New Orleans preservationists are in a huff over a $1 million renovation project on one of the rarest historic buildings in the French Quarter, claiming that recent work has damaged original aspects of the structure and that contractors ignored expert advice.
Madame John’s Legacy, the historic house at 632 Dumaine Street, is one of the finest examples of 18th century Louisiana-Creole residential design, according to the Louisiana State Museum, which has prime responsibility for the site.
Its long history includes spells as a sea captain’s residence, a slum tenement, an artist colony and, more recently, the setting for movies, including “Interview with the Vampire” and “12 Years a Slave.”
The building has been owned by the state of Louisiana since it was bequeathed by the Lemann family in 1947. It has been designated as a museum since then but has been shut for long periods for restoration. Most recently, it has been closed to the public since a restoration project was given the green light by the state’s lieutenant governor five years ago.
But preservation groups have become so concerned at the contractor’s work that several of them wrote to the state authorities last month to express their alarm.
“This is one of Louisiana’s most valuable structures and as citizen stakeholders we plead that the destruction of this National Historic Landmark be halted,” said a letter signed by The Louisiana Landmarks Society, The Preservation Resource Center, The Friends of the Cabildo and several other French Quarter preservation groups.
Ann Masson, a former architecture history professor at Tulane University and member of several of the city’s preservation group’s boards, said that the contractors, architect Ehlinger & Associates and a subcontractor, have ignored advice from experts and had scant oversight from state officials.
“We’ve met with them a couple times over three or four years and we’ve never been able to convince them that it is important to follow professional preservation practices,” she said. “It’s not, after all, a bungalow from 1935. But they simply refuse to acknowledge the importance” of preserving the building.
National Historic Landmark
She said Madame John’s ranks with the Presbytère, the Cabildo, and the St. Louis Cathedral among the French Quarter’s most important landmarks. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970, she notes.
The preservationists cite specific concerns about work on the façade, the destruction of the house’s chimney, the fate of a staircase at the rear of the building and the methods the contractor is using to deal with moisture.
Madame John’s Legacy, interior fireplace, photograph circa 1940.
But they are mostly concerned that the work has been done without enough oversight from state officials to ensure that expert preservationist advice isn’t being ignored.
“The work currently being executed on Madame John’s Legacy is being executed without…the advice of qualified experts in the field of preservation,” the preservation groups wrote.
They said that they’ve discovered through public information requests and from site visits — before they were barred from going onto the work site — that there have been major changes to the building that have ignored previous expert studies commissioned by the state.
Perrin Ehlinger, whose firm designed the renovation project and oversees it, said Friday that he was not aware of any problems. He said the chimney was demolished for structural safety reasons and its reconstruction has been halted “awaiting a final decision from the state.”
Ehlinger won the contract originally for just under $800,000, though the estimated cost has now risen to nearly $1 million.
Flooding, fire
The original structure was built during the French colonial period in the mid 18th century, with a raised solid brick basement to deal with frequent flooding and with features including wide galleries and a steep, double-pitched hipped roof to alleviate the city’s sub-tropical heat.
The current structure was built around 1788 to replace an earlier house that had burned in the French Quarter fire that year. That replacement house, which is thought to have retained most of the features of the original, was one of the few that survived the fire that destroyed most French Quarter houses in 1795.
The quirky name was inspired by a late 19th-century story by George Washington Cable, “‘Tite Poulette,” in which the main character, Monsieur John, bequeaths a Dumaine Street house to his mistress, Madame John.
Madame John’s Legacy was built in 1788 in the Creole style. STAFF PHOTO BY JENNIFER ZDON The Louisiana State Museum is being urged by a former director of the system that management of the museum be shifted to private hands. The state museum manages the Cabildo, the Presbytere, the Old U.S. Mint, the lower Pontalba Building and other historic buildings in the French Quarter. The Madame John’s Legacy home at 632 Dumaine St. which features folk art Thursday, July 7, 2005.
“This is our only example in the city of this architecture,” said Masson. “Any way you look at it, this is in an important building.”
Robert Cangelosi, an architect and member of the Friends of the Cabildo board, has specific concerns about changing the frontage to brick piers with iron fencing between them. This, he said, would be “historically inappropriate” and it should adhere more closely to the wall design from the late 19th century.
In terms of the state’s oversight, the museum comes under the jurisdiction of two branches of government and there seems to have been some confusion about whose responsibility it was to ensure that restoration adhered to professional preservationists’ advice.
The Department of Administration’s Facility Planning and Control has responsibility for managing the contract and comes under Commissioner Jay Dardenne. The Louisiana State Museum and Department of Historic Preservation, both under Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, have responsibility for running Madame John’s and ensuring preservation standards.
Department of Administration Assistant Commissioner Mark Moses wrote to the preservationists on Nov. 30 saying that work had been halted on Madame John’s except for roof repair. He said they would now wait for advice from officials with the departments of historic preservation and museums before deciding how to proceed.
Jacques Berry, spokesman for Dardenne’s department, said Friday that they have told the contractor to repair the chimney. “The chimney issues are going to be fixed and they’re going to put it back and repair it to original specifications,” he said.
Sandra Stokes, chair of advocacy for the Louisiana Landmarks Society, said the agreement to halt work provides some relief but doesn’t address the longer term problem of oversight for such important historic building projects.
“We will remain vigilant until we can see the building stabilizes, more transparency of the work performed, and the guidance of historic professionals followed,” she said.
She said all future projects on such important buildings should mandate that historic specialists be part of the work and that the renovations will follow the Secretary of Interior standards.
“Without that we risk losing the authenticity and historic character that makes us unique and draws others to our city. In this case of Madame John’s, we risk losing the prestigious National Landmark status,” Stokes said.