 eep walking until you get to Camp Street, cross over Camp, then turn right, crossing Julia Street. At number 822 is a townhouse with an ornately-designed full three-story ironwork gallery. This is the: - Converse House, one of the finest houses remaining in this area of the city. It was built for W.P. Converse in 1851 by Samuel Stewart with designs by Henry Howard. The structure was built with Baltimore pressed brick, and the steps, landing, and lintels over the windows finished with white marble. The windows had rolling "Venetian blinds", and the front door was grained in imitation of oak. Walk further up Camp Street, and at 838-40 is the:
- Daniel Parish House. Parish owned the property in 1842 when this three-story brick townhouse was built. It has an interesting front entrance of Greek revival design, with pilasters framing the door, and sidelights with octagon glass panes.
Anthemion decorations and garlands crown the entranceway, and a simple iron railing is installed at the second level. Next door to this house at 842 is the unusual:
Lenes House. This is a three-story masonry townhouse with a rusticated first story and quoins at the corners of the two upper levels, giving the structure a rather solid appearance. A cast-iron gallery is installed at the second level only, and an interesting projecting balcony with an iron railing is present at the first floor. The recessed front entrance has glass above and an applied cartouche below, but the most unusual feature of the house is its entablature at the roofline. Brackets support the high parapet, which is crowned by a central decorated crest. The house was built sometime before Henry Parish and W.A. Gasquet purchased the property in 1842, and renovated to its present look by Joseph Lenes in 1870, who added the gallery and parapet. At 854-66 is the: Parish-Gasquet Houses, a row of townhouses built by the afore-mentioned Daniel Parish and W.A. Gasquet between 1842 and 1859. All of the houses
apparently had second floor balconies when first built, but only three retain them today. The third house has separate balconies for each window, a departure from the rest of the row. These once-attractive houses graced a neighborhood that was one of the more affluent sections of the city in the mid-1800s. Walk to the corner of Camp and St Joseph. Look at the double house with the attractive wrap-around corner balcony on the opposite side of Camp. These are the: - Lesslie Houses. These two three-bay, two-and-a-half story brick townhouses are the remaining pair of an original set of three, designed by W.L. Atkinson and built for John Lesslie Jr in 1840. Lesslie died a year later, and his heirs re-contracted the houses, using the original builder's specifications for its completion. The houses were constructed of "country brick laid in sufficient proportion of the best quality of Thomaston lime and sharp sand", while the high end gable on the St Joseph Street side would be made with lake bricks, filled with country bricks. A wooden entablature with horizontally-placed windows below runs the length of both buildings.
Cross St Joseph Street, and to your left on the opposite corner is a large red brick building, the home of the:
 Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp Street. The CAC is a non-profit, public institution offering year-round visual arts exhibitions, theatrical productions, concerts, and educational programs for people of all ages. It is located in a non-descript former warehouse built in 1906. The exterior was left virtually intact, but the interior was modified to include an atrium in the front section of the building. Cross Camp Street here and continue north toward St Charles Avenue. Once you get to St Charles, turn left. You will immediately spot one of the city's most famous and notable landmarks. Lee Circle. Walk toward the circle with its tall fluted column topped with a commanding statue of the hero of the Confederate Army, General Robert E. Lee. The circle was originally laid out by city surveyor Barthelemy Lafon in 1906, and named Place du Tivoli.
For many years the circle stood empty, and was a popular spot for traveling circuses. In 1870, the year of Lee's death, New York sculptor Alexander Doyle was commissioned to create the bronze statue of Lee, which was placed atop a 60-foot high white Tennessee marble column. The statue faces north, supposedly in defiance of the Union side. Turn left when you arrive at Howard Avenue, which formerly ran all the way around the circle, but recently has been renamed Andrew Higgins Drive at the south side, in honor of the builder of the famous Higgins Boats, landing craft which aided in the Normandy Invasion in 1944. Continue back south on Andrew Higgins, and take a look at the massive red brick building stretching from Lee Circle to Camp Street. This is now the: Ogden Museum of Southern Art, formerly the Howard Library. The building's new address is 925 Camp Street. The museum occupies a building originally constructed in 1889 as a memorial library to Charles T. Howard after designs by notable architect Henry Hobson Richardson,
and features the architect's trademark characteristics, such as rugged textures, rock-faced stone, and a cavernous arched entrance. The red sandstone library was the only work by Richardson in Louisiana, his native region. He died unfortunately in 1886, before the building was completed. The structure is reminiscient of a castle, with a polygonal tower to the left of the arched entrance (which is worthy of closer inspection), and a long horizontal wing to the right with fortresslike slits along its length. Two additional turrets frame the Camp Street end. The library books were moved to Tulane University in 1941, and the building later housed a radio station, then lawyers offices. The University of New Orleans then purchased the property to house the vast collection of Southern art donated to it by Roger Ogden. The museum space was enlarged in 1998 with the addition of the Stephen Goldring Hall, and the museum was opened in 2003.
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