New Orleans Architect Daniel Garza

In October 1926, Mexican exile Daniel Garza (b. Oaxaca 1865 - † New Orleans 1926) applied for membership in the Louisiana Architects Association (LAA). His application -- endorsed by New Orleans architects William Burk, Julius Dreyfous and Leon C. Weiss -- indicated that he had obtained his education at the Liceo Fournier and the National Preparatory School, and that he was a former vice president of the Academia de Ingenieros y Arquitectos and the Associación de Ingenieros del Colegio Militar.(1)

Garza developed a new method of reinforced concrete construction that had been utilized in his landscape designs for Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City. Prior to his exile "for political troubles" he conducted experiments with the Garza System at the Colonia de "El Imparcial" outside of Mexico City [now Colonia Clavería], that were witnessed by other architects and engineers and later published -- along with a New Orleans residence he designed -- in Building Review (New Orleans, June 1922).  He patented his system in the United States on 2 August 1921.

Less than a month after applying for LAA membership, Garza died. He was buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 3.

(1) Application. 7 October 1926. Folder 1, Box 33. American Institute of Architects New Orleans Chapter Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Image above: Daniel Garza. "A New System of Unit Reinforced Concrete Construction." Building Review (June 1922): pp. 11-12. Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Garza held the following U.S. patents:

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/bd/17/00/851a01842a7602/US1637935.pdf

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/4f/c1/95/dcee6df2240e32/US1386251.pdf

Lost Central City

A few years ago, we posted some information about the mid-twentieth century slum clearance program that affected a group of self-proclaimed "Wimawalas."

We recently came across this circa 1937 glass lantern slide marked "Slum Housing Displaced by Magnolia Street Project." It's unusual to find historic photographs of these lost New Orleans neighborhoods, as the federal photographers of the period had a tendency to focus their energies on the French Quarter.

Image above:  Digital reproduction from glass lantern slide marked "Slum Housing Displaced by Magnolia Street Project." Undated. Tulane School of Architecture Glass Lantern Slide Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

NEW! Andrew Lockett Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently finalized the processing of the Andrew M. Lockett, Jr. Office Records. The collection consists of project drawings associated with the career of Andrew Moore Lockett, Jr., an Atlanta-born architect (1896-1984) who designed the St. Charles Avenue mansion known as "Tara."

Consult the finding aid here.

Image above: Lockett and Chachere, architects. Crown Food Palace, 3955 Washington Avenue. 1928. As it appears in the Crown Food Palace Section, The Times-Picayune (9 May 1928).

From NOLA to LA

In 1911, developer Colonel R.E.E. DeMontluzin (1884-1966) traveled from New Orleans to Los Angeles. His goal was to comprehensively study bungalow communities and residential structures. When he returned to the Crescent City, he spoke at a "bungalow luncheon" hosted by the Mercantile Club. 

DeMontluzin traced the origins of the building type to southeast Asia and enumerated the distinctive features of what he considered "true" bungalows. Claiming that it was a frame residence never taller than a story and a half, with built-in furnishings and spacious closets, DeMontluzin believed the true bungalow eliminated superfluous spaces, in contrast to what he called the "box-car" architecture of older New Orleans homes. When audience members resisted the notion that an 8-foot ceiling would provide relief during the city's steamy summers, DeMontluzin asserted that proper fenestration would remedy the problem.(1)

Others in the New Orleans building community were turning their attentions to California. Architects Morgan D.E. Hite (1882-1959) and Martin Shepard (1875-1962) solicited information from the West. In 1912, Shepard received the Monrovia (California) Board of Trade's 1912 illustrated guide (above), and based some of his architectural designs on its bungalow images (below).

For New Orleanians, who --  like R.E.E. DeMontluzin -- sought the direct experience of California, the Southern Pacific Lines' Sunset Limited provided transportation from NOLA to LA beginning in late 1894. The journey was 60 hours long and initially embarked from the railroad's depot at the head of Esplanade.

(1)"Mercantile Club Hears Talk on Bungalows and Cost of Living." The Daily Picayune (13 July 1911): p. 5.

Images above, from top to bottom:

"Col. R.E.E. DeMontluzin." As he appears in New Orleans Men of Affairs: Cartoons and Caricatures. [New Orleans]: 1909. Courtesy Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

"Planter's Bungalow--India in the Early Days." Common Mistakes in Bungalow Building and How to Avoid Them. Volume 5. New Orleans, LA and Jacksonville, FL: Southern Cypress Manufacturers Association, 1920. Architectural Trade Catalogs, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

Mailer cover, Monrovia Illustrated 1912. Monrovia, California: Monrovia Board of Trade, 1912. Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

"A Group of Monrovia Bungalows." Monrovia Illustrated 1912. Monrovia, California: Monrovia Board of Trade, 1912. Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

"Sunset Limited to California."" Southern Pacific Lines advertisement. 1926.

From New Orleans to Minneapolis & Back

In 1921, the Architects' Small House Survey Bureau of Minnesota published a guide to home financing and building for the Southern Pine Association in New Orleans. The result of six months' research and over fifty meetings, How to Plan, Finance and Build Your Home (1921) presented potential homeowners with over 100 building plans developed by Minneapolis and New York architects. Of particular note are three plans rendered by architect Jefferson Merritt Hamilton (1891-1982), who worked in Minneapolis and later practiced in Louisiana, Georgia and Florida.

In the early 1920s, New Orleans bungalow advocate Morgan D.E. Hite (1882-1959) traveled to Minneapolis at the request of the Southern Pine Association. He went armed with renderings and photographs of raised bungalow houses that had been constructed in New Orleans. According to Hite, the Florida-born Hamilton was especially sympathetic to this house type "so foreign to the Northern architects" and developed related plans and perspective sketches that appeared in the 1921 pattern book:

"Mr. Hamilton's designs have proved among the most popular shown in the book, and, in particular, one of his raised-basement types has been used widely as a means of advertising the beauty of design."(1)

For Hite, the raised bungalow type had its origins in Louisiana's "Spanish-style" plantation homes, which united all rooms on a single floor that was raised 9-10 feet above ground to facilitate cool breezes and flood protection. For the Architects' Small House Survey Bureau, plans such as the one above were geared towards property owners in the Gulf Coast states.(2) For New Orleans builders, Hamilton's plan could be implemented on a very narrow lot, as the basement level extended only 28'6".

Image above: Jefferson M. Hamilton, architect. "A Beautiful Southern Type--Home Plan No. 615."  How to Plan, Finance and Build Your Home (Southern Pine Association and the Architects' Small House Survey Bureau of Minnesota, Inc., 1921), p. 100. Architectural Trade Catalogs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

(1)Morgan D.E. Hite. "The New Orleans Raised House Type." Architecture (May 1922): p. 150.

(2)How to Plan, Finance and Build Your Home.  Southern Pine Association and the Architects' Small House Survey Bureau of Minnesota, Inc., 1921. See plans on pages 58,99 & 100.

Bungalow Subdivisions 1909-1945

We are in the process of developing a new exhibit that focuses on bungalow and cottage architecture in the Gulf South. If you are interested in learning more about the development of bungalow subdivisions in metropolitan New Orleans, check out our guide here.

Not all attempts to develop bungalow subdivisions were successful, especially those that were detrimentally impacted by the Great Depression. One "bust" subdivision -- Riverside Park -- was originally platted by surveyor Elbert G. Sandoz for developers Murphy & Levy in 1923. Contractors Villere & Bertucci completed some of the requisite infrastructure (culverts, cypress removal) in 1924, but by the time Farm Security Administration photographer Russell Lee (1903-1986) visited Harahan in 1938, very little survived. Today, there are remnants of the Park Avenue neutral ground entrance.

New Orleans architect Francois P. Dufrechou, Jr. (1894-1952) designed the subdivision's fountain entrance, shown above.


For more on the history of Riverside Park, consult the Southeastern Architectural Archive's Guy Seghers Office Records.

Top above: Everett S. Dodds, architect. Kelso Model Home. From Build A Dodds Home: Beauty, Comfort and Durability.  Red Oak, Nebraska: The Thomas D. Murphy Company,  1920s. Architectural Trade Catalogs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Lower images:  Russell Lee, photographer. Riverside Park, "Bust" Real Estate Development North of New Orleans, Louisiana. September 1938. As viewed via the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division Online Catalog.