2017-01-18 03:23:03
One of the best ways to get to know New Orleans is through its picturesque, historical homes. Here are a few of the city’s most prominent architectural styles, and shops, the accommodations and restaurants where you can see them from the inside. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop ©flickr/Karrie Smith CREOLE COTTAGE If it has… A high, steep side-gable roof A brick chimney Wooden storm shutters Four front openings (typically two windows and two doors) Then you have… The Creole Cottage. Upscale French Quarter Creole restaurant Bayona is housed in a gorgeous Creole cottage with a romantic courtyard. Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, a Bourbon Street bar built in 1732, is another variety of Creole cottage. Pere Antoine ©flickr/Samuel Uy CREOLE TOWNHOUSE If it has… Two- to three-stories Wrought or cast iron-skirted balcony Hidden rear courtyards A brick or stucco exterior Then you have… The Creole Townhouse. See the inside of one of these beauties at Creole restaurant Pere Antoine, gift stores Razzle Dazzle and Forever New Orleans, and the Pontalba Buildings that surround Jackson Square. ©Ashton's Bed & Breakfast CENTER HALL COTTAGE If it has… One-and-a-half stories, with a front entrance Columns running the length of a wide porch, with the front door centered Side-gabled roofs, often with dormer windows Then you have… The Center Hall Cottage. The Beauregard- Keyes House museum is a fine example of this style in the French Quarter, as is Ashton’s Bed and Breakfast in the Esplanade Ridge Historic District. ©Houmas House Plantation & Gardens GREEK REVIVAL HOUSE If it has… Full-height porches with round columns or boxed piers A parapet (a short wall running the length of the roof) Wide, flat trim around outside windows and doors called a “Greek-key surround” Then you have… The Greek Revival House. Many River Road house museums, including Houmas House Plantation & Gardens and Nottoway Plantation, are Greek Revival structures, as is the George & Leah McKenna Museum of African-American Art. Shotgun houses ©Mary Fitzpatrick, Preservation Resource Center SHOTGUN If it has… A long, narrow layout, typically one room wide Lack of a front yard, with a short streetfront stairway A layout that features one room opening into another, without hallways Then you have… The Shotgun. You’ll find rows of shotguns throughout the oldest sections of town. Creole restaurant Mat & Naddie’s is housed inside a converted double shotgun (a “double” is two single shotguns joined together and separated by a single wall). Degas House ©flickr/Warren Westcott DOUBLE GALLERY HOUSE If it has… Two stories, with three openings across the front Deep-set covered porches (also known as “galleries”) on the first and second floors A front door that is typically off-centered, on the left or right side of the porch Then you have… The Double Gallery House. Great examples include bed-and-breakfast Degas House and African American history museum Le Musée def. p.c. In the Garden District, look for Fairchild House Bed and Breakfast and Terrell House.
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