Old Vieux Carré like Merieult House live on under the stewardship of nonprofits.
The Merieult House, 533 Rue Royale
Painting by Jim Blanchard. THNOC record: “View of the façade of the Merieult House, now the Historic New Orleans Collection. Painted between January 1 and April 14, 1993.”
The Merieult House dates to 1794. The house currently houses the headquarters of The Historic New Orleans Collection. From THNOC’s timeline of the house:
1792: Merchant Jean François Merieult purchases the plot at auction, three years after a devastating fire destroys 80 percent of the colonial city, including the early- and mid-colonial structures on the site. Merieult signs a contract with William Cobb for 7,200 pieces of lumber to be floated down the river from Natchez. Merieult contracts with builders Jacob Cowperthwaite and Robert Jones to lead the construction.
Like many living in New Orleans after the Great Fire of 1788, Merieult acquired property and helped re-build the city. Builders completed the main house in 1794. They finished the dependency wings in 1797.
Enslavement
While THNOC refers to Merieult as a “merchant,” they overlook the part where he bought and sold people. Also from their timeline of the house:
1795–97: Supporting buildings surrounding the rear courtyard are constructed to serve as a service area, counting house, warehouse, and slave pens for Merieult’s merchant business. Between 1792 and 1812, Merieult bought and sold over 400 enslaved Africans on this site.
Four hundred enslaved Africans. Slave pens. Merieult was a big player in human trafficking.
Changes and renovations
Originally of a Spanish Colonial design, Merieult House underwent renovations under later ownership. From a Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in the 1930s:
Lizardi Hermanos (Lizardi Brothers) acquired the property in 1832 Antonio Maria Pintado, possibly the Lieutenant Surveyor of the district of Iberville, who has left such a valuable collection of papers, seems to have taken the house on terms he could not fulfill, and three years later, it reverted to Lizardi Hermanos, at a price of $80,000. This increase in price indicated that during these three years the house was reconditioned, and the Classic Revival details were substituted for the original Spanish mouldings, and the square granite openings were substituted for the original arches.
The house was about forty years old when these changes took place. Preserving Spanish Colonial architecture was not a concern in the growing, booming New Orleans of the 1830s and 1840s.
Headquarters
Kemper and Leila Williams acquire the house in 1938. They embark on a major renovation project. The Williams family were founders of THNOC. They open the the house to the public in 1970.
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