Restoring a Creole/American Towhouse

Welp, Mardi Gras 2021 didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean that our spirits are down. We are almost fully operating out of our new space on Magazine Street, and we have some great projects coming up. One of our most interesting projects right now is the renovation of the Dodwell House on Esplanade Avenue. It’s an 1846 American Townhouse (that’s a Creole Townhouse with chimneys on exterior walls), and it is a fantastic project!

The Dodwell House was developed independently by a high-society Cajun woman named Eliza Ducros Marsoudet. Eliza who was the descendent of prominent, French colonial lineage: her great-grandparents had been some of the earliest French settlers in Mobile, AL, and she was wealthy (independently of her husband) thanks to her family’s plantations in St. Bernard Parish and elsewhere. Eliza decided to develop the property on Esplanade Ave separately from her husband - she was very bold for 1846 - and she hired 2 Creole free people of color as her builders. I found out today from a descendent of Homer Plessy (shout-out to Geraldine Billups) that it was very important for craftsmen to be listed as “Creole,” because if you were listed as “black,” then you weren’t allowed to apprentice or become a craftsman. Craftsman were held in high-regard in New Orleans, and the craftsmen on this project were Mssrs. Nicholas Duru and Jacques Michel St. Martin. Don’t you just love those Cajun and Creole names? But I digress. Duru and St. Martin had built other properties in the French Quarter, but Duru got himself into some trouble when he reneged on a contract with his Church. Duru also married a 16 year old as a 62 year old man, which is what historians have officially dubbed as “icky.”

So that’s the brief history of the Dodwell House: developed by a Cajun woman, built by 2 Creole men, and now called an American Townhouse because of the chimneys. Hurrah!

Enjoy your day, and don’t forget to Put Some Bold in Your Old.

Michelle

Southkick Historic Preservation