530-536 Dumaine St.

[The Observatory, 532-536 Dumaine]

"The House on the corner of Dumaine and Conde streets, built according to the designs of the Sr. Baron, to serve as the Observatory.

This house is separated from the Government House only by the little sill height wall with a wood grille above. It is 48 ft. long by 22 wide having one story above the ground floor.

On the second floor there are two entrance doors of cabinet work, of two leaves with panels, one near the other. Appearing first is a vestibule which serves also to house the staircase which is of carpentry without handrail. To the right on entering there is a door of cabinet-work, with two leaves to enter a large hall with a chimney. Behind the vestibule there is a bedroom with chimney (469) ___ of its hall, furnished with its door (of cabinet-work like the) preceding one. Afterwards in another (bedroom) without chimney with its door of (communication). Afterwards is another bedroom having also its door of communication and one for going out into the vestibule. This ground floor is all tiled with clay tiles. The upper story is at the top of the stair-case. To the left there is a double door like the others, of two leaves and with panels, to enter into a large hall, a bedroom adjoining behind the stair hall, which has its door of communication like the others. Afterwards are two other low bedrooms behind the hall, with their doors of communication, and one for going out on the staircase. The roof framing is weak, the flat (low pitched) roof having only an eight foot king-post, roofed with round tile and a hip on Dumaine street, and two on the large upper hall, the said three hips crowned with three urns or wood turnings, painted green.

All of the said building, even the partitions are constructed of bricked colombage and the wood is covered inside with a brick, which makes a sixteen inch wall. All the upstairs is planked (floored) and burdened with tiles. The ceiling of the upper bedroom is planked. There are in all, thirty windows, upstairs as well as down, all fitted with their glazed sashes and double wooden shutters. The ground floor is eleven feet in height under...yard is thirty two ft....of brick on edge...this yard is...a small inner court...eight feet high. Opposite this building...and facing it there is a building thirty two feet long by 17 wide, all of brick. There is first a kitchen with its chimney with (cooking) holes, an oven and a soup kettle, a two leaved door with impost and glazed sash above, and a window with its light wood sash. Besides there is an office in a cabinet having together sixteen feet in one (dimension) and 12½ in the other, an entrance door like the preceding and two similar sashes in two windows and two single doors for communication. Moreover there is a cellar with a water-closet, being together eleven feet long by four wide with a door to enter the latrine from the outside, the whole paved with bricks on edge, and ten feet under the ceiling. Above the office there is a cabinet that has a double batten door. The flat roof is covered with round tiles. The top (upstairs) is planked.

Adjoining there is a dove-cote of colombage, twelve feet square, bricked between posts, the bottom (downstairs) of which is a bedroom (and) is tiled, and the top (upstairs) is planked where the pigeons are, roofed with shingles. There is downstairs an entrance door with a window, furnished (470) (with its) glass sash and ventilator....[On] Dumaine street between the two buildings (there is a) high wall where the entrance gate is...decorated with two pilasters and...projecting, entablature crowned by an attic, with front and rear cuts. It is 17½ feet wide by 20 high, including the foundations, arches, bases, ___, voussoirs, 30 inches thick reduced with buttresses or crude pillars inside which were built after the gateway threatened to collapse. Having pushed out, it would have fallen except for the two parts of the wall at the sides of the said gateway being 11 feet high with projecting panel, crowned with its coping.

The great gate is of cabinet-work with frames and inlay, with its wicket, impost and cabinet-work encrownment, etc.

Note that the Government House faces the Place d'Armes, and that in the square that is between this Place d'Armes, the Quay and two other streets, there is the Dumaine street house or observatory, the small detached building and dependency of the Government House, with the big old warehouse designated hereafter; the whole contains in land, 55 toises in length by 50 in width."

Translated by Samuel Wilson, Jr., 1966.

Supposed murder - John Meredith, a native of Ireland, lately employed on a steamboat...supposed to have been thrown from the third story of the house No. 15 Madison street...by a shoemaker who lived in the house by the name of Peter Burns.

[N.B. Primary address at 532-536 Dumaine.]

"Gallery Circle Theater Too Important for Long Inactivity:

It is to be hoped that the decision of the board of the Gallery Circle Theater to become inactive will not be a permanent decision, but merely one that will enable them to have a little time to recoup from the hard blows of recent months.

....If memory doesn't trick me, it started in the Jewish Community Center on St. Charles and Jefferson and was so well received that it moved downtown to the American Legion Home on Royal and Conti. It's next move was to 525 Madison."

[N.B. Primary address at 532-536 Dumaine.]

"Much Alive Again:
Gallery Circle Returns Home:

[w/photos]

Gallery Circle Theatre, the theatre that refused to die, is very much alive today.

For weeks workers have been cleaning up, changing, repairing and polishing an old brick building at 525 Madison in the French Quarter."

[N.B. Primary address at 532-536 Dumaine.]

"Gallery Circle Back in Triumph:
Opens with 'Sweet Bird of Youth' Series:

[w/photo]

Gallery Circle Theatre returned to the scene of its youth Friday night with the production of Tennessee Williams' 'Sweet Bird of Youth.'

....Friday's performance opened an eight-night run at the theater's old location, 525 Madison. The curtain rises at 8:30 p.m."

[N.B. Primary address at 532-536 Dumaine.]

"Gallery Future:

Gallery Circle theater is cheered by the public reception of its recent 'revival' production. Reorganized and re-settled in its old [525] Madison st. playhouse, the group started life anew with Tennessee Williams' 'Sweet Birth of Youth.'"

[N.B. Primary address at 532-536 Dumaine.]

[photo/caption]

"Quarter Crash:

Hill Wegner, left, and Timothy Sicard remove the tool box from a Regional Transit Authority bus Wednesday after it crashed into a building on Dumaine Street between Chartres and Decatur, the rear of 529 Madison St. According to witnesses the accident was caused by a large hole in the street. The driver, whose identity was withheld, was injured and taken to Tulane University Medical Center."

[N.B. Primary address at 532-536 Dumaine.]

"Honors given by Vieux Carre Commission:
Architectural Projects in '92 Receive Awards:

The Vieux Carre Commission presented awards this month to six French Quarter architectural projects completed in 1992.

....Owner Thomas Wood and architect Leon Impastato were honored for renovated 525-27 Madison St., two warehouse buildings designed in 1830 by architect William Brand for use as a bakery and a flour store, into a 'comfortable, contemporary residence.' Also cited was the contractor, 4-H Construction Co. In the 1960s and '70s the buildings were home to Gallery Circle Theater."

[N.B. Primary address at 532-536 Dumaine.]