Homebodies - Restoring Historical New Orleans Mansion Is Slow but Rewarding Process
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Homebodies
Restoring historical New Orleans mansion is slow but rewarding process
BY JILL SCHACHNER CHANEN
The first time New Orleans at-
torneys Rick Normand and Eliza-
beth Williams visited their 150-
year-old dream home, they had to
smash the walls with crowbars to
see the original room layouts.
Flashlights provided the only light,
since the windows had been board-
ed up and the electricity shut off
long ago.
The Greek revival-style man-
sion that the husband-and-wife law
partners eventually purchased once
had been a showcase of New Or-
leans. But after the first owners
died, the house had been divided
into apartments, subdivided into
more, and then abandoned to with-
er in the modern world.
Edifice Wreck
When we first saw the house,
we thought it was fabulous, Nor-
mand says of the Dufour-Baldwin
House in downtown New Orleans.
But we said we can't buy it
because we would become a slave to
it, he recalls. There'd be no more
vacations, no more new shoes for
the kids because we wouldn't be
able to afford it.
Still, the couple remained in-
trigued. The 10,000-square-foot
house had more than enough room
to rear their two sons, as well as the
charm and character they sought
but could not find in new houses.
The next time Normand and
Williams looked at the house, some
of the city's homeless had taken
refuge inside from winter, setting
parts of the building on fire for heat
and littering it with old mattresses
and hypodermic needles. Then it was
intentionally set ablaze for a scene
in the movie Miller's Crossing.
Despite the daunting amount
of renovation required, the couple
purchased the house in 1989 and
began restoring it. With the job now
60 percent complete, they have
opened a bed and breakfast in one
part of the house and moved their
respective litigation and, commer-
cial law practices into another.
Jill Schachner Chanen is a law-
yer and free-lance writer based in
Chicago.
78 ABA JOURNAL / JANUARY 1995
Although the couple had reno-
vated two previous houses, this one
was different. It first had to be sta-
bilized to prevent further deteriora-
tion. Then the structural and me-
chanical components proved monu-
mental: Putting on a new roof re-
quired removing 11 old ones stacked
on top of one another. None of the
wiring or plumbing was salvageable.
Nothing in this house is pre-
fab, Williams says. You can't go to
The Dutour-Boldwin house is now a home, o
and breakfast for Elizabeth Williams and Ric
Home Depot and get anything. It
really requires a skilled person, not
somebody who [only] knows how to
work with the materials of today.
While contractors hauled away
35 truckloads of debris, Normand
and Williams did what they know
best: They went to court and to the
library
When we first bought the
house and began trying to research
it through the court and the library,
everyone said, 'You are going to
come to a dead end. There's just
going to be a few documents, which
was correct, Normand says.
But just by living in the house,
people come up to us and say, 'You
don't know me, but I am a great
grandson of a former owner.' And
we ask them what they have from
the house or know about it. Almost
every month we get something from
somebody about the house.
Normand and Williams discov-
ered that the house was built by
Cyprien Dufour, a prominent de-
fense attorney and
Confederate army
officer. To show off
his prosperity, Du-
four built the house
with every amenity
and luxury of the
time, including hot
and cold running
water and a gas-gen-
erating plant to fuel
the chandeliers.
The house was
decorated with cus-
tom-made walnut
furniture, English
wool carpets and
silk wallpaper from
France.
Through their
research, Normand
and Williams have
acquired some of
the original furnish-
ings, which have fit
back into the house
as though they nev-
er left.
When they went
to hang drapery
cornices in the din-
ffice, and bed ing room, the origi-
k Normand. nal brackets were
still on the wall and
the hooks on the cornice. They fit
hand in glove, Normand says.
The restoration, which should
be finished in two to five years, has
been intentionally slow.
'We've done some things right,
some things wrong, Normand says.
It was right to do things slowly.
Even now we are finding shadows
on walls, which tells you where a
column was. We are finding wall-
paper on top of wallpaper. If we'd
done this with a big crew in six
months, we would have missed
those little things. E
ABAJ/CARL LEBOEUF](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/abaj81&div=21&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Homebodies - Restoring Historical New Orleans Mansion Is Slow but Rewarding Process
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