 tart part 1 of this tour at the most logical point, at the foot of Esplanade Avenue, near the riverfront. Facing north from here, the first landmark you will see is the:  The Old United States Mint to your left, occupying the entire block. This enormous Greek Revival structure was built in 1835 under the direction of William Strickland of Philadelphia, and at the request of then-president Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. Its original purpose was to mint money for the young country, and this began in 1838 upon the building's completion. It remained in continuous operation until 1909, even coining Confederate money 1861 to 1862. After the city was captured by Union forces in 1862, it was transformed into a prison for Confederate soldiers; some were actually hanged in its yard.
Today it is a part of the Louisiana State Museum, and contains exhibits on jazz and Mardi Gras. Walk north on this side of Esplanade, cross Decatur Street, and stop in front of the corner building at 504 Esplanade. This is the former:- Citizen's Bank Building. In 1840 the Citizen's Bank hired builder E.W. Sewell to construct a bank here, along with three stores. Its design was to follow the same as that of a store at Royal and Orleans, and a house at Gov Nicholls and Chartres. This was a common practice at that time. The brick facade was to be done with lake bricks painted to look like northern brick walls. Later uses for the building included rental property, a jewelry store, and the "Donelson's Dime Museum". The structure today is essentially intact from its original appearance, including the second-floor wrought-iron balcony. Walk three addresses up Esplanade to number 524, the:
- Weysham-Ronstrum House. Built in 1845 by owner John Arnold Weysham, the house is one of the older remaining houses on Esplanade.
It is designed in the American/Greek Revival style, with a raised basement topped by a Doric-columned portico. A wide pediment with dentils crowns the front portico, and curved stairways lead up from either side. A solid Greek-key surround at the central entranceway adds to the impressive facade, and the stuccoed walls are scored to look like stone blocks. Two rooms enter from either side of the 40-foot long central hallway. Dr and Mrs George Nelson Ronstrum bought the house in 1939 and installed plumbing and electricity. Walk to the corner of Chartres and Esplanade. The house here at 544 is the:
- Tiblier-Cazenave House, a beautiful Italianate center-hall, two-story brick house with step-gable side walls and an ornate cast-iron balcony supported by slender iron columns. The house was built for Claude Tiblier in 1860 as a common-wall double townhouse. The cast-iron gallery was added later, along with the grand Italianate entrance, in the 1930s by Leon Cazenave of Arnaud's Restaurant fame. Cross Chartres Street to the group of houses
on the opposite corner. The:
- Denis-Morphy-Barnett Houses, nos 600-06, were all constructed in 1834 by attorney Henry Raphael Denis on what was once three separate lots. The common-wall townhouses were basically all designed in the same style, although they appear as three distinct houses today, thanks to alterations through the years. The house at no. 600 has the particular distinction of having been owned by Alonzo Morphy, the father of famed chess master Paul Morphy. The gorgeous lacy two-level wraparound cast-iron balconies were added in the 1850s. The house at 604 originally possessed an entresol, or half-story, with Gothic arches, and the house at 606 was remodelled in 1859 in the Greek Revival style. It was once owned by Michel Bringier of l'Hermitage Plantation upriver from New Orleans. A few doors down from the Denis-Morphy Houses at 628 you will find the:
- Viliavaso-Maspero House, another cast-iron-fronted townhouse. This two-story stucco-finished home was built in 1868 from a design by Eugene Surgi
for Jean Viliavaso, the brother-in-law of James Gallier Jr, noted architect. The recessed grand front entrance is framed with a classic Greek-key opening. Pierre Maspero of Maspero's Exchange purchased the house just one year after its construction. Next door to the Viliavaso House is the pair of French Empire houses known as the:
- Zaeringer-Begue Houses. Number 632 was built in 1886 and number 634 a year earlier in 1885 in the same basic style, although alterations have left each completely different. Mrs Mary Zaeringer contracted Middlemiss and Murray to build her home at 634, and Mrs Ellen Begue hired builder G. A. Thiesen to construct her home at 632. The houses' slate-covered Mansard roofs with projecting dormers are reminiscent of the late-1800s French style, which was very popular with the elite Creoles of Esplanade as well as the Americans in the Garden District and Uptown areas. Unfortunately many of these houses are gone now, thanks to both progress and neglect.
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