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THNOC AT 50
Building Footprints
Architectural preservation is a lesser-known but manifest facet of The Collection’s mission. Looking back on 50 years, the Quarterly explores the history of THNOC’s French Quarter properties.
A Merieult House
1993; watercolor and gouache with gold pigment
by Jim Blanchard
Merieult House: 533 Royal St.
BUILT: Ca. 1792, with renovations in the 1830s, 1880s, 1938, and 1960S-70S TYPE/STYLE: Originally a Spanish Colonial estate; renovated Creek Revival FUNCTION: Entrance to and orientation center for THNOC’s Royal Street campus, Louisiana History Galleries, The Shop at The Collection, and office space (Shop and Docent departments)
The lot occupied by the Merieult House has been in continuous operation since the 1720s, when the entire block bounded bv Royal, St. Louis, Bourbon, and Toulouse Streets belonged to the French Crown and was the site of workmen’s barracks and the king’s forges. Jean Francois Merieult, a prosperous merchant and trader, purchased the property in 1792 and established a full estate including a coach house, stable, cellars, two kitchens, and storehouses for wood and commercial goods. The Merieult House was one of only a few buildings not destroyed in the fire of 1794. Following the fire, Governor Carondelet introduced new fire codes, which limited the use of wood and mandated that buildings over one story be built of brick or brick-between-post and plastered.
The property passed through five owners, ranging from international bankers to a saddle maker to the hotelier Jean Baptiste Trapolin, before Kemper and Leila Williams bought it in 1938. The Williamses dedicated the upstairs to their growing collection of historical materials, and today visitors can see items from that founding collection in the same space, now the Louisiana History Galleries.
Counting House: 533 Royal St.
BUILT: 1794-95; renovated 1830s and 1973 TYPE/STYLE: Originally a warehouse; renovated as a Greek Revival bank
FUNCTION: Portrait gallery and event/meeting hall, with office space above (Development, Security, and Buildings Management departments)
This formal hall has humble origins: it was originally built as a warehouse for Merieult's trade enterprise. When the Lizardi Brothers banking firm purchased the property in the 1830s it made major changes, adding a second story and gallery to the building and creating the grand Greek Revival room whose classical details—pilasters and Ionic columns, a magnificent sunflower ceiling medallion, and thick crown moldings— remain in place today. The Counting House takes its name from this financial phase of the building’s history, and anecdotal evidence suggests that, after business hours, the Lizardi brothers and their wives held evening balls and'receptions on the elegant ground floor.
Maisonette: 533 Royal St.
BUILT: 1795-96; rebuilt 1815; renovated 1973 TYPE/STYLE: Service quarters FUNCTION: Staff offices (Education and Technology departments) and kitchen
Across the courtyard from the Counting House, the three-story Maisonette (meaning “little house” in French) features wooden galleries and railings composing a beautiful textured screen on the second and third floors. This service wing, situated on land that was part of the original Merieult purchase, originally had a low, barrel-tiled
10 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly