George Washington Cable House, New Orleans

This charming abode on the whimsical west side of the Garden District was built in 1874 by American novelist George Washington Cable during a time when his literary star was rising to national prominence thanks to the publication of his short story, "Sieur George." The house is technically two stories, though it began as a one-story structure raised over a full-height basement, with columns and an arcade giving it just the right amount of Southern drama.

Cable himself had a life story with more turns than a Garden District sidewalk. Born in New Orleans in 1844, he came from a prosperous family, but after his father died, that prosperity thinned out considerably. During the Civil War, Cable served in the Confederate Army, though illness soon altered his course. A long struggle with malaria gave him time to write, proving that while fever is generally bad news, in this particular case, it helped produce a major American author...

By 1870, Cable was working for the New Orleans Picayune newspaper, and within a few years, his fiction was attracting serious attention. New Orleans, with its Creole culture, layered history, racial tensions, and complicated social codes, became central to his work. But Cable was not content to write pretty local color and call it a day. He also spoke in favor of racial equality, which made him respected in some circles and deeply unpopular in others. Indeed, in 19th-century Louisiana, this brave position was not a recipe for social comfort...

The pressure eventually pushed Cable to leave the South in 1885 and settle in Massachusetts, where he lived for another four decades. Still, this house remains closely tied to his New Orleans years, when his voice was taking shape, and his subjects were all around him. It is also said that Mark Twain, Cable’s friend and fellow literary heavyweight, once visited here. Whether or not the walls are willing to confirm it, the idea alone gives the house a fine extra layer of literary gossip.