 ontinue to the intersection of Royal Street and cross it to the beautiful mansion at 704, on the opposite corner. The: - Gauche-Stream House was built in 1856 for chicory merchant John Gauche, and included dependencies and neighboring buildings, all painted in the same pleasing coral color. This was the second structure to occupy this site, the previous one having been one of four houses built by Nicholas Rousseau. The smooth-walled Greek Revival mansion has a wonderful cast-iron balcony wrapped around it at the second level, and together with its rear dependency, stretches down the length of Royal Street, embracing a courtyard with gurgling fountain. The fourth owner of the house, Mathilda Geddings Gray, undertook a complete restoration to its original state in 1937. A second careful restoration in 1969 used historic information to complete the preservation of this fine house.
The entrance portico is all-granite, rare in New Orleans, and the ironwork was crafted in Saarbruken, Germany. The decorated cast-iron overhang with brackets is an interesting feature also. Walk from here to number 714 Esplanade. Although not as impressive as the Gauche House, the:
- Warner-Brousseau House is a gem nonetheless. Standing on the site of one of the afore-mentioned houses constructed by Mr Rousseau, it was also designed in the Greek Revival style and built in the mid-1840s by Jonathan Warner. It is a side-hall, three-bay townhouse with an ironwork balcony at the second floor, and three horizontal rectangular windows below a plain denticulated cornice. It is similar to many townhouses built in the American sector west of Canal Street. At one time, the roofline was decorated with a huge Italianate entablature with ornate brackets, and the main entrance was surrounded by fancy pilasters and its own cornice. Today both the entranceway and roofline is simpler thanks to an original restoration using archival plans. Two doors away from the
Warner-Brousseau House at 740 is the:
- Fisk-Hopkins House, on the near corner of Bourbon. The property on which the house sits is alleged to have once been a burial site for military personnel during the Spanish colonial period. The land changed many hands during the early 1800s until Eliza Fisk, the widow of cotton factor Alvarez Fisk, bought the property in 1855 and built the present house. The house is a fairly plain brick structure with a single ironwork balcony wrapped around the second floor. The main entrance is flanked by two Doric columns supporting a pedimented cornice. The adjoining garden and the house at 730 Esplanade were both once part of the property, the house having been built by Mrs Fisk's son to house a library and billiard room. During the Civil War the main house was confiscated by the United States government for use by Federal officials. The garden and library was later sold to Aristide Hopkins in 1871, who turned it into his residence. Eliza Fisk lived in the main house until her death in 1887. It was later used as a young ladies' school,
then as a Baptist church mission. Continue up the boulevard to number 810-12, the:
- Montgomery Houses, a pair of identical plastered-brick townhouses with wrought-iron railings and horizontal rectangular windows at the roofline. The houses were built shortly after the lot was purchased by William Montgomery in 1832. The pilaster-style recessed entrances were placed next to each other, and the plain design is typical of the American brand of Greek Revival prevalent during this period. Supreme Court Justice Edward D. White bought the houses in 1889. Next door to the Montgomery Houses is the:
- Dufour House at 820. This is an interesting three-and-a-half-story masonry townhouse built in the Italianate style in the 1860s by the Dufour family. It features segmental arch window openings with dripstones and cast-iron balconies at the second and third floor levels. Three oval windows and a cornice with dentils completes the facade. Stroll up the block and cross the next street, Dauphine. At number 906-08 are the:
- LeBreton-Madame Marigny Houses.
Noel Barthelemy LeBreton had the present three-bay, side-hall townhouse at 906 built soon after he purchased the property in 1835. His neighbor, Madame Celeste Destrehan, widow of Prosper Marigny, contracted to build the house at 908 shortly afterward. She instructed the builder, John G. Boyd, to construct a "three-storied brick house and kitchens, and other buildings like those of Mr LeBreton." Although the two houses once appeared as mirror images of each other, today they are significantly different. The wrought-iron balconies and window arrangement are still similar, but a large fourth story has been added to number 906, and 908 has lost its large side garden. In the 1920s no. 908 was the headquarters for the Louisiana Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Continue to 926 Esplanade. The:
- Schinkel House was built by Edward Schinkel in 1856, shortly after he purchased the property, and was copied from the house he had built four years earlier on his property at 922. The home at 926, like its copy, is a two-and-a-half story plastered-brick Greek Revival townhouse with stepped-gable sides.
An ornate wrought-iron balcony with overhang is located on the second floor level only. The left side of the house had an additional balcony added sometime after 1939. Schinkel built a third house at 932 a short time afterward. It is similar to the first two houses with only slight differences, the main one being the wall finish. 926 has a scored plaster type of finish, and 932 is painted and pencilled to look like brick. Both have a main entrance flanked by two Ionic columns.
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