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ular house type to the banks of the Mississippi River. “Haitian émigrés
had only to continue in Louisiana the same life they had known in St.
Geography of the
Domingue,” he wrote. “The shotgun house of Port-au-Prince became,
quite directly, the shotgun house of New Orleans.”
The distribution of shotgun houses throughout Louisiana gives indi-
rect support to the diffusion argument. Kniffen showed in the 1930s that
SHOTGUN HOUSE
shotguns generally occurred along waterways in areas that tended to be
more Francophone in their culture, higher in their proportions of people
of African and Creole ancestry, and older in their historical development.
Beyond state boundaries, shotguns occur throughout the lower Missis-
sippi Valley, correlated with antebellum plantation regions and with areas
BY Richard Campanella that host large black populations. They also appear in interior Southern
cities, most notably Louisville, Ky., which comes a distant second to New
Orleans in terms of numbers and stylistic variety. If in fact the shotgun
diffused from Africa to Haiti through New Orleans and up the Mississippi
and Ohio valleys, this is the distribution we would expect to see.
Cleary, poverty abets cultural factors in explaining this pattern. Sim-
plicity of construction and conservation of resources (building materials,
FEW ELEMENTS of the New Orleans cityscape speak to the in- ographer Fred B. Kniffen’s field research in the 1930s on Louisiana space) probably made the shotgun house type equally attractive to poor-
tersection of architecture, sociology and geography so well as the folk housing. He and other researchers have proposed a number of er classes in many areas. Indeed, it is possible that we may be artificially
shotgun house. hypotheses explaining the origin and distribution of this distinc- yoking together a wide variety of house types, unrelated in their prov-
Once scorned, now cherished, shotguns shed light on patterns of tive house type. One theory, popular with tour guides and amateur enance but similar in their appearance, by means of a catchy moniker
cultural diffusion, class and residential settlement, social preferences house-watchers, holds that shotgun houses were designed in New coined after their historical moment.
for living space and construction methods. Orleans in response to a real estate tax based on frontage rather than Whatever their origins, shotgun singles and doubles came to dominate
The shotgun house is not an architectural style; rather, it is a structural square footage, motivating narrow structures. There’s one major the turn-of-the-century housing stock of New Orleans’ working-class
typology — what folklorist John Michael Vlach described as “a philoso- problem with this theory: no one can seem to find that tax code. neighborhoods. Yet they were also erected as owned-occupied homes in
phy of space, a culturally determined sense of dimension.” A typology, or Could the shotgun be an architectural response to narrow urban wealthier areas, including the Garden District.
type, may be draped in any style. Thus we have shotgun houses adorned lots? Indeed, you can squeeze in more structures with a slender de- New Orleans shotguns in particular exhibited numerous variations: with
in Italianate, Eastlake and other styles, just as there are Creole and Feder- sign. But why then do we see shotguns in rural fields with no such hip, gable or apron roofs; with “camelbacks” to increase living space; with
alist style townhouses and Spanish colonial and Greek Revival cottages. spatial restraints? grand classical façades or with elaborate Victorian gingerbread. The variety
Tradition holds that the name “shotgun” derives from the notion Could it have evolved from indigenous palmetto houses or Choctaw can be explained as a strategy to address market demand with a multitude
of firing bird shot through the front door and out the rear without huts? Unlikely, given their appearance in the Caribbean and beyond. of options vis-à-vis space needs, fiscal constraints and stylistic preferences.
touching a wall, a rustic allusion to its linearity and room-to-room Could it have been independently invented? Roberts & Company, New Orleanians by the early 20th century came to desire more privacy
connectivity. The term itself postdates the shotgun’s late-19th-centu- a New Orleans sash and door fabricator formed in 1856, developed than their predecessors. Additionally, new technologies such as mecha-
ry heyday, not appearing in print until the early 20th century. blueprints for prefabricated shotgun-like houses from the 1860s to nized kitchens, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, automobiles and
Vlach defined the prototypical shotgun as “a one-room wide, 1870s and even won awards for them at international expositions. municipal drainage, helped inform new philosophies about residential
one-story high building with two or more rooms, oriented perpen- But then why do we see “long houses” in the rear of the French Quar- space. Professional home builders responded accordingly, some by adding
dicularly to the road with its front door in the gable end, [although] ter and in Faubourg Tremé as early as the 1810s? hallways or ells or side entrances to the shotgun, others by morphing it
aspects such as size, proportion, roofing, porches, appendages, foun- Or, alternately, did the shotgun diffuse from the Old World as peo- into the “bungalow” form, inspired by designs coming out of California.
dations, trim and decoration” vary widely. Its most striking exteri- ples moved across the Atlantic and brought with them their building House-buyers came to disdain the original shotgun, and it faded from new
or trait is its elongated shape, usually three to six times longer than culture, just as they brought their language, religion and foodways? construction during the 1910s and 1920s.
wide. Inside, what is salient is the Vlach noted the abundance A Times-Picayune writer captured the prevailing sentiment in a 1926
lack of hallways: occupants need of shotgun-like long hous- column: “Long, slender, shotgun houses,” he sighed, “row upon row[,]
to walk through private rooms to es in the West Indies, and street upon street...all alike... unpainted, slick-stooped, steep-roofed,
access other rooms. traced their essential form jammed up together, like lumber in a pile.” Architectural historians also
Theory contends that cultures to the enslaved popula- rolled their eyes at prosaic shotguns, and did not protest their demoli-
that produced shotgun houses tions of Saint Domingue tion, even in the French Quarter, as late as the 1960s.
(and other residences without (now Haiti), who had been In recent decades, however, New Orleanians have come to appreciate
hallways, such as Creole cottag- removed from the western the sturdy construction and exuberant embellishment of their shotgun
es) tended to be more gregari- and central African regions housing stock, and now value them as a key element of the cityscape.
ous, or at least unwilling to sacri- of Guinea and Angola. His Thousands have since been renovated, and the once-extinct typology has
fice valuable living space for the research identified a ga- experienced a recent revival. Many neotraditional homes erected in Ka-
purpose of occasional passage. ble-roofed housing stock trina-damaged areas, and in the New Urbanist-inspired public housing
Cultures that valued privacy, on indigenous to the Yoruba complexes, are made to look like the shotguns of old.
the other hand, were willing to peoples, which he linked to It’s revealing to note, however, that among the renovations New Or-
make this trade-off. Note, for similar structures in mod- leanians now make to their shotguns is something completely alien to
example, how privacy-conscious ern Haiti with comparable their original form.
peoples of Anglo-Saxon descent rectangular shapes, room They add a hallway.
who arrived to New Orleans in juxtapositions and ceiling
the early 19th century brought heights.
This article originally appeared in 2014 in the author’s “Cityscapes” column on NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. It is republished here with permission.
with them the American cen- Vlach hypothesizes that
ter-hall cottage and side-hall the 1809 exodus of Hai-
townhouse, in preference over tians to New Orleans after
local Creole designs. the St. Domingue slave Richard Campanella is a geographer with the Tulane School of Architecture and author of Cityscapes
Academic interest in the shot- insurrection of 1791 to of New Orleans; Bourbon Street: A History; Bienville’s Dilemma; and other books. Campanella may be
gun house dates from LSU ge- 1803 brought this vernac- reached through richcampanella.com, rcampane@tulane.edu or @nolacampanella on Twitter.
1 2
1 2
Many of Entablature’s double-to-single shotgun con-
versions remove the dividing center wall towards the
front and back of the house to create more open living
spaces, while leaving the wall intact towards the middle
of the house for bedrooms and kitchens. Some clients
prefer to leave all of the original fireplaces intact where
the wall is removed, but others are willing to sacrifice
the front fireplace to create a more open area. “Even if
we’re taking down the fireplace, we’re keeping pieces of
Shotgun
it and incorporating it into the house,” Kornman said,
explaining that bricks can be reused for exterior steps,
in landscaping or elsewhere in the interior.
“People often want a more open plan, better privacy,
Savvy
more square footage and more storage,” said Jennifer da
Rōs, design principal at local firm MASON · RŌS Archi-
tecture & Interiors. The firm often incorporates efficient
built-in storage along walls to compensate for a lack of
closet space in historic shotgun houses.
Another common modern update involves more
SMART RENOVATIONS TRANSFORM connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. “In a
HISTORIC SHOTGUN HOUSES INTO lot of these shotguns, there’s no connection to the exte-
MODERN FAMILY HOMES rior space in the back. There’s usually just a single swing
door and sometimes a window,” said Kristen Mason
BY Davis Allen Klamer, another design principal at MASON · RŌS.
Historically, the back room of a shotgun house was typ-
PHOTOS BY Liz Jurey
ically a kitchen or utility space.
“We try to reorganize so that it’s a den or some kind
of living space accessible to the backyard,” Klamer said.
The firm often relocates kitchens and utility spaces to the
middle of the house, while opening up the back rooms
and adding more windows and doors to allow for more
natural light and a better indoor-outdoor connection.
For Kornman, maintaining the front streetscape is
of utmost importance. “If those details are still there
— the brackets, the columns, the windows — we real-
ly like to maintain the original streetscape as much as
possible,” he said. On the interior, wood floors, bricks,
NEW ORLEANS’ shotgun houses are known for their historic Adding a side hall to the exterior can “preserve more of the decorative stair rails, doors and trim are the priority.
charm and famous lack of privacy, with one-room-after-another original floor plan,” Kornman said, because the new addition If a wall is removed, the historic molding can be re-
floor plans. But architects and builders today are finding clever prevents the demolition of interior walls and a reworking of used on new walls, and replicas of the molding can be
new ways to transform these long, narrow houses into adaptable the layout. A camelback addition requires more gutting of milled to fill in elsewhere.
family homes filled with the latest modern amenities. interior walls and “reworking the floor plan pretty signifi- For growing families living in shotgun houses, a new
Chris Kornman, co-owner of Entablature Design + Build, cantly,” towards the back of the house, he said, because of child often sparks a sense of urgency to renovate, but
frequently oversees renovation projects of shotgun houses. structural work and the addition of stairs. planning for other future stages of life is important, too,
Many of the renovations are for growing families who have “How people want to live in their house is going to dictate Kornman explained, adding that it’s critical to consider
maxed out their square footage and are seeking more space a different design, so every camelback design ends up being what needs will arise for aging in place.
and privacy, he said. pretty different,” he said. “We want people to think about it during that design
Adding a side hall to a single shotgun is a common way Extra square footage doesn’t always mean building up, phase and solve all those problems,” he said, emphasiz-
to allow for more privacy, but only if a side yard is present to though, especially for double shotgun houses — or two-fam- ing the importance of accessible features like curbless
provide space for the hall. “A lot of these houses are built 3 ily units divided by a center wall. If owners want to double showers and wider door openings if families plan to stay
feet from their neighbor or even right up on the property line, their space in a double shotgun house instead of renting out in their homes long-term.
so the only option is to go up,” Kornman said. one of the units to a tenant, the two units often are joined Historically, shotguns “were extremely functional
The majority of Entablature’s shotgun renovations involve together into a larger single-family home. houses,” da Rōs said. Although living patterns, tastes
the addition of a camelback — a second story addition set Sometimes an owner will connect two units by putting a and needs have changed since the shotgun’s 19th-centu-
back from the front facade. Camelback additions aren’t a door or a small opening between the two sides, Kornman ry heyday, a few modern adjustments to a historic house
new phenomenon in New Orleans. They’ve added square explained, but clients tend to “want to make it a more func- can make a shotgun functional well into the future.
footage to shotgun houses since the 19th century, and they tional floor plan and convert it in a way that makes it seem
help to maintain the streetscape by reducing the visibility of like it was supposed to be a single and not just a double with
a second-story addition from the street. a hole in the wall.”
3 3 4 4
The skinny on New Orleans
SHOTGUNS
Brush up on your knowledge of New Orleans’ beloved shotgun houses.
TRUTHS vs. TALES
Greek Revival
shotgun
What’s in a name? Popular lore credits the
term “shotgun” to the notion that a person could
fire a gun through the front door, and the birdshot
would travel through the house without hitting a
wall, in reference to a shotgun’s hallway-less design.
Put it in print: According to Cangelosi, the term Craftsman
first appeared in the press in an April 15, 1917 newspaper shotgun
article that said: “There are hundreds of what is locally
known as ‘shotgun houses’ in New Orleans. They are
called shotgun houses because you can stand in the front
door and shoot the dinner off the stove in the kitchen.”
Humble beginnings: The earliest local
Long and skinny: Shotguns are easily shotgun houses date to the 1830s. “In the French
recognizable by their elongated shape. Typically the tradition, they were constructed without halls, one Eastlake
room wide and three to five rooms deep, and can be
shotgun
houses are three to six times longer than wide.
found as either singles or doubles,” Cangelosi wrote.
Don’t blame the tax man: An often-re-
peated myth is that shotgun houses were Beyond the Crescent City: After
designed in response to a New Orleans real New Orleans, Louisville, Ky., has the largest
estate tax based on frontage rather than square collection of shotgun houses, Cangelosi wrote.
footage, so long, skinny houses would be taxed
How did the camelback house come about?
less. But architect and architectural historian
Robert Cangelosi Jr. points out the obvious
Falling out of vogue: By the early 20th century, New
problem with that theory: “There was never a
Orleanians wanted more privacy in their homes, something hard
property tax on street frontage, façade building BY Robert J. Cangelosi, Jr.
to come by in a traditional shotgun house with no hallways. Also
height, closets, doors or stairs in New Orleans,”
“new technologies such as mechanized kitchens, indoor plumb-
he wrote in Preservation in Print magazine.
ing, air conditioning, automobiles and municipal drainage, LEGEND – Camelback-style buildings exist in New Orleans because of a local real estate tax on the number of stories
helped inform new philosophies about residential space,” wrote a residence has on the street front. To avoid the tax, the second story was pushed to the rear.
The Haitian connection: The shotgun Tulane University geographer Richard Campanella in Preservation
house type may have roots in West African dwell- in Print magazine. “Professional home builders responded FACT – The only local architectural feature ever to be taxed was the Spanish Chimney Tax of 1794 to pay for street
ings, such as the bohío and caney houses brought accordingly, some by adding hallways or ells or side entrances to lights. The tax was so unpopular that it only lasted for six months and was replaced with a tax on bread. We can access
to Haiti, where they are called kay or caille houses. the shotgun, others by morphing it into the bungalow form, our tax laws going back to the colonial period, and we even have the assessments surviving from the 1830s. There has
There are also claims that the word “shotgun” may inspired by designs coming out of California. House-buyers came never been an assessment for an architectural feature other than for the short-lived chimney tax. Assessments were made
have been an anglicization of “to-gun,” a West to disdain the original shotgun, and it faded from new construc- as they are today, for market value.
African word from the Fon language meaning tion during the 1910s and 1920s.” So how did camelbacks come about? One possible explanation results from the fact that often the main structure on
“place of assembly.” Both the African and Haitian a property site was one story and the rear dependency was two stories. Over time, the one-story main structure and the
houses mentioned are very small, only one or two two-story dependency were merged, into a single building. Or, as more space was needed in a shotgun style house, a rear
rooms deep, Cangelosi wrote. second story was added, which was less expensive than an ornate addition on the street elevation.
As early as 1885 the term “camelback” was used in a building contract citing a “raised one-story wood frame cam-
elback.” Camelbacks were most popular from about 1880 to 1920. The building type remains popular today, with the
Variety, the spice of life: New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission receiving numerous requests for camelback additions.
shotguns come in many styles. Historic neighborhoods
throughout the city feature shotgun houses with
Italianate, Eastlake, Arts and Crafts and other details.
Camelback PRESENTED BY FRIENDS OF THE CABILDO
Illustrations by Liz Jurey Robert J. Cangelosi, Jr., AIA, NCARB, is president of Koch and Wilson Architects and a prominent architectural historian. His architectural practice is
Sources: “Did a property tax on street frontage bring
focused on the preservation, restoration, renovation and adaptive reuse of historic structures. This work includes projects such as the award-winning
about the shotgun house?” by Robert Cangelosi, Jr., restorations of the Cabildo and St. Patrick’s Church. Cangelosi was the co-editor of the last two volumes of the Friends of the Cabildo’s highly regarded
Preservation in Print, March 2010; “The Geography “New Orleans Architecture” series books and has served as a past editor of Preservation in Print.
of the Shotgun House” by Richard Campanella,
Preservation in Print, March 2020 Side
Gallery
5 3 4 6
THANK YOU TO OUR CLICK below to access 3D TOURS
PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER’S
SPONSORS!
SHOTGUN
HOUSE MONTH TITLE SPONSOR
Home of BRYAN BLOCK
& JEFF KELLER
2021
Home of KV HARPER
DOUBLE SHOTGUN SPONSOR
Home of RYAN
BORDENAVE
SIDEHALL SHOTGUN SPONSOR
Home of DEE SPEED
SINGLE SHOTGUN
Adamick Architecture
Claire Lewis Designs
Durable Slate Company Home of EMMA FICK &
Preservation Title HELVIO PREVELATO
Ellie Sanders, Realtor GREGORIO
The Shotgun House Month Design Guide is a publication of the Preservation
Resource Center of New Orleans, whose mission is to preserve New Isabel Sanders, Realtor
Orleans’ historic architecture, neighborhoods and cultural identity through
collaboration, empowerment and service to the community. MEDIA SPONSORS
Home of JULIE NEILL
7 8
The house dates to at
least circa 1840, and
the right side was
originally a cabin that
was one-room wide
and two-rooms deep.
Its original ceiling
beams are still present.
Inside, the home’s
interior had been
renovated, giving the
couple the perfect
backdrop for their
eclectic décor.
STORY BY Sarah Bonnette
PHOTOS BY Liz Jurey
home of BRYAN BLOCK & JEFF KELLER
ON BURGUNDY STREET
9 10
T’S THE thrill of the antique hunt that’s fun for Bryan week, we got here … and we said, ‘This is the one’.”
Block and Jeff Keller, who have filled their home with After opening the half-pane, Eastlake-style front door, they
finds from their favorite stores, estate sales and unique saw built-in, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and cabinets that
spots discovered during their travels. span the full length of the living room’s left wall. The light-
“We just pick up odds and ends,” said Block, whose filled kitchen stretches across the rear of the house, offering
maternal family sold antiques. “We prefer things that are views of the generous backyard, which contains an oversized
older and have character.” deck surrounding a large elm and a metal-roofed shed at the
Block and Keller were on the hunt for a smaller home after rear of the lot.
two previous house renovations — the first a Carrollton Ave- When the couple purchased the home in 2011, Block — an
nue home designed by famous 19th-century architect Thomas architect with a Master of Preservation Studies degree from Tu-
Sully, followed by a 10,000-square-foot Canal Street property lane School of Architecture — set about researching its history.
that they ran as The Block Keller House bed and breakfast for Originally, the house’s right side was a cabin that was one-room
11 years. (It’s now The Canal Street Inn.) wide and two-rooms deep, he said. (Its original ceiling beams
When their search turned up a unique shotgun on Bur- are still present.) Later the structure on the left side was added.
gundy Street in the Faubourg Marigny, it initially didn’t excite It originally ended at the now free-standing brick chimney. The
them. The 1,800-square-foot house resembles an off-set dou- couple’s dining room on the other side of the chimney was an-
ble shotgun. The right side abuts the sidewalk; the left side is other addition, as was the kitchen and the shed.
set back about 15 feet, creating space for a small front garden. “I researched the house in the real estate conveyance re-
“It was kind of an odd arrangement. It had funky bad shut- cords and found that the property was described as having
ters on it, and it was kind of a periwinkle blue,” said Block, ‘improvements’ when it was sold in 1840. …The 1908 San-
executive director of the Historic District Landmarks Com- born (Fire Insurance) maps show the offset condition of the
mission and the Vieux Carré Commission. two halves and also that each side had been extended further
“Our first reaction to it was ‘not interested’,” he added. “But back on the lot,” Block said in a 2015 New Orleans Advocate
by the time of the open house, which was probably that same article about the home.
11 12
The house’s façade also points to its changes over time. office. (His former home office was one of the shed’s two spaces.)
It now features Italianate elements, including three milled The new office space is filled with an antique desk, a chair
brackets on each half of the house and arched windows — and a lamp from La Belle Nouvelle Orleans on Magazine
a four-over-single pane on the left and a six-over-six-pane Street, one of their favorite antique stores. An authentic Stick-
on the right, along with drop siding. At some point during ley chair was found in a Virginia barn, while other furniture
the house’s history, the left side’s front door and window flip- came from Keller’s family in South Carolina. They added
flopped locations, Keller said. artwork, including watercolors by Keller and images by pho-
Block and Keller replaced the former board-and-batten shut- tographers David Knox and Frank Relle. The room’s trim and
ters with louvered ones and coated them in Benjamin Moore’s doors are painted Benjamin Moore’s Newberg Green. It was
Narragansett Green. The color is repeated on portions of the chosen to mimic the trim and shutter color outside.
trim and brackets, while a sunny yellow covers the siding. “We really, really thought about it a lot,” Block said of the col-
The home’s interior had been renovated, giving the couple or choice. “Because from here you see the front of the building,
the perfect backdrop for their eclectic décor. Mission Revival it was really important that these colors kind of bring that in.”
pieces and other antique furniture sits atop vintage Oriental An alcove-like hallway links the house’s right side to the long
rugs. Paintings and photographs hang on the walls. Books — living room on the left side. The couple added Asian architec-
the couple are both avid readers — and unique finds in the tural elements found at a pop-up sale on St. Claude Avenue as
built-ins and along windowsills add the final decorative layer. brackets for the large cased opening between the two spaces.
The house’s right side contains the bedrooms and bath- The living room contains more artwork by Knox, as well
rooms. The couple updated the master suite’s bathroom with- as a black-and-white photo by Wallace Merritt and a paint-
in the past year; it was the first major renovation project they ing by John Matteo of a costumed Keller on Mardi Gras. In
tackled in this house. the built-in’s glass-front cabinet, there are pieces of pottery
Because Keller works in finance from home, they recently and other finds made by Block’s grandfather, an amateur ar-
converted the light-filled front room from a guest space into an chaeologist and collector. Photographs of the couple’s fam-
13 14
ilies fill the section built around one of the room’s six-over- march with the Society of Saint Anne.
six pane windows. “That takes it up a notch,” said Block of their participation
Block and Keller added wainscoting along the dining room’s in the walking krewe. The planning for their elaborate cos-
left wall and behind the small TV in one bookcase section. tumes starts months in advance. To make the outfits, Block
With exposed wood of various colors, it shows the patina of bought a sewing machine and taught himself to sew via books
wood salvaged from a Creole cottage dependency that a friend and YouTube videos.
had demolished. “It ties the two spaces together,” Keller said. Instead of relegating the costumes to a closet, the shed al-
The kitchen, which the couple plans to renovate in the fu- lows the couple’s friends to “come over and try everything on.
ture, is located behind the dining room and includes a sit- It ends up being a fun room to hang out in,” Block said.
ting area with a Stickley sofa and a cabinet displaying their The space has the feel of a glamorously funky Bedouin tent,
FiestaWare collection. It’s where everyone hangs out when thanks to the racks filled with brocade vests, sequined jack-
the couple entertains, particularly since the kitchen’s double ets and other ensembles; the painted floors; Moroccan-style
doors open to the backyard. Block and Keller both enjoy what chandeliers; and the ceiling covered in fabrics and textiles
they call the creative process behind gardening, and they have from Sumatra, where Block’s parents lived for several years.
filled the yard with a fountain, wind chimes and as many na- In the corner is an antique pharmacy chest, found by Keller
tive plants as possible. at La Belle Nouvelle Orleans. “I got that for Bryan so he could
Steps lead to the shed, whose left side the couple refers to store beads,” costume jewelry and other sewing notions,
as the costume shed. It houses their extensive collection of Keller said. “Bryan sews gorgeous stuff. I just buy stuff and
costumes created for Halloween and Mardi Gras, when they hot glue it together.”
15 16
get the look
Antique desk, chair and lamp from La Belle Nouvelle Orleans
Asian brackets from a pop-up market on St. Claude Avenue
Dover White paint color by Sherwin Williams (SW 6385) in the living room
Newburg Green paint color by Benjamin Moore (HC-158) on the trim and doors in the office and on the exterior
Original Stickley chair salvaged from a barn in Virginia
Sconces from La Belle Nouvelle Orleans
Granite countertops
Stainless steel countertop island
Collection of Fiestaware
Salvaged wood wainscoting
Vintage rug from NOLA Rugs
Pendants from La Belle Nouvelle Orleans
Appliances by Kitchenaid
Original artwork by John Matteo and Wallace Merritt
17 18BONUS HOUSE:
We couldn’t resist
including this
Creole cottage
Explore this petite jewel
box of a house owned
by talented designer Dee
Speed. Her 1,465-square-
foot, two-bedroom Creole
cottage in the Faubourg
Marigny dates to at least
1887 and was once a
store/bakery as well
as a residence.
STORY BY Sarah Bonnette
PHOTOS BY Liz Jurey
home of DEE SPEED
ON NORTH RAMPART STREET
19 20NEW ORLEANS native now living in California, Dee cheap repairs made that needed correcting, and I wanted to
Speed fell in love with her N. Rampart Street cottage save and preserve her.”
before she even saw it in person. The house dates to at least 1887, according to Speed’s re-
Speed is a self-described multi-hyphenate designer. Profes- search, and more than likely to the 1860s, “given the changing
sionally, she spends her days as a director of design at YouTube. of street names from Rue D’Amour (Love Street) to N. Ram-
Then in her spare time, she collects and sells mid-century part and the renumbering that occurred,” she said.
modern glassware through her online studio, www.deedee9:14. A Sanborn Fire Insurance map from the 19th century out-
com; works with her interior design clients; and paints. lined the property as a double dwelling and store/bakery, she
Craving calm in her hometown, Speed was on the hunt for said, while an 1895 newspaper article also made reference to
a retreat. Particularly, she was looking for an older home she it being a bakery and store.
could preserve in her beloved childhood neighborhood, one Situated on a corner, the side elevation features two sets
where she could connect with family and friends and recharge of French doors. On the front façade, there are five petite
from her digitally driven life in Silicon Valley. She found it in brackets along the eave, as well as a set of French doors, a
a 1,465-square-foot Creole cottage that initially spoke to her wide Eastlake-style entry door, and an arched four-over-
through its online photos. four-pane window. They are united by white cornices and
“It didn’t look like other homes in the Marigny that had louvered shutters, which are coated with a bright orange
been renovated all but for the exterior. It still had something (Valspar’s Fall Leaf) to complement the drop siding’s sky
of the New Orleans I grew up with,” she said. “And it needed blue (Valspar’s Betsy Ross House Blue).
love. I could tell from the photos there had been a lot of “Bright colors have always been a part of my life. … I’ve
21 22got purple, green and gold in my blood,” said Speed, who is weatherboards. Wiring was brought up to code, and the back
not afraid to try color pairings that might make more timid quarter’s foundation was leveled.
homeowners nervous. “The work had been ongoing in some form or another for
Speed carried her bold color choices inside. Jewel tones and the entire time I had the house (five years),” Speed said. “I don’t
maximalist layers are part of what she described as a Euro- rush projects like these where history is concerned.”
pean eclectic design approach. There are “rich velvets paired The two-bedroom, two-bath floor plan stayed the same.
with gold and leopard print lamps that drip crystal,” she said, Speed focused mainly on updating the kitchen and master
as well as heavy brocade wingback chairs and antique Mo- bath, in the process fixing damage discovered when the walls
roccan rugs. Beautiful pieces from Speed’s glass and antique were opened up. Since both rooms already had tile, she didn’t
China collection — she’s a fan of French Limoges — stand have to worry about losing any original wood floors. Now, a
ready for afternoon tea. black hexagon tile covers the kitchen floor. It provides a mod-
In the living area, a bright emerald tufted velvet sofa is the ern contrast to the room’s simple white cabinets, apron-front
backdrop for baby pink and gold pillows that pop against two sink and the existing beadboard wall.
murals (one is “Judarn” from Anthropologie; the other a Bel- The beadboard is painted Valspar’s Rolling Glen to match
gian tapestry). “It all works because we’re used to a decadent the jadeite glass collection displayed on the marble countertops
richness in our interiors here,” Speed said of the mix. and the antique bistro table in the corner. An entry bench in
But before the décor could take shape, Speed needed to the opposite corner was made with wood from an old, mostly
show the house’s bones some love. “Less renovation and more rotten door found inside the wall behind the refrigerator.
preservation is the way I’d describe it,” she said of the various A blue patterned ceramic floor tile (Elite Tile’s Royalty Ga-
projects, many of which were carried out by contractor Sam- lactic) was chosen for the master bathroom, whose renovation
uel Weber of Walker, La. Those projects have included fixing and custom cabinetry was completed by Hoell Construction.
structural issues from years of ignored water and termite The terra cotta grout offsets the room’s gold hardware, which
damage. All the shutters — except those on the front façade complements different antique gilt mirrors and gilt floral
window — were replaced, as were all the side elevation’s wood sconces throughout the house. While it was the last of the ren-
23 24ovation projects and the most challenging, it turned out to be flea markets with her mother, and inherited antiques are part
what Speed considers one of the house’s prettiest rooms. of every room. In the dining area, there’s a tall green cupboard
“I wanted to use the space better with minimal changes to the made by her grandfather. In the sitting room, a music cabinet
plumbing, while also giving the house the modern accessories her father, a professional musician, once used to store his sheet
it needed like a washer/dryer unit and closets,” she said. “We music is now the base for a Madonna statue. It displays family
worked through the design for several weeks before gutting the rosaries dating back five generations.
room, only to be slowed down again by old water damage.” For Speed, the room is the heart of the house. She can sit
The upstairs guest bedroom and bath — accessed by a spiral in one of the wingback chairs under her grandmother’s brass-
staircase in the front room — also got attention. New insula- and-crystal chandelier, observing the gallery wall of family
tion and drywall were needed to fix temperature fluctuations photos and the altar created on the nearby mantel.
and air leaks around the chimney stack. While the bathroom’s “Spiritual artifacts from as far back as my great-great grand-
fixtures were updated, the wood floors were kept. parents, gris-gris, hoodoo charms, even Mardi Gras throws
Preserving the home’s patina, including the original wide- like my son’s first golden coconut, and memento mori objects
plank wood floors and the non-functioning fireplace between remind me where I come from and who I still carry with me,”
the sitting room and master bedroom, was important to Speed. Speed said.
“I wanted you to see and feel the history of this part of the Mari- Now that Speed has given the cottage all the love it deserves,
gny, the story of these homes and what old New Orleans was she has recently sold it and is moving on to another property.
like for the working-class men and women who lived in this “I always had a plan to buy homes as I saw fit in the neigh-
neighborhood,” she said. “I wanted imperfect knots in the wood borhood and maintain them for future generations,” she said.
beneath my bare feet. It’s character with history and meaning.” “The house has been shown enough love and support to keep it
Speed also wanted to pay homage to her family and ances- around and alive for another hundred years. I’m proud of how
tors in the décor. She fondly recalls trips to antique stores and she stands today on her sunlit corner.”
25 26get the look Antique Belgian tapestry
Brass bathroom faucet from Kingston Brass
Crystal and brass knobs from House of Antique Hardware
Crystal and brass pulls from Forge Hardware Studio
French Limoges collection
1920s French highboy chest from Neal Auction Company
Judarn Pied-A-Terre Sofa from Anthropologie
Jadite glass collection
Black hex tile from Floor and Décor in the kitchen
Ostrich feather lamp from A Modern Grand Tour in London
Santiago ceiling fan in aged brass finish from Arranmore Lighting & Fans
"Creole in a Red Turban" print from The Historic New Orleans Collection
"Portrait of a Free Woman” print from The New Orleans Museum of Art
Original artwork by Mia Bergeron and Sue Brancasio.
27 28Explore the intriguing
spaces that add inspiration
to the life and work of artist
Emma Fick and her partner
Helvio Prevelato Gregorio.
The couple purchased their
1920 sidehall shotgun home
on the edge of the Uptown
Historic District in 2018.
The previous owners had
done a complete renovation
of the three-bedroom, two-
bath property before Fick
and Prevelato Gregorio’s
purchase, so it was ready
for their design touches.
STORY BY Sarah Bonnette
PHOTOS BY Liz Jurey
EMMA FICK & HELVIO
home of
29
PREVELATO GREGORIO ON DELACHAISE STREET
30ISUAL ARTIST, illustrator and author Emma Fick floor-to-ceiling windows with arched louvered shutters, an
and her partner, Helvio Prevelato Gregorio, had a lon- arched transom over the entry door, drop siding with corner
ger wish list than most house hunters. Both work from quoins, and the gable roof ’s fish-scale shingles. Set back from
home — even pre-pandemic — so they needed more the street, the house also features a porch supported by three
square footage and the right layout. square columns.
“That square footage had to accommodate a studio space When previous owners James and Barbara Willeford bought
(for me) and an office (for him),” Fick said. “A lot of the hous- the house in 2014, it had been unoccupied since just after Hur-
es we visited had layouts that didn’t quite meet our work- ricane Katrina. It was in considerable disrepair, and much of
from-home needs.” the original wood floors and details had been lost.
After a six-month search that included a lost deal on an- The Willefords started a gut renovation in 2015, working
other shotgun, they finally found what they needed in 2018: a to keep as much of the original structure as possible. That in-
renovated three-bedroom, two-bath side hall shotgun on the cluded brick fireplaces in the living room and guest rooms and
edge of the Uptown Historic District. some doors and windows.
“The layout here is intuitive and perfect for what we need. Wood beams salvaged from under the house were incorporat-
I fell in love with the house as I stepped inside; the thoughtful ed into the design. One now punctuates the main living space’s
and beautiful renovation made it easy,” said Fick, who’s filled 11-foot ceiling, while another spans the cased opening between
the 1,950 square feet with her artwork, as well as family furni- the kitchen and hallway. Other beam pieces became window and
ture and secondhand finds. To top it all off, there are curated door frames and wide baseboards.
collections and treasures from worldwide travels. The Willefords left the beams, baseboards and trim as ex-
Located on Delachaise Street, the shotgun dates to 1920, posed wood to tie spaces together and give the house “warmth
Fick said. Yet, elements on the front façade suggest an earlier, and a sense of place,” Barbara Willeford said.
Italianate style. Those include two arched six-over-nine-pane, The couple also made family-friendly layout changes. Those
31 32included turning the rooms just off the entry into an open The couple has put their efforts into making it work for
living space with the kitchen — its large center island features both their professional and personal needs. “The whole house
Carrera marble — at the one end. They bumped out the ex- is kind of dual-function,” Fick said, standing near one of two
isting side hall across from the kitchen and created the large drafting tables in the studio she made at the far end of the main
cased opening between the two. living space.
Two guest rooms and a guest bath, with white subway wall With natural light streaming in from the front floor-to-ceil-
tiles and penny floor tiles, are tucked one behind the other off ing windows, she uses the studio to create her larger colorful
the side hall, which ends at the entry to the master suite. paintings. Partly inspired by travels, Fick describes them as
One guest room is Prevelato Gregorio’s office. The other is hybrids that layer, for example, Louisiana plants and imagery
where Fick does illustrations, including those for her upcom- with Byzantine frescos or mythological figures. “Because my
ing book, Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian work life is totally fused with my daily life,” she said, much of
Railway. When it is published by HarperCollins Design in the house’s display space functions as storage for these water-
2022, it will become Fick’s third book of illustrations. Snippets color and ink artworks. That includes the spot over the living
of Serbia was published in 2015, followed by Snippets of New room fireplace and the hallway, where floating shelves hold a
Orleans in 2017. multitude of framed artworks.
The house also has new pine floors, which were painted Those shelves — made from reclaimed wood by woodwork-
with a mixture of Annie Sloan gray and white paints. The ers Benjamin Bullins and Matthew Holdren at the Willefords’
home’s complete renovation was one of the selling points for request — also can be found in the kitchen (instead of upper
Fick and Prevelato Gregorio. They often travel and didn’t have cabinets) and on either side of the living room fireplace. They
the time or energy to put toward any major projects. “It was match the other exposed wood throughout the house.
important to us that the house was move-in ready. This one For Fick, furnishing and decorating the home was equally
was and then some,” she said. daunting and exciting. “I relished the challenge of meshing
33 34work and leisure space, and making sure things were equal the couple time to redesign their rear garden. It contains two
parts comfortable, practical and beautiful,” she said. colorful wooden sculptures — a fence-mounted dragon and a
Her most beloved furniture pieces include a geometric free-standing hand — that Fick’s father, an English professor,
plant stand and a bench built by her grandfather, Otto Fick. created in his spare time. “They make me happy every time I
Almost all of the kitchenware, pillows and other décor came go outside,” she said, which is frequently thanks to the couple’s
from the thrifting troves of her mother, Eva Gold. Her father, landscaping changes.
Tom Fick, built a shelving unit to hold the prints, notecards, “It’s become a little oasis,” Fick said, adding that she often
handmade earrings and more that Fick brings to art festivals happily feels cocooned there because of the petite space’s flow-
and shows. Her festival and booth supplies live in a custom er bed arrangements, its lush greenery and her collection of
storage cabinet the Willefords incorporated into her office. succulents.
Great secondhand pieces were found by frequently check- Fick calls herself a collector at heart, and she’s filled the
ing Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, and visiting stores home with meaningful treasures found while thrifting or trav-
like Consign Consign, Merchant House and Retreat Home & eling. There are glass eggs, a collection Fick inherited from her
Lifestyle Resale Store in Covington, Fick’s hometown. grandmother, as well as wiggle-and-squiggle-shaped pieces
Finds from the couple’s travels — among them a book page and a few bug and beetle items. Yet her oldest and largest col-
from the Ukraine, an incense holder from Indonesia, prints and lection is an assortment of hands in the form of statues, book-
placemats from Prevelato Gregorio’s native Brazil — add an- ends, wall-hung artworks, glove forms and more that sit on
other layer to the bohemian eclectic décor. So do the various shelves and tables and fill a gallery wall in the entry.
plants placed in the main living space, whose cozy sitting area is “I started collecting them in college and haven’t stopped
anchored by a vintage burgundy-toned rug from NOLA Rugs. since. I find many of them when I travel, which makes them
It was the couple’s biggest décor splurge. doubly special,” Fick said. “I revere hands because they are con-
Fewer travels because of the COVID-19 pandemic gave duits through which I get things from my brain to the page.”
35 36get the look White Shaker cabinets from BC Kitchen and Bath
Cabinet pulls from Restoration Hardware
Classic white subway tiles from Stafford Tile & Stone in both the kitchen and bathroom
Custom floating shelves by Ben Bullins and Matthew Holdren
Ceramic hex tiles in a classic rosette pattern in the bathroom
Carrera marble countertops
Whitewashed wood floors
Fisher & Paykel dishwasher
Prestige Dual Fuel double oven range by Verona
Vintage drafting table purchased via Facebook Marketplace
Original artwork by Emma Fick, Imogen Banks, Luke Keoferi, S.G. Clark, Otto Fick and Sophia Belkin
37 38Explore the beautiful home
of KV Harper, principal and
founder of the architecture
planning and interiors
firm KEX Design + Build.
In renovating her Seventh
Ward double shotgun,
Harper added layers of rich
colors that speak to the
city’s tropical environment
and its history.
STORY BY Sarah Bonnette
PHOTOS BY Liz Jurey
home of KV Harper
ON SAINT ANTHONY STREET
39 40MBRACE COLOR. It’s what KV Harper, principal and home with her partner, Patrick, and their dog, Ladybird.
founder of the architecture planning and interiors firm The couple even carried bright colors into the backyard,
KEX Design + Build, tells her clients who are renovating whose design was inspired by travels. There, a teal stenciled
New Orleans houses. patio — Harper painted it during the COVID-19 shutdown —
In renovating her own Seventh Ward double shotgun, pops against a bright pink fence (Sherwin Williams’ Exuberant
Harper took her own advice, adding layers of rich colors that Pink). It features a mural by artist Tyla Maiden honoring Bar-
speak to the city’s tropical environment and its history. row’s Catfish, one of the city’s oldest Black-owned restaurants.
Shades of pale pink paint — one for the façade’s drop sid- The back wall of the house is painted a bright blue, what’s be-
ing and another for side elevations’ weatherboards — set the come a signature at most KEX Design + Build’s projects. “I did
house apart on its colorful block. Inside, there are similar pink it for the first time in Brooklyn, and I just like that pop of blue,
tones in the tasseled hanging light from jungalow.com and the especially with outdoor furniture. And it made it different from
tufted velvet Anthropologie sofa. all the rest of the houses in the back that were brick or brown.
A bright yellow mid-century chandelier provides a striking It’s fun,” Harper said.
focus in the master bedroom. Harper used Sherwin Williams’ She cut her renovation teeth on a Brooklyn brownstone she
Anchors Away for its accent wall, as well as for a living room purchased in 2013 while working as an advertising strategist. She
wall and the kitchen cabinets. There, the navy color comple- founded KEX Design + Build in 2017 in part because her search
ments the deep green backsplash tiles. for contractors, both for her New York and New Orleans homes,
Grounding all the colorful décor choices are the warm tones turned up very few firms run by women or people of color.
of the reclaimed wood, used throughout the house, and the In Harper’s design projects — including local ones and
cool gray of the plastered walls in the living room and hall bath- working with clients in New York City, Amsterdam and Lon-
room. “I definitely wanted a very colorful, bright and airy home don — KEX strives to make “design attainable for people in a
that used lots of different colors,” said Harper, who shares the way that celebrates diversity and really honors the architecture
41 42and the people and the culture of the cities that we’re in,” said said. The home had vinyl flooring laid over the original wood
Harper, who runs KEX from New York and New Orleans. floors, and the exterior’s vinyl siding and boards covered up
Born in Miami and raised in Seattle, her journey to becom- the front windows.
ing a New Orleans homeowner began when she first visited While there are few details about the house’s original style or
the city with a friend from Howard University. Subsequent previous owners, Harper estimates it was built sometime in the
trips brought her to areas outside of the tourist hot spots. 1920s or 1930s based on city records. Exterior elements show
Only then did she begin to understand New Orleans’ culture how, like many New Orleans shotguns, it changed over time.
and history, its place in African-American culture and histo- The façade features drop siding and original floor-to-ceiling,
ry, and “also how it’s inspired the larger American and also four-over-six-pane windows, while iron railings and posts sup-
worldwide culture in terms of music,” she said. port the porch roof. It extends from the pitched roof whose
“When I started looking for and renovating a house, I really gable contains a central attic vent.
wanted to sort of honor black tradition in New Orleans and After buying the home in August 2016, Harper began a gut
the history of black culture in New Orleans,” she added. renovation that was completed in March 2017. To help with
Harper found the 2,800-square-foot double camelback the project’s budget, she kept the shotgun’s double configura-
shotgun online and made an offer before seeing it in person. tion (the right side is a rental, and Harper’s side has use of the
The quick decision came because the property met several of camelback addition). Existing layouts, as well as the plumbing
Harper’s house-hunting criteria. It was something she could locations, also stayed the same on both sides.
afford as a second home. It had a “good structure to build off “If I’d had a higher budget, I might have changed the bathroom
of,” she said, and it was a double, the type of house for which configurations a bit. But I love the idea that the house has been in
she was searching. It had 12-foot ceilings and plenty of space. the same configuration for probably the last 50 years, at least since
“It wasn’t in the worst shape of houses I looked at, but it the camelback came on. That’s kind of a neat idea: that we’re living
wasn’t in the best. It still had some historical touches,” she in the house like all the other families before us,” she said.
43 44She made only one structural change: removing the wall not be saved. When her preservation contacts in Brooklyn said
between the two front rooms to create a large living space. The otherwise, she found contractor Erix Peres. He was able to save
rooms, separated by a cased opening wrapped in reclaimed the fireplaces and add salvaged mantels. Peres completed the
wood, “still feel very distinct in their own rights,” Harper said. house’s renovation and became part of the KEX team.
It’s now one of her favorite spaces “because it feels very As part of the renovation, Harper intentionally chose his-
cozy. There are plants. There’s artwork,” she said. That artwork torically appropriate materials that were true to the house’s
includes pieces by emerging black artists from Nigeria, as well age — a decision that also ended up being budget friendly
as a portrait of New York City-based performance artist Aya- — while also adding a modern twist. “I definitely had a much
na Evans taken by Tsedaye Makonnen. Over the living room more modern aesthetic before I purchased this house,” she
sofa, there’s a commissioned piece by Khalif Thompson that is said. “One of the things I try to do — whether it’s my own
inspired by New Orleans. renovation or a property I’m developing for the business or a
The artwork is one of the ways Harper honors the city’s client – is to respect the space.”
black history and culture in her décor. There are also yellow There are dark wood floors — including the new-growth
theater seats — found on Ebay — that came from a segregated pine planks installed when the original floors could not be
movie house. Gallery walls display family photos with civil saved — and salvaged brick floors in the kitchen. Reclaimed
rights-era photos and prints, Haitian revolutionary soldiers, wood became kitchen and upstairs bathroom counters, a cus-
and vintage data charts created by African-American sociolo- tom bar, kitchen and bathroom shelves, and the custom casings
gist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois. for the salvaged interior doors.
“A lot of the pieces were very intentional in terms of what Modern elements include the black hexagon tiles in the hall
I wanted to show,” she said, adding that she sought out vin- bathroom. In the upstairs bathroom, Harper combined black
tage furniture, such as the credenza placed between two of the and white hexagon tiles to create a dramatic door-less shower.
three original fireplaces. “I wanted to have a really open-style shower that’s very remi-
The fireplaces had been covered by drywall, and were badly niscent of what’s in Mexico and Caribbean,” she said. “It defi-
in need of repair. Harper’s first contractor told her they could nitely has a more muted color palette.”
45 46get the look Custom built bar by Eric Peres
Cypress table from DOP Antiques
Anchors Aweigh navy blue paint color by Sherwin Williams in the living room
Plumbing fixtures from Kingston Brass
Chandelier from Jungalow in the front sitting room
Pink velvet sofa from Anthropologie
Un-tinted plaster walls
Vintage kitchen sink from The Bank Architectural Antiques
Glazed steel Alape Bucket Sink with black trim from Rejuvenation in the bathroom
Collection of W.E.B Du Bois graphs
Living room chandelier from West Elm
Delta shower assembly in champagne bronze
Original photography by Tsedaye Makonnen
Original artwork by Khalid Thompson, Matthew Eguavoen and Oluwole Omofemi
47 48Explore lighting designer
Julie Neill’s exquisite
circa-1880 Italianate
camelback shotgun home
that she has lovingly
renovated into a soothing
oasis that in part serves
as inspiration for her
hand-crafted, luxe
lighting designs.
STORY BY Sarah Bonnette
PHOTOS BY Liz Jurey
home of JULIE NEILL
ON CAMP STREET
49 50You can also read
