Mid-City, a historic district added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and bounded roughly by City Park Avenue on the north, North Claiborne Avenue on the south, Conti Street on the east and Interstate 10 on the west.
Here, the scrollwork brackets have been painted with contrasting colors and go a step farther: The finials at the end of the brackets have been painted the same blue as the shutters.
Because the area was a low-lying expanse between two canals in the 1800s, it wasn’t extensively developed until a late-19th-century breakthrough in drainage technology made it dependably habitable.
Until New Orleans’ mid-20th-century expansion into eastern New Orleans, the Mid-City district was the approximate geographical center of the developed city.
Now, its proud residents affectionately call it the heart of the city, a sentiment expressed by colorful sculptures placed on neutral grounds.
THE BLOCK: The 500 block of South Rendon Street on the odd-numbered, or north, side of the street, between Baudin Street on the north and D’Hemecourt Street on the south.
The block is close to the intersection of Tulane Avenue and South Jefferson Davis Parkway. Quite a few ethnic restaurants, including Jamaican and Latin, can be found nearby. The grand Orleans Parish Criminal District Court building is just a few blocks south.
THE HOUSES: Most of the eight buildings are shotguns, but one is a raised-basement type.
The variety on the block makes my head spin: a bracket-style double converted to a single and repurposed as a law office, a Neoclassical Revival double, an Arts and Crafts single shotgun with a side addition at the rear, another bracket-style double apparently still housing two units, an Eastlake single with a side addition at the rear, an Eastlake camelback single, a hybrid bracket-style/Craftsman double and a Craftsman raised-basement house.
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Photo illustration by R. Stephanie BrunoThe 500 block of South Rendon Street offers a rich variety of ornamentation on the mostly shotgun houses.
This week, I make a beeline for the 500 block of South Rendon Street where, according to friends at the Preservation Resource Center, a New Orleans transplant has started his own urban revival program.
Greg Lambert, they tell me, bought a raised Eastlake double on South Rendon before Hurricane Katrina and then got hooked on the neighborhood’s historic — and affordable — housing stock.
Now, Lambert is getting started on his sixth renovation, all within a block of his house, and plans to share his story with the world Sept. 23 at the PRC’s “Renovator’s Happy Hour” event (see calendar).
I decide to get a sneak peek and, though I don’t know which of the projects in the 500 block of South Rendon Street are Lambert’s, I find it doesn’t matter. I like them all!
Anatomy of the block
The location of the sun during my visit dictates that I focus on the odd-numbered side of the street. I start at the D’Hemecourt end of the block and admire a bracket-style double shotgun, now a single converted to commercial use. It has been meticulously restored and cared for, with a moss green body and terra cotta accents highlighting its charms.
The brackets have been painted the way I like to see them: one color applied to the raised pattern and a second color on the background, so that the raised pattern stands out. The gable features a handsome three-part attic with millwork applications radiating in a sunburst pattern.
The last home, at the corner of Baudin, is a raised-basement house that appears to have been recently renovated. It is a pinkish mocha color with dark red sash and complementary landscaping in the front yard.
The next house, a gray-and-white double shotgun, first strikes me as Neoclassical Revival (a 20th-century style) because of its low, wide roof dormer and the glass pattern in the dormer windows. But then I notice the drop-lap siding, quoins along the edge boards and carvings at the base of the two front doors — all 19th-century characteristics. I’m curious, but move on in the interest of time.
An immense oak dominates the front yard of the adjacent Arts and Crafts single shotgun, making it hard to see and even harder to photograph. Too bad, because its playful color scheme is a model of how to imbue a little house with a lot of personality.
Rich colors and insightful application make the next house — a bracket-style double — a standout. Blue shutters pop against an olive/khaki body and contrast perfectly with the terra cotta sash and front doors. Here, the scrollwork brackets have been painted with contrasting colors and go a step farther: The finials at the end of the brackets have been painted the same blue as the shutters.
Care was taken with painting the soffit, an area that is often painted all one color and then forgotten. Here, instead, the inset beaded board is painted a light blue and is surrounded by darker blue flat work, with the molding separating the two fields of color painted like the trim. The soffit vents are painted the same terra cotta as the sash and doors, highlighting them. A house like this one offers loads of opportunity to have fun with paint colors, and the owner has taken full advantage of it.
The fifth house is an Eastlake single with a side addition in the rear. Though its color scheme is a little more subdued than its neighbors’, its millwork benefits from thoughtful color placement. Elements such as the turned columns and open frieze with turned spindles are painted white, in soft contrast with the linen body color. The “bling” is reserved for the piercework panels in the frieze, the undulating running trim above the columns and the fish scales in the gable, which are baby blue. Add a pinch of terra cotta (yet again) for the spandrels and front door and voila! Chromatic perfection!
The next house is still under renovation. Even so, it’s a lovely Eastlake single with a camelback and side addition that make it bigger than first glance implies. It has all the elements of an Eastlake confection — turned columns, the frieze, pierce-work panels, spandrels — and even has handsomely turned balusters, drop-lap siding and quoins. The paint job is subtle and elegant, but I bet a few more hues will be added before the project is complete.
The next house is a puzzler. It has late 19th century proportions and tall windows, but an early 20th century roof dormer with mitered edges and a semi-pyramidal shape. I get the idea the dormer isn’t original, so perhaps it is a remodeling.
The last home, at the corner of Baudin, is a raised-basement house that appears to have been recently renovated. It is a pinkish mocha color with dark red sash and complementary landscaping in the front yard. No doubt there is an answer to the puzzle of the asymmetry of its roofline (why doesn’t the roof ridge align with the set of stairs in the center of the house?), but I am all out of answers.
Life on the street
It’s about lunchtime, and I ask the guys working on a building at South Rendon and Tulane for some ideas.
“Where can I get some lunch?” I ask.
“They got a McDonald’s over by the courthouse, ” one of them tells me.
Not long after, I happen upon a man eating his lunch in the shade after apparently digging up a sidewalk in order to repour it.
“I’m looking for a place to eat lunch, ” I tell him. “Do you know some place nearby?” But he shrugs and indicates he doesn’t speak English.
I finally ask a woman passing by if she knows a good place.
“Try the catfish place on Ulloa, baby, ” she suggests and keeps walking.
Catfish wins!
(TP)
