Garden District, New Orleans: The Army Gave One Mansion Back. The Market Took the Other

This documentary explains how New Orleans' Garden District, one of the South's most famous mansion neighborhoods, lost James Robb's palace in 1954, when the whole block was sold, the house torn down, and the land divided into seventeen building lots, and why the district had no local historic district of its own until 2007. The Garden District grew out of the Livaudais plantation, sold in the 1830s and surveyed by Benjamin Buisson into the City of Lafayette. American merchants, bankers and cotton factors built big houses on double lots with deep gardens and see-through fences, on fortunes tied to cotton and sugar and to the labor of enslaved people. That open space was the district's design and its most valuable asset, and for most of its history no law protected it. What's covered in this video: • 1863: the Union army seizes Colonel Robert Short's villa and its cornstalk fence, then returns it in 1865. • Célèste de Marigny de Livaudais, a separation, and the plantation sold to investors. • The City of Lafayette, its 1852 annexation as New Orleans' Fourth District, and the enslaved people counted there. • Double lots, deep gardens and the unwritten rule of space. • James Robb's 1854 palace on Washington Avenue, Henry Howard, the Buckner mansion, and the truth about the cornstalk fence legend. • The 1853 yellow fever epidemic, the Civil War, and Edgar Degas painting his uncle Michel Musson's failing cotton office. • Newcomb College, Soulé College, and the Brevard-Clapp house owned by Judge John Minor Wisdom and later Anne Rice. • 1953 to 1954: the Robb block sold, the palace demolished, Conery Street cut through, seventeen lots. • Why National Register listing (1971) and National Historic Landmark status (1974) did not stop demolition. • Hurricane Katrina, high ground, and the June 7, 2007 local historic district vote. Common questions answered: When did the Garden District become a local historic district? The New Orleans City Council approved it on June 7, 2007, with partial control over new construction and demolition. What happened to the Robb mansion? It was demolished in 1954 and its block divided into seventeen lots; its granite gate steps survive at 1230 Washington Avenue. Is the cornstalk fence legend true? The homesick-wife story is undocumented; the design came from a Philadelphia foundry's catalog. Mentioned in this video: New Orleans; Garden District; Lower Garden District; Colonel Robert Short; Short's Villa; Michael Hahn; Nathaniel Banks; Philippe de Marigny; Célèste de Marigny; François de Livaudais; Benjamin Buisson; City of Lafayette; Richard Campanella; James Robb; Henry Howard; Pontalba Buildings; Madewood; Nottoway; Henry Buckner; Buckner Mansion; Wood and Perot; John Burnside; Houmas House; Michel Musson; Edgar Degas; A Cotton Office in New Orleans; Bradish Johnson; George Washington Cable; Soulé College; Newcomb College; John Minor Wisdom; Anne Rice; Garden District Association; Conery Street; Preservation Resource Center; Historic District Landmarks Commission; Elizabeth Barlow Rogers; Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. The army gave one house back. The market took another. Every neighborhood in the South has a rule that kept it standing, or a rule it never got. New documentaries every week on the fortunes that built the South, and what undid them. Subscribe to Postmarked South. Sources: Richard Campanella, "Robb's Folly" (Preservation in Print, 2017); New Orleans HDLC Garden District report; Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans; NOLA City Archives; Metal Museum; National Park Service; The Data Center. #NewOrleans #GardenDistrict #NewOrleansHistory #Louisiana #HistoricPreservation #SouthernHistory #Mansions #AmericanHistory #Documentary #OldMoney