1850 House, New Orleans

The 1850 House is your chance to sneak past the shopfronts of the Pontalba Buildings and see what life looked like upstairs in the mid-19th century. This carefully preserved townhouse, complete with a courtyard, offers rare public access to the residential side of one of Jackson Square’s most famous architectural landmarks.

The Pontalba Buildings were commissioned in 1849 by the wealthy Baroness de Pontalba, a woman with money, taste, and clearly no fear of a major construction project. At the time, New Orleans was booming, thanks largely to its powerful port, and the city ranked among the largest in the United States. The Baroness had Parisian grandeur in mind, and she wanted buildings that could look elegant, make money, and impress everyone standing nearby. Indeed, the mission was accomplished.

Each of the row houses was designed with shops on the ground floor and apartments above—sixteen apartments in each building. For prosperous middle-class residents, this was prime living: fashionable, central, and fitted with those ornate iron balconies that still make visitors stop and stare.

Today, the 1850 House is operated by the Louisiana State Museum and recreates the world of a well-to-do New Orleans household during the era often described as the height of Southern prosperity. Inside, the rooms are furnished with domestic objects, decorative arts, and period innovations—including walk-in closets, proving that even in the mid-19th century, storage space was a serious status symbol. You’ll also find furniture and artworks influenced by Rococo, Gothic, and Classical styles, because apparently one style was not enough when prosperity was in full performance mode...

The house does not represent one specific family. Its original residents were mostly tenants who came and went after a few years, which makes the place less of a family biography and more of a carefully staged portrait of upper-middle-class taste, comfort, and ambition in 19th-century New Orleans.

Before you leave, stop by the downstairs shop run by the Friends of the Cabildo. It offers handmade art, jewellery, pottery, local crafts, and books on everything from New Orleans history and food to voodoo—because in this city, even the gift shop knows how to keep things interesting...