Madame John's Legacy
New Orleans
Madame John's Legacy is a house from 1788 at 632 Dumaine Street. It is one of the best examples of early colonial architecture in North America.
A house after the disaster
In 1788 a great disaster destroyed about 80% of the city. This house was built right afterward, in the old colonial style. It probably reuses parts of the house that stood here before. It also came through the disaster of 1794 untouched.
The Creole style
It is a "raised" house: below there is a masonry floor, above it the floor where people lived. It is a fine example of a Louisiana Creole house from the 1700s. The complex has three buildings: the house, a service building and a two-story outbuilding.
A name taken from a book
The name comes from an 1874 work by the writer George Washington Cable. In the story, a certain Monsieur John leaves a house on Dumaine Street to Madame John. Ever since, everyone has called it that. The story is made up, but the house is real and stands right here.
A museum to protect
Since 1947 the house has belonged to a public museum, which cares for it and protects it. It was carefully restored in the 1970s. You admire it from outside, from the sidewalk.
