Walter Grinnan Robinson House, New Orleans

Built in 1859 by New Orleans architect Henry Howard, the Walter Grinnan Robinson House sits on Third Street looking very aware of itself—and with good reason. Compared with its more modest neighbors, this place clearly prefers to make an entrance. With stately columns, double galleries, and a confident mix of Greek Revival and Italianate style, it has the air of a mansion that arrived dressed for a formal occasion and never changed back...

The house has also benefited from a careful restoration, along with its former servants’ quarters and stable, so its grand old details are not merely surviving—they are making a well-polished comeback. Like many Garden District homes, it features galleries, or covered walkways, built for shade, breeze, and elegant people-watching. The first level is supported by sturdy Doric columns, while the second gets the fancier Corinthian treatment, giving the façade a little classical hierarchy with a lot of attitude.

Then comes the real party trick: the curved portico and unusual roof design. That roof once worked as part of a water-collection system, feeding a large cistern and using gravity to create water pressure. In other words, at a time when indoor convenience was still a luxury, this house was already “ahead of the pipes.” It was among the Garden District’s early examples of indoor plumbing, which made it both stylish and, for its time, impressively practical.

As for Walter Robinson himself, he came from Lynchburg, Virginia, and first moved south to work as a cotton factor. Later, he switched to the tobacco trade, specializing in perique tobacco, a curly, pipe-friendly variety with a personality almost as distinctive as the house he left behind...