Ironwork in NOLA

Thanks to the 40 years that Spain controlled New Orleans, we have amazing ironwork through out the French quarter.  A long Spanish tradition that was easy to import to the NOLA because of that river and port.Last month when I visited the Banning Mansion in Wilmington CA I was impressed by the incredible cast iron fence. Then I discovered that the hotel we were staying at, The Cornstalk Fence Hotel is named for their fence. Same fence, manufactured in Pensylvania, here they painted the corn yellow, it is New Orleans after all.They even found this ear of corn to put up in the doorway.In the garden district there is a very large historic home that has a massive fence manufactured by the same Philadelphia foundry.They have an interesting corner piece that I hadn’t seen elsewhere.  At the hotel they mentioned that they had a guest from Pennsylvania who has seen the same fence in his neck of the woods.  The Wilmington fence was news to them.

These fences are cast iron, a mold was made, the iron is cast, and you get the same intricate motifs over and over again.This is also cast iron, and serves to deter people from entering the balcony from the roof. Famous street view, the lower section is called a gallery, it being street level and held up by post.  Next door, in blue you can see a balcony, this one sits on top of a gallery, but others are supported by beams in the structure itself. Many will have wonderful plants that thrive in the wet damp weather.More decorative measure to prevent break-ins.  This is wrought iron, an easier method of manipulating the iron. Twisting, pounding to sharp points, welding together. Flanking both sides of Jackson square are the Pontabla apartments. The oldest existing apartment buildings in America. Built in 1850 by an amazing woman, Baroness Micaela Pontalba, she made sure that her monogram was repeated throughout the cast iron railings. Another example of a remarkable woman. The ground floor has high end retail and to this day the apartments are quite expensive. protective device on the gallery poles are these sharp spikes.  Cast iron, not wrought iron.The old houses all have these grates,  probably to deal with flooding issues.The original chain link fence, made of wrought iron of course. This fence surrounds the old home of Anne Rice, so of course people see skull in the ornaments, even though they are supposed to be Fleur de Lis with rosebuds.A wonderful gate in the garden district.

Although most of the ironwork was imported, it flourishes on many of the old buildings and gives New Orleans it’s very distinctive character.