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BOOKS
Architect of an Era
THNOC is proud to present Henry Howard: Louisiana’s Architect, a monograph examining the monumental influence of a true southern original.
In 1976 Robert S. Brantley stood among the ruins of Windsor Plantation, near Port Gibson, Mississippi. Impressed by the scale of the building—erected in 1859 for cotton planter Smith Coffee Daniell II and reduced to an austere but imposing colonnade by an 1890 fire—Brantley wondered aloud who had designed such a marvel. Like many other plantation houses, Windsor had been attributed to its builder—in this case, David Shroder. Brantley started researching the history of Windsor and came to believe instead that it was designed by Irish-born architect Henrv Howard, a versatile, prolific talent well regarded in his time, since relegated to the fringes of design history. Brantley’s visit to Windsor marked the commencement of a decades-long quest to bring the near-forgotten architect’s name back into lights—and those efforts come to fruition this summer, with THNOC’s official launch of the 352-page monograph Henry Howard: Louisiana’s Architect.
Though two of Howard’s near-contemporaries, New Orleans architects James Gallier and James Dakin, have been lauded in various publications, Howard’s contribution to southern architecture has never been extensively explored until now. As Henry Howard reveals, Howard’s hand shaped the urban fabric of New Orleans, in terms of style as well as sheer volume. Anyone familiar with the city will recognize structures in these pages, from humble, beautifully proportioned shotgun houses to grand mansions studding the Garden District to commercial buildings that now house treasured restaurants. Howard designed the iconic Pontalba buildings, which flank Jackson Square, and the Garden District residence known as the Cornstalk Fence House, originally built for Robert H. Short. Beyond New Orleans, Howard’s impact on the region is also impressive: though not all still stand, his churches, courthouses, and plantation houses—Madewood, Nottoway, and Belle Grove among them—dotted the landscape of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Ruins of Windsor Plantation
1941; photograph
by Clarence John Laughlin
The Clarence John Laughlin Archive,
7981.247.1.1659
NEW FROM THNOC
Henry Howard: Louisiana’s Architect
by Robert S. Brantley with Victor McGee; photographs by Robert S. Brantley and Jan White Brantley
The Historic New Orleans Collection 3nd Princeton Architectural Press, 2015
S60, hardcover, 8.9 x 12 inches, 352 pages, 330 color images
ISBN: 978-1-61689-278-4
Now available at The Shop at The Collection, www.hnoc.org/shop, and local booksellers
Summer 2015
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