NEW! Robert Mills Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently finalized the processing of the Moise H. Goldstein Collection of Robert Mills Papers. The collection consists of  papers associated with the career of Robert Mills, a South Carolina-born architect (1781-1855) who considered himself the first American to study architecture as a profession.

The papers were collected by New Orleans architect Moise H. Goldstein (1882-1972), who became interested in Mills during the early twentieth century.  Goldstein notably acquired the architect’s family correspondence, specifications, diaries, and a journal containing two essays and a series of South Carolina travel sketches.  He was especially drawn to documents related to Mills’ proposals for New Orleans: an 1826 proposal for an elevated railroad that would transport mail from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans; and the 1837 design for a new marine hospital (completed 1845).  Since the collection includes personal items associated with Mills descendants in New Orleans, it is likely that Goldstein acquired the papers directly from the family. With an interest in publishing a technical article regarding the papers, Goldstein also corresponded with Mills historians Helen M.P. Gallagher and  Charles C. Wilson, and shared his research with them. 

Earliest documents include Robert Mills’ manuscript essay on the Tuscan order, a short diary written while employed in the Washington, D.C. office of Benjamin Henry Latrobe and a corresponding survey of New Castle, Delaware.   Later documents include a journal from the 1820s-1830s that begins with a much-edited “Manuel on Railroads” and ends with a series of pencil and ink sketches of South Carolina. Sandwiched between the sketches is a short essay, “The Architectural Works of Robert Mills,” in which the architect emphasizes his national identity and the influential mentoring of Thomas Jefferson, who recommended the architect to Latrobe and for whom Mills developed a series of drawings. A second diary, dated 1828-1830, includes early sketches for a George Washington sculpture and monument, as well as related calculations and a short biography of the former president.

Image above:  Robert Mills. “Front view of the Town Hall, Columbia.” Journal. Box 2. Moise H. Goldstein Collection/[Robert Mills Papers], Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Street Cars & Population Growth

One hundred years ago, The Daily Picayune featured a long story about New Orleans population growth associated with street car expansion. The New Orleans Railway and Light Company had historically been reluctant to invest new tracks in areas with few inhabitants, but new management adopted a "build it and they will come" perspective. The Carrollton Avenue and Gentilly Terrace neighborhoods were highlighted as positive examples:

"Perhaps the most striking effects a street car line can have on the distribution of population is shown in the extension of the Villere line by the Edgewood Addition and Gentilly Terrace. This line was only prolonged to take in these spots in 1910, yet within the short period intervening between then and now there has been built up the first true suburb to the city, excluding the Lakeview property."(1)

Early twentieth-century streetcar expansions included the development of the Louisiana Avenue  and Audubon Boulevard lines. Since property values along the Carrollton Avenue and Clio Street lines had significantly increased, investors flocked to purchase lots along the proposed new corridors.(2) The Louisiana Avenue line was viewed as especially promising for real estate development, since the route offered a direct link between mercantile Canal Street and Harvey Canal industries.

Image above: Unidentified photographer. New Orleans Railway & Light Company Streetcars. 14 July 1913. Miscellaneous Photographs Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

(1)R.P. Porter. "Street Cars and the Movement of Population in New Orleans." The Daily Picayune (26 October 1913): p. 33.

(2)See, for example certain records in the Martin Shepard Office Records & Guy Seghers Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

The Parlor

For those wondering about the building that was demolished this month at the corner of South Galvez and Canal Streets (google streetview above), it was designed by New Orleans architect Hayward L. Burton (1867-1953) in 1906 as a luxurious stable for boarding fine horses. Named "The Parlor," the structure originally boasted a ladies' parlor, feed rooms and a neighboring riding ring. Clients W.T. and G.E. Burns envisioned that the boarding stable would be popular among "the millionaire element" of tourists.(1)

Burton utilized St. Louis hydraulic pressed brick (Color No. 503) with colored mortar and cast cement ornamentation and fronted the Canal Street entrance with a landscaped Schillinger walk. He incorporated an elevator, electric wiring and fixtures and a sprinkler system.(2)  The project was completed under the supervision of the newly founded Burton & Bendernagel firm.

Project drawings and specifications are retained in the Southeastern Architectural Archive.

(1)"Parlor for Sterling High-Bred Driving Horses and the Storage of Vehicles and Equipment." Newspaper clipping dated 9 December 1906.

(2)Specification of Stable Building for Messrs. W.T. and G.E. Burns, situated corner of Galvez and Canal Strets. New Orleans. H.L. Burton, architect, New Orleans. Undated.

Both references from H.L. Burton Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

The People's Slaughterhouse

In March 1892, Brooklyn architect J.Graham Glover (1852-) published his competition proposal for the new People's Slaughterhouse and Refrigerating Company to be located in New Orleans' Ninth Ward at Alabo Street and the Mississippi River (top image).(1) Ultimately, his design was not selected, and instead the commission went to the local Williams Brothers, who developed a more modest scheme (second & third images) that utilized a simple frame structure as the corporate office (fourth image).

By 1895, the People's Slaughterhouse was modernized under new management operating as the New Orleans Abattoir Company, Limited. The main structure was demolished in the summer of 1964 and its accoutrements publicly sold.

If you want to read more about nineteenth-century New Orleans slaughterhouses, see Lindgren Johnson's "To 'Admit All Cattle without Distinction': Reconstructing Slaughter in the Slaughterhouse Cases and the New Orleans Crescent City Slaughterhouse," chap. in Paula Lee, editor. Meat, Modernity and the Rise of the Slaughterhouse. University of New Hampshire Press, 2008.

(1)American Architect & Building News (12 March 1892). Louisiana Architecture Prints, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Top image from (1).

Others from: Williams Family Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Lost Carrollton

New Orleans architect C. Milo Williams (1867-1954) took an interest in the old Porter residence, located at the intersection of Levee and Monroe Streets in Carrollton. According to Williams, the structure was constructed of Hoey's bricks, and was one of the oldest buildings standing in Carrollton. He photographed the building prior to its demolition in the early twentieth century (top image).

His father, William H. Williams (1817-1886) had also taken an interest in the Porter properties and the Hoey brick operations.  In 1878, he copied an 1845 D'Hemecourt survey of the Porter properties and sketched the building's basic plan (second & third  images). The elder Williams also developed a proposed levee plan for John Hoey's brick operations in November 1865 (bottom image), the year prior to the plantation owner's death.

All of these historic sites no longer exist, although the Hoey residence, constructed for John Hoey's widow Carolyn Pierce Hoey (1871) remains at 7933 Willow Street. Louisiana Research Collections (LaRC) retains John Hoey's papers, including his brickyard account ledgers.

Images:

Top: C. Milo Williams, photographer. Porter residence, 8643 Levee Street/806 Monroe Street. Before 1909. Williams Family Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Second & Third: William H. Williams, surveyor. Surveys of Porter Property. Notebook No. 86. From 3 January 1878. William H. and C. Milo Williams notebooks, Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Bottom: William H. Williams, surveyor. Diagram of Hoey's Levees. Notebook No. 43. November 1865. William H. and C. Milo Williams notebooks, Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

The Fatal Switch

In the summer of 1891, New Orleans architect-engineer C. Milo Williams (1867-1954) traveled to Sauvé (Jefferson Parish), five miles outside of New Orleans. He witnessed the wreckage of a head-on train collision that had occurred on the Illinois Central Railroad line near Sauvé station (top image above). The I.C.R.R.'s "Cannon Ball" mail and passenger train smashed into a Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City freight train, resulting in four fatalities and many other serious injuries. Both engineers died immediately. Newspapers referenced the "fatal switch," alleged conductor and brakeman fault, and charged that no warning lights were in use.(1)

C. Milo Williams later photographed safety improvements along the same I.C.R.R. track (lower image). He indexed his series of  images "Bofinger switches" in reference to New Orleans businessman-inventor William H. Bofinger. Just a few days before the Sauvé collision, Bofinger had received a patent for a new switch that allowed an engineer on a moving train to "throw the point of the switch against the main track without leaving his engine."(2)  A few months after the accident, Bofinger filed a second railroad patent, his so-called "switch-stand'" -- essentially a cage-enclosed switch that prohibited tampering. It is the latter that Williams documented in Jefferson Parish.

Among Bofinger's less safety-conscious inventions, one must mention his 1894-95 Rocking Chair Fan Attachment.

(1)"The Crash of the Cannon Ball." The Daily Picayune (21 June 1891): p. 4.

(2)No. 453,690. Patented June 9,1891.

Images above: C. Milo Williams, photographer. Williams Family Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Cabildo Fire & Restoration

William Ransom Hogan archivist-photographer-scholar Lynn Abbott provided the Southeastern Architectural Archive with some images he took of the 1988 Cabildo fire and the structure's 1992 restoration.

Top:  Lynn Abbott, photographer. Cabildo Fire. 9 December 1988.

Bottom:  Lynn Abbott, photographer. Raising the Cupola. 15 October 1992.

Both are housed in the Miscellaneous Photographs Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Both images are issued by the Southeastern Architectural Archive. Use requires written permission from the photographer. Each image may not be sold or redistributed, copied or distributed as a photograph, electronic file or any other media. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright.