617-621 Chartres St.

Note: Bartholome Bosque was a native of Palma on the Spanish island of Majorca. He was a merchant and ship owner, and the son of Don Cayetano Bosque and Cataline Ponze. In 1792, he married Felicité Fangui (Feliciana Fanguy) a native of New Orleans, the daughter of Vincent Fangui of Montpellier in the Kingdom of France and Magdalena Laporte of New Orleans. Magdalena Laporte was the daughter of Juan Bautista Laporte and Mme. Dominica Joly Laporte, who purchased the corner of Royal and Dumaine Street from Mme. Elizabeth Real Pascal Marin in 1776. See the notarial acts of Jean Baptiste Garic, N.P., Vol. 7/238. Mme. Laport mentioned this daughter in her will and said that she was married to Vincent Fangrut [sic].

This was the house in which began the disastrous Good Friday fire of 1788, as reported by Governor Miro:

"In the afternoon of the 21st of March last, at one thirty, the residence of the army treasurer, Don Vincent Jose Nunez, caught on fire, reducing to ashes eight hundred and fifty buildings, among which are all the business houses and the residences of the most aristocratic families. The violence of the south wind was an obstacle to all our efforts to put out the fire. Every means was useless due to the force of the wind, and the flames kept away all who tried to stop them, all being wooden buildings which were burning....[t]he loss of buildings has been estimated at one million and forty thousand pesos, without counting the furniture and effects lost."

Bosque advertised to lease the house on Chartres now occupied by himself.

At the time of his death, Bosque was living at Great Men and Marigny Streets in the Faubourg Marigny. In his will, he mentioned both these houses, two schooners he owned and his third interest in the Brig "la Susanne." He had six children and twenty-two slaves. He left to his daughter Suzette (who became the third wife of Governor W.C.C. Claiborne, later the wife of the noted attorney John Randolph Grymes) "...besides the portion which comes to her as an heir, her piano forte, her harp, her music and the other objects which I have bought for her education."

"Garnier occupies the Bosque House, No. 16 Chartres, behind the Government House since the 1st of the month, table d'hote, chambres Garnies, etc."

"To Let -- The store situated in Chartres opposite Jefferson Street, a part of Dr. Gros' house, now occupied by the printing office of the Courier. Apply to Mr. Jambu, next door."

Lists Thomelin, cabinet-maker, and two children living on Chartres Street.

New Orleans Census, 1726

"Barthelmine Borgone is rebuilding the house I sold him on Chartres Street, and his neighbor who bought a house from Pierre (Marigny) is building also."

Pontalba Letters
May 24, 1795

Note: According to the act of sale in 1810 the house was partly of one and partly of two stories, and an examination of the building would indicate that the portion on the St. Peter Street side of the carriage way was the one story portion and its roof was probably a terrace on to which the second floor rooms on that side opened. The house was then described as "a beautiful house situated in this city in Chartres Street, fully plastered, and of brick with a terrace roof, the major part of which has an upper story, having a yard and a rear yard, and the front of which is divided in two by a corridor.

Originally, as now, the rooms on each side of the corridor opening on the street have been used as stores. On the second floor were six rooms with a narrow hall leading from the rear stair hall to the two fine square salons which extended across the front of the home. From each of these rooms French casement doors opened on to the front balcony, which then was a narrow one, but which has subsequently been extended in width to the edge of the banquette. It extends only across the two-story part of the original façade.

The wrought iron railing of this balcony is perhaps the finest feature of the façade and is comparable to only three or four other examples in New Orleans -- the Cabildo, the Pontalba House, and the Correjolles House at 715 Governor Nicholls. All these railings are of about the same date and are all probably the work of the same craftsman, who, in the case of the Cabildo and the Pontalba House is known to have been Marcellino Hernandez, a local blacksmith of great skill. The central panel of the rail has a most graceful arrangement of scrolls in the character of the best 18th century work and in an oval at the center appears the monogram of Bartholome Bosque, curiously backwards when seen from the street.

The woodwork, which was formerly in the two front rooms, was perhaps the best in any old New Orleans house. The mantels with elaborate over-mantel treatments and the cornices were all beautifully carved. During the days when the house was in a rather sad state of dilapidation this fine woodwork was purchased by Mr. Felix Kuntz and restored and preserved by him in his own residence. The other mantels are of a later date, probably installed by Marigny after 1825.

Note: Being located so near Jackson Square, the Place d'Armes and center of the old city, the site was built upon almost from the time the streets were established in 1721.

In 1731 it contained a rather small house with two small out-buildings at one side, the house of Thomelain, a cabinet maker who lived there with his wife and child and six negro slaves, three men, one woman, and one child. According to the 1731 census, Thomelain also owned two guns.

Note: It was then the property of His Excellency the Count de Galvez and Dona Feliciana de Maxent, his wife. Galvez had succeeded Unzaga as Governor of Louisiana in 1777 and led his armies against the British (during the American Revolution) at Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Mobile. In the summer of 1785 he left Louisiana to become Captain-General of Cuba and subsequently Viceroy of Mexico. Galvez bought this house in October, 1781, and by the time he sold it in July, 1784, he and his wife were already living in Havana. If this site was indeed the residence of the noted Governor, it is not unlikely that he would have chosen it, for it was across the street from the grounds of the Government House, the provincial capital then standing at the corner of Toulouse and Decatur, its gardens extending back to Chartres Street. Wilkinson had not been cut through here at this time.

617-619-621 Chartres Street

Erected: 1795
Architect: [Barthelemy Lafon?]
Builder: [Barthelemy Lafon?]

This Spanish colonial building is one of the landmarks in the Vieux Carré. The site is notable for a number of things, not the least of which is the fact that the disastrous Good Friday fire of 1788 began here on March 21, when this was the home of Don Vincent Jose Nunez, Principal Royal Treasurer of the Province.

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries this property was associated with some of the most distinguished names in New Orleans. Its beginnings were simple. The earliest map, of 1722, lists Pierre Thomelin, woodworker here. In the 1726 census Thomelin is mentioned as a cabinet maker with two children. A 1734 plan of this site shows a house with two small outbuildings, and a 1731 census sites this as the home of Thomelin, wife and child, and six negro slaves. We see that Thomelain was prospering, for by this time he is listed as having two guns.

The next record leaps ahead forty-two years when this property was in the succession of Antonio Chovin Desilet. In 1778 it was bought by Luis de Bonrepos from Desilet's heirs. At that time there was a "house of brick between posts...the house is raised and is 54' in length and 36' wide...elevated 8' in height with six cellars, a kitchen, and shingle roofed." This was probably a house in the French colonial manner, much like M[adame] John's Legacy of today. Plainly this is not the little house of Pierre Thomelin.

In 1779 Bonrepos sold this to Juan Ventura Morales, Spanish Intendant, and the house is described as before. In 1781 Morales sold the property to the wife of the Count de Galvez, Dona Feliciana de Maxent Destrehan de Galvez. The record this time describes the same house, but mentions front and rear galleries. This property was directly across the street from the grounds of the Government House, then standing at the corner of Toulouse and Decatur Streets, and would have been a convenient residence for the Spanish Governor.

In 1784 Galvez, who had already been transferred to Cuba where he was made Captain-General, sold this house through his agent, Juan Ventura Morales, then Treasurer of New Towns, to the merchant Jayme Jorda, who owned other property around the corner on Toulouse Street. The account continues to describe the house as "built of brick and wood, raised eight feet from the ground on a brick wall with front and rear galleries and warehouses underneath...the house is in very good condition, divided into several rooms, shingle roofed." Jayme Jorda sold this property to Vincent Jose Nunez, and it was in this particular structure that the Good Friday fire broke out the following year. By 1789, when Nunez sold this plot to the Baron Joseph Xavier de Pontalba, a rebuilding project was already under way here, for the record says "on the first lot will be found a house under construction all of brick, with several rooms."

A second fire occurred in the same square in 1794, just behind this property, at Mr. Mayronnes on Royal Street, and the new house which Nunez sold to Pontalba undoubtedly went down once again. By 1795 Pontalba must have rebuilt on this site once more, for on December 1, when he sold this property to Bartholom[i]e Bosque, he stated that he was selling "my own house situated on Chartres Street." It would seem that Pontalbals house was not satisfactory to the wealthy merchant from Majorca, for Pontalba, in writing to his wife who was then in Spain, mentions "Barthelem[ie] Borgone is rebuilding the house I sold him on Chartres Street."

This then, is the house still standing today. The Bosque family lived here for some fourteen years. On May 1, 1809 Bosque advertised to lease the house on Chartres where he was living, but when he died soon afterwards he was already in residence at another house in the Faubourg Marigny, at Great Men and Marigny Street. A year later his widow sold the property to Ciriaco de Cevellos, and it is described fully in the records as "a beautiful house on Chartres having a story and a half, built of brick, plastered in full, roofed en terrace, having a courtyard and a back yard."

In 1816 Dr. Cyprien Gros, a prominent physician, bought this building. Evidently a young ladies' school occupied the first floor rooms at this time, for an advertisement in the COURIER, May 25, 1818, states that "...Clotilde Bornet and Eleonore Bornet intend to remove their young ladies' school to the house of Mr. Marigny below the city." Two days later another notice in the COURIER states "[t]he public are informed that the office and press of the LOUISIANA COURIER are now established in the house of Mr. Gros, Chartres, opposite Jefferson Street, lately occupied by M[adame] Bornet's School."

Bernard Marigny, who was among other things the son-in-law of Juan Ventura Morales, previous owner of this site, bought the house in 1825, and it remained in his family until 1865. Subsequently it was owned jointly with 625-627-629 Chartres Street until it was purchased by Mr. Ulrich Rosen and restored.

Nothing is now known regarding the architect or builder of this interesting old house, but it may be the work of Barthelemy Lafron, who was one of the best known architects/builders of the day, and who, in 1794, designed a similar house for Miss Jeanne Macarty at the corner of Decatur and Conti [s]treets.

The front facade of this building has been greatly altered. Where there must originally have been a plastered brick wall with openings in character and in scale with the openings of the second floor facade, there is now a series of cast iron columns with large glass shop windows probably dating from the late nineteenth century.

In spite of these changes the original parts of the house which remain are of such fine quality and unusual Spanish character as to make it one of the most significant examples of that period when the city was rebuilding after the disastrous fires of 1788 and 1794. The roof was once almost flat and covered with tiles to make a terrace. The present slate roof was erected over this old construction at a later date. The gallery was originally a narrow one. This has since been extended over the width of the banquette and is supported by cast iron columns. The gallery is an example of the very fine wrought iron work done during the Spanish colonial period. It is similar to galleries on the Cabildo, Pontalba House, and Corrojolles House, and is probably the work of the gifted blacksmith Marcellino Hernandez---though no records known of today verify this.

Adjacent to the main house is a two story structure. Originally this was one story with a terrace roof on to which it was possible to stroll from the French casement doors on the side of the main house. Little or nothing seems to remain of that one story building today; but an old photograph shows that when a second story was first added an opening was left between the buildings at this level. This has long since been filled in with a commonplace brick second story.

The porte-cochere or carriage way leads back into the courtyard through an interesting arcaded loggia from which the stairway ascends to the second floor, where it lands in a similarly arcaded loggia enclosed in glass. This rear part of the house has a very distinct Spanish feeling and reflects its owner's Majorcan origin.

Two story outbuildings enclose the courtyard on one side and the rear. These also have a rather Spanish feeling in the molded rafter ends which support the roof overhang. Rather recent renovations have attempted to enlarge upon this Spanish effect with not too happy results. The brick stairway leading to the balcony at one corner of the court is part of this renovation, but it is not like anything that ever existed in Spanish New Orleans.

"After two fires, a Spanish classic:

Good Friday, on March 21, 1788, was fine spring day....[a]ccording to legend, a lace cloth whipped suddenly against candles lighted here before a household shrine. Quickly the great house caught fire, for it was already old as Colonial houses were reckoned."

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