Completed in 1788, Madame John’s Legacy is one of the oldest buildings in the French Quarter of New Orleans and among the finest 18th-century buildings in Louisiana. It’s composed of three buildings: the main house, the kitchen with cooks’ quarters and a two-story garçonnière, or gentlemen’s guest quarters.
The Great Fire of 1794
Madame John’s Legacy was one of the few buildings in the French Quarter that escaped the flames of the Great Fire of 1794. The fire, which occurred only 6 years after the building complex was completed, spread on December 8 between Burgundy and Chartres Street, right in the heart of the French Quarter. This was the second great fire that New Orleans witnessed in the span of only 6 years. 212 buildings were destroyed in the 1794 fire, making it astounding that Madame John’s Legacy survived the flames.
At the time, New Orleans was a Spanish colony, and for this reason, the rebuilding of the burned houses followed the Spanish colonial style, eliminating many examples of French colonial architecture from the French Quarter. Madame John’s Legacy is one of the remaining French colonial-style buildings in the area.
The Structure of Madame John’s Legacy Building Complex
Madame John’s Legacy stands north of Jackson Square, on the southwest side of Dumaine Street between Royal and Chartres Streets. The name of the building comes from a story titled “Tite Poulette” by a New Orleans author, George Washington Cable. This is the kind of house that enriched colonial settlers built at the time.
The house is a French colonial raised cottage with a full-height basement made of brick and an exterior covered in wooden boards. The open courtyard stands behind the main building along with the kitchen, the slave quarters, and the garçonnière which likely dates back to the 1820s.
Solid brick was used to build the basement walls, which were erected above ground level. The upper story is of brick between posts covered on the outside with wide, beaded, horizontal boards. The roof represents a typical hipped roof from the colonial period, with a triangular shape conveyed by the trusses. The trusses rest on the main exterior walls, extending the roof into a double pitch, a design that can be found in other French colonial buildings in New Orleans.
The Many Owners of Madame John’s Legacy
Despite the official date of the building being completed being 1788, archaeological investigations point to a likely prior life of the main house: the newer house is believed to incorporate substantial parts of an earlier building dating back to 1730. The original owners of the 1730 house are thought to be François Marin and his widow, Elisabeth Real. A New Orleans businesswoman, Elisabeth Real was among the first European colonial settler women in Louisiana when the state was a French colony. Her first – forced – marriage ended when her husband was killed, leaving her in possession of the land that Madame John’s Legacy, or the house preceding it, was built upon. At the time, the house hosted an inn, a recreational garden, and a gambling parlor. The house remained her and her second husband’s property until 1777, when she died.
After the Marins’ deaths, the house was passed from hand to hand among three different men until, in 1778, a Captain of the Fixed Regiment named Manuel De Lanzos bought it and restored it. The house remained his property until 1813, when its possession rapidly changed for many decades, until in 1925 Mrs. Isaac Ivan Lemann donated it to the Louisiana State Museum.
Today, Madame John’s Legacy is a museum that can be toured, although access is limited to the main house. In 1970, the complex was declared a U.S. National Historical Landmark for its architectural significance.
Madame John’s Legacy in the Media
Madame John’s Legacy appears briefly in Interview with the Vampire, a movie from 1994, in a scene where coffins are being carried out of the house while Louis (Brad Pitt) talks about Lestat (Tom Cruise) and Claudia (Kirsten Dunst). The house is also one of the sets in Twelve Years A Slave.
