Madame John's Legacy

Story

Madame John's Legacy is a historic house museum at 632 Dumaine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Built in 1788, it is one of the oldest houses in the French Quarter, and was built in the older French colonial style, rather than the more current Spanish colonial style of that time. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970 for its architectural significance. The Louisiana State Museum owns the house and provides tours.Description and historyMadame John's Legacy stands north of Jackson Square, on the southwest side of Dumaine Street between Royal and Chartres Streets. The building's name derives from a story by New Orleans author George Washington Cable, and refers to a building that previously stood on the site. It is a French colonial raised cottage, its ground level a full-height basement built out of brick, and a wood frame main level above. The exterior is clad in wooden boards. Behind the main building is an open courtyard, with a brick slave quarters at the rear of the property. The basement level of the house appears shorter than it was when built, in part because the street level has been raised in the intervening centuries.The house was built in 1788, and is a rare survivor in the area of the quarter's 1794 fire. The house undernwent a number of alterations in the 19th century, most notably as part of a conversion to apartments in the late 19th century. In 1947 the house was donated to the Louisiana State Museum. It was operated as a museum until 1965, when it was closed due to hurricane damage. It was subjected to a painstaking restoration in the early 1970s, restoring it as much as possible to its late 18th-century appearance, and reopened.