Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
antiques. It has won many accolades, among them being named one of the
top 20 hotels in the world by Fodor's.
Continue down Chartres. At the end of the block is the Beauregard-Keyes
House, a raised center-hall house built in 1826 by architect François Corre-
jolles for auctioneer Joseph LeCarpentier. The house had a number of not-
able residents over the years, including 19th-century chess master Paul
Morphy and Confederate general P. G. T. Beauregard, who rented it from
1866 to 1868 after the Civil War. Novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes, who
wrote such historical fiction as Madame Castel's Lodger and Blue Camellia,
lived here from 1945 until her death in 1970. Keyes, with the help of architect
Sam Wilson, restored the house and established the Keyes Foundation, which
maintains it to this day. The house reflects the years that Beauregard lived
there and features furniture and art owned by the general and his family,
along with Keyes's writing studio and her extensive collections of dolls and
porcelain.
Across the street is the Old Ursuline Convent, the oldest building in the Mis-
sissippi Valley, having been designed and constructed over an eight-year
period from 1745 to 1753. The building has served several purposes over the
centuries, from convent and school to archbishop's residence and central of-
fice of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. It is now the home of the Catholic
Cultural Heritage Center.
Continue down Chartres to St. Philip Street. At the corner to your right is
Irene's Cuisine, a French Quarter institution with a great menu of Creole-
Italian fare like soft-shell-crab linguini and seafood cioppino. Irene's is so
good, and so much fun, that patrons don't seem to mind the inevitable long
wait for a table, even with reservations—time flies when you're spending it
drinking wine at the cozy little piano bar. In the next block, at the corner of
Chartres and Dumaine, is Harry's Corner, treasured by those looking for a
French Quarter bar experience away from the craziness of Bourbon Street.
Walk one more block to Dumaine Street and turn right. At 632 Dumaine is
Madame John's Legacy, a complex of 18th-century Louisiana Creole build-
ings that escaped the Great New Orleans Fire of 1794. Designed in the
French West Indies style, it encompasses three buildings: the main house,
which is open to the public; the kitchen; and the two-story gentlemen's guest
quarters.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search