Terra Cotta

Architectural terracotta was very popular with New Orleans architects. After the Civil War, notices for the material proliferated in local publications. Earliest mentions largely related to roofing materials. In July 1873, B.J. West and Thomas S. Elder placed an advertisement for their Patent Roofing Tile Company in The Daily Picayune (shown above).

Frederic Codman Ford (1856-1922) became a local agent for the Chicago-based Northwestern Terra Cotta Company. His clients included Allison Owen, Collins C. Diboll, Thomas Sully, Emile Weil, Moise Goldstein, Rathbone DeBuys, Favrot & Livaudais, Andry & Bendernagel and Toledano & Wogan.  Architects requesting the company's red, brown and buff terracotta received shipments via the Illinois Central Railroad.

In the early twentieth century, terracotta designs by architects proliferated in the pages of The Brickbuilder, a trade journal founded in Boston.

Notable published designs by New Orleans architects are included below. See if you can find them on buildings in the Crescent City and Opelousas.

Records of the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company are located at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. 

In 1906, the Ludowici Roofing Tile Company (also based in Chicago) established an office and warehouse in New Orleans due to the large amount of material that it was shipping to Panama. Ludowici's traveling sales representative J.D. Duffy was reassigned to the permanent position.(1) The bunglow community at Derby Place (Third Municipal District) utilized the company's tiles. Architect-clients included Walter Cook Keenan (1881-1970), who specified the tiles for the Jones Residence at 20 Neron Place (1923) and his apartment building at Carrollton Avenue and Green Street. Ludowici roofing was adopted for the Hugh L. White residence in Columbia, Mississippi and the Charles Ledet residence in Houma, Louisiana.(2)

The Southeastern Architectural Archive maintains a number of Ludowici catalogs, now digitized via the Internet Archive's Building Technology Heritage Library. 

Other architectural terracotta suppliers who maintained a New Orleans presence include the following:

St. Louis Terra Cotta Co. (St. Louis), Frank Bethune, agent. 808 Perdido Street (1919).

Federal Terra Cotta Co. (New York), J.T. Mann & Company, agents. 909 Union Street (1919).

Atlantic Terra Cotta Co. (New York), Ole K. Olsen, agent. 822 Perdido Street (1920).

[See Building Review (1913-1922) for listings of local agents for various architectural trade concerns].

New Orleans structures with notable terracotta include:

Pere Marquette (817 Common Street)  -- American Terra Cotta & Ceramic Company 

Maison Blanche (901 Canal Street)  -- Atlantic Terra Cotta Company

American Bank & Trust Company (200 Carondelet Street) -- Federal Terra Cotta Company

Louisiana Supreme Court building (400 Royal Street) -- Atlantic Terra Cotta Company

Lyons building (224 Camp Street) -- Northwestern Terra Cotta Company

Morris building (600 Canal Street) -- Northwestern Terra Cotta Company

Tulane building (211 Camp Street) -- Northwestern Terra Cotta Company

Grunewald Caterers (926-28 Canal Street) -- Northwestern Terra Cotta Company

(1)"Another Northern Firm Establishing Offices." The Times-Picayune 1 January 1906. 

(2)"New Orleans Greatest Tile Center: Roofs May Rival Old World Cities." The Times-Picayune 23 May 1926.

Images above:

Top four:  Advertisements, The Daily Picayune. 23 July 1872; 30 March 1887; 19 September 1888; The Times-Picayune 1 September 1903.

Bottom seven:  All from The Brickbuilder (1901-1910). Architects, from top to bottom:  Andry & Bendernagel; Diboll, Owen & Goldstein; Favrot & Livaudais; Favrot & Livaudais; Toledano & Wogan; Toledano & Wogan; Toledano & Wogan.

Field Trip: Chicago, IL

The Chicago Architecture Foundation's exhibit Chicago Model City features an extraordinary 320-square-foot model of the downtown area. Using data sets from different sources -- including the Skidmore Owings & Merrill archive -- Columbian Model & Exhibit Works, Ltd. designers used Google SketchUp to develop the forms of individual structures. After grooming the data, designers employed a stereolithography machine to fabricate the resinous building models, which were then cured, embellished, and assembled.

Image above: Columbian Model & Exhibit Works, Ltd. Downtown Chicago Model. Chicago Architecture Foundation, the Santa Fe Building, Chicago, IL. 2009. As viewed 24.8.2011 by K. Rylance.

Sullivan in NOLA

In the spring of 1906, Chicago architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) and his wife visited New Orleans. They spent a few days in the city before traveling on to Ocean Springs, Mississippi for an extended stay.

Sullivan's Ocean Springs bungalow was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina (2005). Read Michael Martinez's Chicago Tribune article about the destruction here.

See: "Chicago Architect on a Visit." The Times-Picayune 14 March 1906 page 16.

To view the iconic 1890 photograph of Louis H Sullivan at his bungalow in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, go to the Art Institute of Chicago. Click here to access image & related collection.

Field Trip: Lincoln Square (Chicago) Illinois

Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924) designed this facade for William C. Presto's Krause Music Store, which was completed in 1922. His last commission prior to his death, the Krause Music Store facade is profusely ornamented with Sullivan's distinctive naturalistically-driven terracotta.

After property owner William Krause died in 1929, the property eventually was sold to a funeral company. The structure functioned as a funeral parlor for over five decades and during that period its facade was altered and neglected.

Preservation architects McQuire Igleski & Associates researched historic architectural and terracotta shop drawings in order to restore the building for adaptive reuse. Their project was the recipient of the AIA Illinois' Crombie Taylor Award and a Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award.

Preservation architect Gunny Harboe was recently honored by the City of Chicago for his significant efforts to restore its notable buildings, including Burnham & Root's Rookery and Louis Sullivan's Carson Pirie Scott Building.

The Art Institute of Chicago maintains a website that identifies Louis Sullivan's extant buildings in the Chicago metropolitan region. Click here to access.