be abandoned and has been vacant for 30 plus years. Although not abandoned, supposedly the family that owns the house lives in France. A little unusual for the French Quarter the Townhouse is purely designed in the American Greek Revival  style.

This Classical Townhouse would fit in perfectly in Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Baltimore on the East Coast. During the mid 1990's I did some research on the Historic Home. Surprisingly I found copies of  the original detailed building contract including a list of the original furnishings and decorative arts purchased for this stately town home.

Edmond Dédé (November 20, 1827, New Orleans, Louisiana – 1903, Paris, France) was a free-born Creole musician and composer. He moved to Europe to study in Paris in 1857 and settled in France. His compositions include Quasimodo Symphony, Le Palmier Overture, Le Serment de L'Arabe and Patriotisme. He served for 27 years as the conductor of the orchestra at the Théatre l'Alcazar in Paris.

Dorothée Lassize was a prosperous mix race Creole woman in early 19th century New Orleans who was a Free woman of color. Dorothée came from a long line of Creole mix race woman in New Orleans that made  alliances with white Creole French gentleman. At the time of Dorothée generation in the late 18th century early 19th the Lassize family own numerous holdings and property in and around the French Quarter.   Dorothée met a Anglophone White Protestant man name Samuel Moore in the early part of the 19th century. Although Samuel was American he grow up in the Lower Mississippi Rive Valley when Louisiana was still a Spanish colony. He would have been accustomed  to the interracial partnerships that was a established practice in French/Spanish Colonial Louisiana. 

18th century painting showing a fashionably dressed Free woman of color  oil painting by Agostino Brunias, Dominica, c.1764-1796.

Free people of color developed as a separate class between the colonial French and Spanish and the enslaved black African workers. They often achieved education and some measure of wealth; they spoke French and practiced Catholicism, although they also developed a syncretic Christianity. At one time the center of their residential community in New Orleans was the French Quarter. Many were artisans who owned property and their own businesses. They formed a social category distinct from both whites and slaves, and maintained their own society into the period after United States annexation in 1803.

Detail of carved Greek Revival transom 

Detail of front carved Doric column portico 

To this date we don't know what Dorothée and Samuel looked like but she did spend $110 for a pair of portraits. Most likely of herself and Samuel. Early 19th century American portrait of a young gentleman 

Dorothée and Samuel formed a lifetime partnership. All a bit unusual at the time, Most Creole Free woman of color married Free man of color or had relationships with French speaking white Catholic men in New Orleans. Samuel and Dorothée began a family together after the unpopular transfer of Louisiana to the Americans in 1803.  The first public record of them was in 1804 when they both baptized their daughter named Sara Moore in the Saint Louis Cathedral. 

Detail of carved work on the transom 

  French Creoles took mixed-race women as mistresses or placées before they officially married. In the period of French and Spanish rule, men tended to marry later after getting established. The free people of color developed formal arrangements for placées, which the young women's mothers negotiated, often to include a kind of dowry or property transfer to the young women, freedom for them and their children, and education for the children. The French Creole men often paid for education of their "natural" (illegitimate) mixed-race children from these relationships, especially if they were sons, generally sending them to France to be educated.

Detail of the Doric column portico 

They had 8 children together with 7 surviving to adulthood. Dorothée owned 2 properties on on Dauphin Street that she sold by lottery. In order to sell the properties Dorothée petitioned the Louisiana State legislature for authorization 

to sell them by lottery. After the lottery for the properties Dorothée gave the State 1% of the money collected for the lottery and used the rest of the money to buy a lot in 1825 on the 1000 block of Saint Louis Street.  It was not uncommon for free women of color to engage in business or build their own homes.

Greek Revival cast iron anthemion or palmette on the front fence of the house. The palmette is a motif in decorative art which, in its most characteristic expression, resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. This design was used in  Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman architecture and decorative arts. 

Greek Revival cast iron Rosette 

The fine East Coast red brick is laid in a costly Flemish bond, the mortar is made of fine Gulf Coast white sand. This bond has one stretcher between headers, with the headers centered over the stretchers in the course below. This is some of the finest brickwork in the French Quarter

Fronting the street 55 feet by 200 feet deep. She started buying up building materials to build a fine home the same year. She built a fine residence between 1826-1827. Just like Dorothée chose a Anglo-Saxon as her life partner over a Creole man. Dorothée broke tradition again, she did not build a typical Creole cottage as other Free woman of color were doing or even a grand Creole townhouse.

Stone window-sill

 

Classical wrought and cast iron fence between the house and Quincy granite entrance for the carriage way  

She build a Fine American Greek Revival townhouse in the latest fashion sporting costly imported East Coast building materials like white marble, Quincy granite, East Coast fine

red pressed brick. The builder of her fine home was Daniel Twogood the same builder that would latter build Julia Row in the American Sector of the city.  At this period in the United States there were no professional schools of architecture and few who claimed the title architect. Most structures were designed and put up by builders, and architects and builders were trained by working under master builders.

Detail of Quincy granite Doric plaster and cornice at the entrance for the carriage way the lead into the flagstone paved courtyard  

Dorothée new house was constructed of 176 posts of cedar and 110,500 bricks. Paid bills shows that Dorothée furnished the house between 1827-1828 paying $110 for a pair of portraits, $88 for a sofa. $200 for window cornices for the home a ,costly some for the time, probably made of gilt wood. $440 for two female slaves, she paid a Mr Rose 

$24 dollars for 12 green chairs, probably Fancy style chairs and Andrew Lockheart $50 for glass and then another $60 for glass for the table. She paid Mr Chastont $90 for 12 chairs probably mahogany. Mr Hyde $14 for fringe and a bill for $367.75 and $500. for more furnishings. Inside and out this home would have been detailed and furnished in the latest fashion of the time. 

Greek Revival town house built between 1827-1828 by Dorothée Lassize New Orleans free woman of color

Roof dormer 

Unfortunately Dorothée did not live long after her home 

was built and appears to have died near the end of April in 1829 shortly after the house was completed. Her succession is dated December 23, 1830 and was recorded in the office of the notary, Theodore Seghers, item number 398. According to the document, Dorothee was not married and her estate was divided among her seven living children.

Hand carved egg & dart and dental cornice molding 

Greek Revival cast iron balcony 

The Doric column portico 

"Estate of the late D. Lassize, Court of Probates - Sale by the Register of Wills. On Thursday the 28th of May inst., I will expose for sale at 11 o'clock a.m. at the domicile of the late Dorothee Lassize, f.w.c. St. Louis Street between Burgundy and Rampart streets, the household furniture and other Movable effects belonging to the succession of the said Dorothee Lassize...[and on Thursday the 18th of June 1829 at 12 o'clock P.M. I will offer for sale at Hewlet's Exchange, the slaves and real property belonging to the said succession, viz:... A lot of ground measuring 55 feet front on St. Louis Street between Burgundy and Rampart by 200 feet in depth, more or less, English measure, roofed with slates, consisting of five rooms and a closet, where there is a stair-case up to the garret and rooms in the garret; a two-story brick kitchen, roofed with slate, consisting of eight rooms, together with a garden and other appurtenances.

Greek Revival town house built between 1827-1828 by Dorothée Lassize New Orleans free woman of color

The entrance for the carriage way the lead into the flagstone paved courtyard is made of Quincy granite   

A vacant lot of ground, adjoining the one just mentioned, and measuring 35 feet front by 200 in depth, more or less, English measure... 

Greek Revival cast iron balcony 

The classical roof dormers 

N.B. The house in St. Louis Street, near Rampart, has been very lately built, and in the most solid and elegant manner; the steps to the entry in front are marble; and those in the yard are of stone; the entrance into the yard is paved with flagstones, also the kitchen and wine cellar, and a gallery and passage down to the garden; all the sleepers of the house and servants rooms are of cedar; the garden, flower plat and an alley from the carriage entry down to the garden, are planted with the choicest of fruit trees, shrubbery and flowers... 

Martin Blache, Register of Wills

Samuel Moore - Agent for the heirs of Dorothee Lassize."

— Source: Louisiana Courier Date: Thursday, June 4th 1829

On  Dorothée's house the window Lintel's are marble and window-sill's are stone

Detail of classical egg and dart hand carved molding on the houses roof cornice 

Greek Revival town house built between 1827-1828 by Dorothée Lassize New Orleans free woman of color

Cast iron balcony 

The Doric column portico

Showing the side of the house, two story slave quarter, two story kitchen and stables. The lot is 200 feet deep and almost goes to the end of the back street.   

Dorothée also owned the lot next to her house that was 200 feet deep now a parking lot. 

Two story kitchen and stables. The lot is 200 feet deep and almost goes to the end of the back street.   

Showing the side of the house, two story slave quarter, two story kitchen and stables. The lot is 200 feet deep and almost goes to the end of the back street.   

Dorothée also owned the lot next to her house that was 200 feet deep now a parking lot. 

Showing the side of the house, two story slave quarter, two story kitchen and stables. The lot is 200 feet deep and almost goes to the end of the back street.   

Free Women of Color with their Children and Servants, oil painting by Agostino Brunias, Dominica, c.1764-1796.

Greek Revival town house built between 1827-1828 by Dorothée Lassize New Orleans free woman of color

Although Dorothée Lassize did not live long to enjoy her beautiful French Quarter town house. She left behind a living legacy of beautiful architecture for us to enjoy today. Dorothée's fine townhouse was ahead of it's time when it was built in the French Quarter. Most homes of this period was built in the late Federal/Creole style in New Orleans. Dorothée's house built in the new fashionable Greek Revival style between 1827-28. This style of house was not common until the early to mid 1830's. Dorothée selected the finest building materials available with the help of her partner Samuel Moore.

 At a time when wealthy white Creoles were building homes in the French Quarter of local cheaper materials like the soft slave made bricks that had to be covered with stucco to protect them. Window lintels and sill's were of local cypress wood not imported marble and stone. Dorothée house to my knowledge and my architect friends was the finest house built of it's period in the French Quarter. Dorothée's house makes a bold elegant statement to the streets of the old  Vieux Carré. Dorothée left a Indelible Mark on the Culture and Development of New Orleans and the French Quarter. As a Free mixed race black woman of French and African descent her achievements were great for the times she lived in.