936 Calle de San Pedro
Boyd Cruise painted 936 Calle de San Pedro in 1941.
936 Calle de San Pedro
This story is a classic example of falling down a rabbit hole. I parked in the “Red P” parking lot (IYKYK) at Rampart and Conti one morning, to work the information desk at the Cabildo. I walked up Calle de San Pedro, as the Spanish Colonials would have said St. Peter Street. When I came to the 900 block, I encountered some nice holiday lights at 936, including Mr. Bingle. I took some pictures and headed home.
Fast forward to after the holidays, and working on the current podcast series featuring the paintings of Boyd Cruise. It turned out, Cruise had painted 936 St. Peter. It didn’t feel like enough material for a podcast episode, but would certainly be a fun story.
Excavations
As you can see, 936 St. Peter is a simple cottage on a small lot. When I did a basic web search on the cottage, I found a fascinating story about excavations by the University of New Orleans Archeology Department at the location. Some backstory: St. Peter and Rampart was the location of the city’s first cemetery, one that pre-dates St. Louis Number One. The property owner of the house at that location found human remains when doing renovations. They halted the work and called in UNO. The archeologists were again called in for 936:
What stood out most during the excavation of the privy was the abundance of animal remains, especially the number of elements from skulls. When a rough count was taken of the entire assemblage, the privy feature was found to contain a total of 147 Caprine (goat or sheep) skulls.
Well, OK, it wasn’t human remains, but still. The article explains that the cottage was used at one point in the 1860s to extract goat brains for re-sale. It’s an incredible story.
The painting
Back to the cottage and Cruise. The building went up in the 1840s. Cruise visualized the house around 1850. Here’s the THNOC caption:
Facade view of a creole cottage at 936 St. Peter Street in the Vieux Carre. The building has Corinthian pilasters, green shutters and a single dormer on the roof. The time period depicted is ca. 1850 and shows a man and woman wearing the dress of the day, an African American wood hauler, and a boy with newspaper in front of residence.
They forgot the cat in the upstairs window! How rude! As with many of Cruise’s paintings, he adds people on the street out front. The lady on the left appears to be bundled up for chilly weather. The gentleman caller carries a bouquet of flowers. A white boy holds a newspaper on the right. It’s unclear if he’s bringing a single paper to the house or if he’s selling papers. A black man hauls a cart of wood down the street. His lack of a coat is inconsistent with the dress of the white adults, but there are a number of possible explanations. A very-regal orange cat observes the scene from the dormer window.
The house displays “130” for its address. Prior to 1895, street addresses were assigned per house, not per block. So, the Number 1 St. Peter would be the Arsenal, behind the Cabildo. The numbers incremented from there. After 1895, address numbering shifted to blocks, hence its present 936 address.
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