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THNOC AT 50
Building an Institution
Throughout 2016, THNOC Quarterly will be celebrating The Historic New Orleans Collection’s 50th birthday. To start, here’s a look at our starts and strides over the decades.
Merieult House, 527-533 Royal Street
1964; photoprint
by Daniel Sweeney Leyrer
7974.25.3.137
Late 1930s
THNOC founders L. Kemper and Leila Williams, desirous of contributing to the burgeoning preservation movement in New Orleans, purchase the buildings occupying 527-533 Royal Street, in the French Quarter. The property is fronted by the Merieult House, named for merchant and trader Jean Francois Merieult, who began construction on the lot in 1792. The property would later go to The Collection as part of the Williamses’ foundational trust.
I	ERICAS
America
| between 1607 and :	1612;	engraving	with
watercolor j by Gerardus Mercator, cartographer The L. Kemper and Leila Moore Williams Founders Collection, 00.1
Aware of her husband’s interest in history, Leila gives Kemper a set of antique European maps and encourages him to expand the collection. These items establish the Williams Collection, which later becomes the founding holdings of The Historic New Orleans Collection....................................................................
1945
I he Williamses purchase the Creole townhouse at 722 Toulouse Street, which connects to the properties fronted on Royal Street. The townhouse, called the Louis Adam House, is known for having housed playwright Tennessee Williams during a transformational period, 1938—39. Poor and virtually unpublished, the young writer soaked up the atmosphere of the Quarter’s bohemian scene and sent out some of the earliest scripts bearing his nom de plume from his garret apartment.
722 Toulouse Street	*
ink drawing	.
by Rolland Golden	•
1967.30	;
1946	<
Kemper and Leila Williams move from their Audubon Street home into 718 Toulouse Street, making it their main residence in New Orleans. Although they had a summer home in Santa Barbara and a house in Patterson, Louisiana, and regularly traveled to New York and Europe, they spent at least six months a year at their French Quarter abode and remained there until 1964, when they moved to the Garden District. Today the Williams Residence is preserved as a house museum offering regular tours.
1947
Eager to establish a legacy trust dedicated to preserving New Orleans history, the Williamses establish the Williams Fund. The name was later changed to the Kemper and Leila Williams Foundation.
10 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly