The Majesty of the French Quarter

By Kerri McCaffety

"�highly recommended for architecture, photography, and history collections everywhere." --Library Journal

"McCaffety knows how to capture the fleeting beauty of a moment." --Times Picayune

For many, the French Quarter is New Orleans, yet how much do they really know about the Vieux Carr�? Truman Capote wrote, "Of all secret cities, New Orleans . . . is the most secretive. . . . [Its] architecture deliberately concocted to camouflage, to mask, as at a Mardi Gras Ball, the lives of those born to live among these protective edifices."

Through striking photographs and polished prose, The Majesty of the French Quarter opens the locked door and invites readers to discover a multitude of hidden marvels. Among the discovered gems is the 1828 Bourbon Street mansion of Lindy Boggs, U. S. ambassador to the Vatican and former congresswoman. Pictured are many such homes' secret, overgrown gardens where, noted Capote, "mimosa and camellias contrast color, and lazing lizards, flicking their forked tongues, race along palm fronds." Also featured are rare glimpses of the antique-filled and artfully decorated interiors of some of the Quarter's most majestic homes, including that of New Orleans novelist Julie Smith.

While this series has examined New Orleans as a whole and the city's Garden District in particular, the French Quarter has quietly kept her secrets to herself-until now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Dec 31, 1999
• ISBN: 9781455608225

Book preview

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

People are the true majesty of the French Quarter—today's Vieux Carre residents add their unique touches to its on-going alchemy. These rooms are exquisitely beautiful because they reflect the spirit of the most fascinating and unorthodox group of people anywhere in the world. I was humbled by the eager generosity of new friends who took my hand and led me through the city I only thought I knew, especially Betty Norris, Betty Decell, and Ruth Bodenheimer.

Thank you to the people who let me into their homes and made me feel welcome: Rosemary James and Joe DeSalvo, Peter Yokum, Peter Patout, Julia Reed, Julie Smith, Jana Napoli, Missy Hodapp, Cher Boisfontaine Tharp, Lucy Burnett, Gregory Holt, Barbara Louviere, Jon Vaccari, Josephine Sacabo, Sherry Haydel, Emily Adams, Eugenie Schwartz, Susan Hoffman, Marilyn Young, Patrick Dunne, Ron Julian and Chuck Robinson, Nina Tyler, Buddy Arnold, Gordon Maginnis, Robert Sonnier, Pat and Lee Mason, and others.

I am grateful to the Quarter's dedicated advocates at the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Hermann-Grima and Gallier Houses, and the Beauregard-Keyes House.

New Orleans owes a great deal to the Vieux Carre Commission, whose work will afford future generations the gift of the French Quarter's beauty and romance.

I also owe much thanks to Mara Cooper for her delightful energy; Peter Woloszynski, my photography mentor, for the Hasselblad and the great stories; officer Jim O'Hern, who sees a different side of the French Quarter, for help and company; Hubie Vigreux, the spirit of New Orleans personified, who was my first guide to the city; and architect Malcolm Heard for writing the fabulous French Quarter Manual

For various acts of generosity and kindness, love and thanks to Andrei Codrescu, Lee Meehan, Ellen Johnson, Merritt Doggins, Millie Ball, Marda Burton, Gavin Gassen, Winter C. Randall, and Gil Buras, and the people who shared their valuable ideas and expertise—Georgina Callan, Frank Masson, Allain Bush, Tom Delcambre, Debi Eagan, Darrell Chase, Jay Weigel, and the Baroness Shelley Poncy.

And I couldn't have written a paragraph without the genius Mikko Macchione.

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FOREWORD

Hurricanes Know What it Means

Georges crept his way up the river. He'd annihilated Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Though the TV news drones chose to camp out in suburban high schools along with the suburban United Way to dramatically report the fears of the suburbanites, they did intersperse their commentary with announcements of temporary shelters in the Superdome and the Convention Center. Since New Orleans has had a grapevine, and diligent gossipmongers maintaining it, longer than most cities have had newspapers, those of us who live downtown got the scoop in a primeval way— word of mouth. We intently listened to the elders of the town who recalled the bygone storms as if mulling over long-departed school buddies—Juan, Betsy, Camille . . . some even recounted the Crevasse of ,28. Grim recollections of water lapping the windowsills on top floors of the three-story French Quarter buildings circulated through the streets as if the water were already here and the storm a forgone memory.

New Orleans you see, the anguished neo-local was quick to explain, is like a tea cup poised below sea level between the river and the lake who are at sea level ... And that's just it, it was the neo-local, the recently (that is, since the last major flood) arrived who percolated stress and worry.

Reviews for The Majesty of the French Quarter

[cjohn64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like this book for the simplicity. It has a lot of pictures and the author has a very friendly and elegant way of introducing the material. I think it would be great for young readers to read to help introduce them to aspects on New Orleans. They could read this book and if they wanted to know more they could then go and read more books on the subject of the French Quarter. The book is a little outdated, 2000, but the material is still good. Also did I say lots of pictures with captions.