Category: Travel

Since I give architectural tours in downtown LA, I’m used to telling people to look up, not only here, but every where. In NOLA our guide begged us to please look down since sidewalks and streets attack people here. I still managed to look up.To see Mardi Gras beads dangling off signs.Or just to see a sign with my name on it. No, I didn’t go in, I didn’t even try pralines, Beignets, Pecan Pie and King Cake were enough sweets for me.Or seeing the sign for H Rault, the business has been around since 1845, don’t know if the sign is that old. I do love the keyhole. Good design. Btw they are a great resource for anyone trying to renovate an old New Orleans house.I did go into the yarn store and I came out empty handed! How is that for self control?  We had lunch next door at Sylvain, on a friend’s recommendation, it was delicious.Then there is the broken glass on tops of walls. This is a known method of burglary prevention all over the world. I think it is pretty effective.Even when placed right next to a pineapple finial – the sign of welcome and hospitality.I don’t remember anymore what this chain was holding.  But what a wonderful cast iron face.Then there are the combination of textures, the old wood shutter, the stucco building and the S-shape wrought iron.  I think it’s there to keep the windows sealed.No matter how strong your fence, nature will have it’s way, it may take a long time for the tree to grow and push the fence out of whack – but the tree will win.A railing painted white, surrounded by green.On Bienville old French buildings were torn down and the only Art Deco  building in the quarter went up. There is more Art Deco downtown, but shortly after this happened, a movement started to save the character of the Quarter.Who are these guys? What are they discussing? Today this is a very high end condo complex. I love the reflection of the older building across the street in the windows, windows are a wonderful thing.Right underneath him is a spa, for relaxing, Maybe he’s contemplating how to get down there.And finally in the look up department. On the street car going to and from the Garden District, one passes this massive circle, Lee Circle with it’s 60 ft high marble column with General Lee Standing atop it.  Yes, these days people want it to come down, I say those who erase history are doomed to follow the worst parts of it. Leave General Lee alone,  he accepted defeat at Appomattox, he bravely fought the war and when it was time to admit defeat he did.  Of course it is very hard to see him unless you are a good distance away, like in the warehouse district.  Even then, it took enlarging the picture for me to see that a pigeon flew all the way up to his hat to find a perch.

This is long enough for one post, there are still plenty of things to share.

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.