 ross Marigny here, and continue to walk down Royal Street for another block. Take a right turn at Mandeville Street, and walk to the intersection of Mandeville and Chartres. At 2401-05 Chartres is the: - Rivera Building. The plastered-brick Creole store-house was built for Paul Napoleon Rivera in 1861, and is part of a complex of buildings including a connecting three-story residence on Chartres Street. The building at 2401 has a second-floor iron balcony that wraps around both sides facing the streets, and full-length shuttered openings on both levels. The house at 2405 has an iron balcony at the third-floor front, a side gallery at both the second and third floors, and a two-story brick kitchen in the paved-brick yard. Catty-corner from the Rivera Building at 2340 Chartres is the:
- Fouche House, a handsome three-story store-house which could be considered the Creole counterpart to the American federal style.
It was designed and built in 1838 by Nelson Fouche, a free man of color, mathematician and architect, after he purchased the lot in 1832. The plan for the house is a rectangular arrangement of three openings on the main and rear facades, and four on the sides. The two sides on the first level which face the street have high arched openings with full-length French panel doors and fanlight transoms, and the second level features square-headed openings with granite lintels. There are horizontal rectangular openings above these, with stringcourses below, and the hipped roof contains two dormers. A wrought-iron balcony graces the Mandeville Street side second-floor level, replacing a previous one supported by colonnettes. Start walking back toward Elysian Fields by turning to the right here on Chartres, and continue past Marigny Street. The next stop, 2241 Chartres, is on the corner of Chartres and Marigny. The:
- McPride Building is an interesting structure simply because of its present appearance, a store-house that has been altered over the years to the point where it has taken on a totally different identity. It was constructed around 1875
by Philip McPride, with a single main entrance and two full-length openings (now gone) at the Chartres Street ground level, three full-length openings above, and five casement openings on each of the Marigny Street levels. A balcony that once ran around two sides at the second level has been removed, so that the building is completely without character now. Next door to the McPride Building is the:
- McPride House. This was Philip McPride's residence, and was built before his commercial building, around 1858. The two-story single-dormered frame townhouse was designed in the Classic style, with a deep second-floor cast-iron gallery supported by iron colonnettes, and windows ornamented by Greek key surrounds and cornices. The cast ironwork is of a particularly lacy design, similar to the type found on many French Quarter houses. The recessed doorway is protected by double panelled doors, and flanked by pillars supporting a bracketed and molded cornice. At the end of this block, on the corner of Elysian Fields, is a:
- creole house at 601, a gable-sided two-story four-bay structure which has been adapted for use
as a commercial building. It has a wraparound balcony with wood railing at the second level, and full lengths openings at both levels, including a strange arched and fanlighted doorway in the side gable! A corner entrance was probably added later as part of its transition to commercial use. Cross Elysian Fields here, and continue up Chartres until you get to Frenchmen Street. Make a left and walk a block to the intersection of Decatur Street. At 501 Frenchmen, on the left, is the:
- Gayarre-Lacroix Building. The three-story four-bay brick Creole townhouse was built in the 1830s by either Charles Gayarre or Julien Lacroix, both of whom owned the property at different points during this time. Most probably Lacroix had the structure built around the same time as his building across the street at 506 Frenchmen. The building is a fine example of its type, featuring second and third floor wraparound balconies with wrought-iron railings, iron colonnettes underneath, and dentiled molded cornice at the roofline. Granite pillars are spaced between casement windows at the first level, while French windows with granite lintels open onto the second and third
floor balconies. A service building is connected at the Decatur Street side, but the courtyard between has since been filled in. Cross Decatur Street here, and keep walking down Frenchmen Street (the left fork in the Y intersection). In the middle of the next block at 417-19 is:
 The Frenchmen Hotel. Built in the 1860s as a three-bay two-story brick facade townhouse with second-floor gallery, the building is now the main unit in the Frenchmen Hotel complex. The house has a recessed entranceway with transom, along with casement doors at the ground level, and full-length double-hung windows at the second. A dentiled cornice and parapet with triangular projection complete the structure. The houses at 415 and 411 are presently part of the hotel also. The house at 415 has been altered over the years, to the point where the openings no longer even match each other, but remains quite charming with its second-floor iron balcony and wood side gallery. The house at 411 retains its porte-cochere, and when viewed as a group, all three structures form a charming setting for a small hotel. Return to Esplanade Avenue,
where your tour of the Esplanade-Marigny area began. Hopefully you have learned much about New Orleans indigenous architecture, and had some fun at the same time.
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