The Files on the Mayfair Witches Parlor Blog

Monday, March 20, 2023

New Orleans Architecture--Updated

Another new page!

When Rowan Mayfair went to New Orleans to bury her mother, Dierdre, Michael Curry was already in Louisiana.  He had found out who the owner of the house on First Street that haunted him actually was.

He learned who had just inherited the house.

After Rowan Mayfair claimed the house, Michael Curry began the massive task of restoring the Mayfair house after 60 years of just sitting in danger of being swallowed whole by its garden.  During this project, he showed Rowan Mayfair some books that discussed the houses surrounding hers, giving an overview of the history she was now surrounded by.

There are many homes in New Orleans that are similar to what is, in real life, the Brevard-Rice house.  This home, at 1239 First Street in New Orleans' Garden District, was built for Albert Hamilton Brevard in 1857, and is the house Anne Rice owned when she wrote The Witching Hour.  Rice used the house as the Mayfair house in her series, Lives of the Mayfair Witches.

The house used (the facade, at least) in the AMC series, Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches, is the Soria-Creel house.  However, it is very obvious the two houses were built in the same basic style: Italianate, Greek Revival, and what is called "American Townhouse".  That probably refers more to the footprint of the house, which is basically long and narrow.  

There are several houses in New Orleans that are noticeably similar to the two houses mentioned above.  So, I have begun a page, Exploring New Orleans Architecture, that will be added to over time as I learn about more houses like these.  

The house in the graphic above, the Morris Israel house, is actually across Chestnut Street and the third door down from the Brevard-Rice house.  At the end of the page is a section that is just about this house.  Some images of the house's interior are there, and you will find a link to a PDF document by The McEnery Company that shows more photos of the interior of the house under renovation.  

I've added a picture of the house that is across Chestnut Street from the Brevard-Rice house at 1315 First Street.  That is the Carroll-Crawford house, and I've never looked into its history before, but it should be interesting!

I can't help but look at pictures of the double parlor being renovated in the Morris-Israel house and think of the restoration work by Michael Curry...