Pontalba Buildings - New Orleans, LA
Posted by: 
JimmyEv
N 29° 57.418 W 090° 03.802
15R E 783415 N 3317646
These identical apartment buildings facing each other across Jackson Square were designed by the Baroness de Pontalba to give the square the look of the Place des Vosges in Paris. Each unit has a shopfront on the ground floor, residential space above and servant quarters in the attic.
Waymark Code: WM1CW3
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 04/07/2007
Views: 108
Facing each other across Jackson Square are the Upper and Lower Pontalba Buildings. The identical residential blocks are 3½-stories high and constructed of Red Philadelphia brick. Each of the buildings is divided by party walls into 16 residences and shops. The ground level forms a continuous arcade for the ground-level shops; apartments were contained on the upper floors. Each unit has a passageway from the street to the principal stairway, a courtyard and a service area at the rear of the ground floor. Above the shops, the first floor had a salon at the front, a connecting dining room, and kitchen and service rooms in the rear. Bedrooms occupied the third floor, and the attic provided rooms for servants and storage space. Both the salon and bedrooms open onto a cast-iron gallery.
Don Andres Almonester y Roxas was the Spanish colonial landowner responsible for financing most of the construction of the Cabildo, the Presbytere and St. Louis Cathedral. He also owned the rest of the land surrounding the Place ‘dArmes (Jackson Square), which passed to his daughter, Micala Almonester-Pontalba, Baroness de Pontalba. She set about to give an architectural composition to the Place ‘dArmes comparable to the Place des Vosges in Paris. After obtaining a 20-year tax exemption from the city, she set about creating her vision.
James Gallier and Henry Howard drew the designs for the buildings with much input from the Baroness. The Upper Pontalba building, on St. Peter Street, was completed in 1850; the Lower Pontalba Building, on St. Ann Street, was completed the following year. The city redesigned Place d’Armes with an iron fence, matching the cast-iron railings on the balconies of the Pontalba Buildings, and built flagstone walks. Eventually, the city rescinded the tax exemption given to the Baroness based upon the fact that the buildings differed slightly from the Place de Vosges. Place de Vosges had a recessed arcaded walk; the Pontalba Buildings had a projecting gallery.
Most of the units were vacated by the end of the Civil War. By 1900, the apartments had turned into slums, being divided into more apartments. The state museum acquired the Lower Pontalba Building in 1927. The State Museum has restored one of the residences to its original condition, and furnished it in time period, the 1850 House. The Upper Pontalba Building is now owned by the city.
