JIM BLANCHARD 

Jim Blanchard is a contemporary topographical artist known for his architectural archival watercolors of historic Louisiana buildings. A native son of Lafourche Parish, he was raised amid the aging plantations and vernacular 19 th century architecture of the region. Born in Thibodaux in 1955, Blanchard briefly studied at Nicholls State University before joining the family’s oil brokerage business. It was there that Blanchard learned to research archives and public records, and honed his drafting skills through making maps. Moving to New Orleans in the early 1980s, Blanchard – like many artists before – fell in love withthe city and its cultural and architectural history.In New Orleans, Blanchard turned his full attention to creating artwork based on the region’sarchitectural history. Using ink, watercolor and gouache as his primary medium, he depicted the grand buildings of the past with the precision of an architect, the integrity of an historian and the hand of a master watercolorist.

Eschewing the romanticism of decay so often embraced by contemporary artist, Blanchard depicts these buildings in their original glory, often adding figures in period dress for both scale and context. Calling them “Architectural Archival Watercolors” for their precise scale and historical accuracy, Blanchard’s works exist as both architectural renderings and topographical history paintings. In the tradition of thegreat 19 th century architect and painter, Marie Adrien Persac, the paintings of Jim Blanchard combine history, aesthetic and skill to create a visual document that is both accurate and idealized. Through these works, grand buildings rise from the ashes of the past, crumbling facades are restored and faded images glow with the color of life.

Blanchard moved his attentions out to the River Parishes, working on the restoration and history of Houmas House Plantation, and the restorations of both Ashland and Bocage Plantations. Blanchard designed and oversaw the construction of the Great River Road Museum at Houmas, and curated and created the exhibits for history of River Road in the Museum. His works appear in The BicentennialHistory of Art in Louisiana (The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities), and numerous otherpublications. Private and public collections, museums, and universities house Jim’s works of archival drawings, including The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, The Historic NewOrleans Collection, Louisiana State University, Tulane University, and noted others.

Dr. George Washington Campbell Residence

St. Charles Street, corner of Julia

The Italianate Campbell Mansion was designed and built by Lewis E. Reynolds, a New York trained architect, and finished in 1859 at a cost of $40,000. The Cast-Iron cornstalk fence surrounding the mansion was made by the Philadelphia’s Wood & Perot Foundry, and supplied by Wood and Miltenberger, New Orleans agents. During the war, federal troops took possession of the Campbell mansion and put out Mrs. Campbell and her family. U.S. General Benjamin “Spoons” Butler and his family occupied the mansion. The mansion was sold after the Civil War and became the luxurious residence of Judge Henry Spofford. The 50-year lease on the property expired in 1906 and the property reverted to the Poydras Home. The neighborhood began to change. The house became the Mansion Apartments, which housed the Chat and Chew Café, later known as the Hummingbird Café. In 1965 the house was demolished to make way for a parking lot. Only the rear carriage house remains on Julia Street and is now incorporated in the new retail and apartmentdevelopment on the property.

NOTTOWAY PLANTATION HOME

White Castle, Louisiana

John Hampden Randolph (1813- 1883), a native of Virginia, first acquired the 1,650 acre Forest Home Plantation on Bayou Goula in 1841. John Randolph married Emily Jane Liddell in 1837 and had eleven children. He later acquired the adjoining 1,020 acre plantation, which would become Nottoway Plantation. Henry Howard, architect, signed a contract in June 1857 to build a mansion for John H. Randolph. A contract was signed with Timothy Joyce (1813-1875), master carpenter, in 1858, to build the mansion. The granite and marble were by Newton Richards of New Orleans, and the plastering by Jeremiah Supple. The mansion was completed in the Fall of 1859. The gardens were laid out by John Nelson, a New Orleans florist, in May of 1860. (included 120 fruit and citrus trees, 12 magnolia trees, poplar, live oak trees, 75 rose bushes, 150 strawberry plants, and a variety of flower and vegetable gardens) The gardens were lost to the levee set-backs and the erosion from the Mississippi River. During the Civil War (1861-1865), Randolph decided to take 200 enslaved people to Texas, and grow cotton there while his wife, Emily, stayed at Nottoway with the youngest children, hoping that their presence would save it from destruction. The house was occupied by US Army and Confederate troops. John Randolph died at Nottoway on Sept. 8, 1883, leaving the plantation to his wife. Emily sold the plantation in 1889 for $50,000. Desire Pierre Landry and Jean Baptiste Dugas owned Nottoway until 1909, when it was sold to Alfonse Hanlon. Dr. Whyte G. Owen purchased the mansion in 1913. In 1949, Nottoway was inherited by his son, Stanford Owen and his wife, Odessa. Arlen K. Dease purchased Nottoway in 1980 and restored the mansion and grounds. Paul Ramsay of Sydney, Australia, purchased the mansion in 1985.

Nicholas Girod House “Napoleon House”; Chartres Street, French Quarter

In 1814, Nicolas Girod inherited the house on the corner of Chartres and St. Louis streets which was originally built in 1794. The Girod house was enlarged in1814 by Hyacinthe Laclotte, architect. Nicholas Girod, the fifth mayor of New Orleans from 1812 to 1814, was one of the sponsors for the plot to rescue Napoleon from St. Helena. The ship “Seraphine” was being readied for a secret voyage by Dominique You, one of Lafitte’s lieutenants, but was ended by the death of Napoleon on May 5th , 1821. The building housed a grocery store in the late 1800s and became known as “the Napoleon House” restaurant and bar soon after Prohibition. The Impastato family operated the Napoleon House from 1914to 2015, when it was sold to Ralph Brennen. The Lafittes were intent listeners to the audacious scheme unfolded to them by M. Girod as they conversed amiably before the forge in the evenings. At their recommendations, M. Girod took into his confidence one Dominic You, and plans went immediately into the formative. The plan was simplicity itself, in the telling of it. It was merely to make a quick dash upon St. Helena, overpower the British guards, bear away the Emperor, conduct him to a swift yacht and sail off to America. The energetic Lafittes selected a two-fisted crew to man the fast and comfortably equipped craft provided by the promoter of this brilliant kidnapping enterprise, adding a noted soldier of fortune, Bossière by name, as captain of the Bonaparte rescue expedition. As the work of fitting out the yacht went on, Nicholas Girod furnished his home in all the magnificence required for the abode of an autocrat in a democratic land.

New York Tribune, 1920

SEVEN OAKS PLANTATION “Petit Desert”

1759-1772 – ownership was Claude Joseph Villars Dubreuil, Jr.'

1775-1785 – ownership was Jean Louis Trudeau. The younger Dubreuil and Trudeau, his brother-in-law, had vast ownerships in Barateria.

1794 – Alexander Harang sold 10 arpents of his plantation to Michel Zeringue, his son-in-law, with the stipulation that the adjacent plantation owner might enjoy use of the canal.

1830 – Camile Zeringue sold the canal to the Barateria and Lafourche Canal Company. (Directors: L. LaBranche, C. Zeringue, N. B. LeBreton, F. Fazende, and Charles Derbigny, president) Michel Zeringue’s widow, Josephine, inherited the property, known as “Petit Desert”, which eventually passed to Camile Zeringue. He also inherited property from his sister Marie Anne Azelie Zeringue, widow of Jean Baptiste Dorsino de Blanc. The couple had built as earlier house, described in an inventory as sixty feet square, on the present location. Camile demolished the old house and began building Seven Oaks about 1835.

The Zeringue family owned Seven Oaks Plantation until after the Civil War. The house served as an army barracks during World War 1 and was owned by Columbia Gardens Resort until 1939, when Texas & amp; Pacific Railroad purchased the property.

The house was finally demolished in 1977.

NOTTOWAY PLANTATION HOME

White Castle, Louisiana John Hampden Randolph (1813- 1883), a native of Virginia, first acquired the 1,650 acre Forest Home Plantation on Bayou Goula in 1841. John Randolph married Emily Jane Liddell in 1837 and had eleven children. He later acquired the adjoining 1,020 acre plantation, which would become Nottoway Plantation.

Henry Howard, architect, signed a contract in June 1857 to build a mansion for John H. Randolph. A contract was signed with Timothy Joyce (1813-1875), master carpenter, in 1858, to build the mansion. The granite and marble were by Newton Richards of New Orleans, and the plastering by Jeremiah Supple. The mansion was completed in the Fall of 1859. The gardens were laid out by John Nelson, a New Orleans florist, in May of 1860. (included 120 fruit and citrus trees, 12 magnolia trees, poplar, live oak trees, 75 rose bushes, 150 strawberry plants, and a variety of flower and vegetable gardens) The gardens were lost to the levee set-backs and the erosion from the Mississippi River.

During the Civil War (1861-1865), Randolph decided to take 200 enslaved people to Texas, and grow cotton there while his wife, Emily, stayed at Nottoway with the youngest children, hoping that their presence would save it from destruction. The house was occupied by US Army and Confederate troops.

John Randolph died at Nottoway on Sept. 8, 1883, leaving the plantation to his wife. Emily sold the plantation in 1889 for $50,000. Desire Pierre Landry and Jean Baptiste Dugas owned Nottoway until 1909, when it was sold to Alfonse Hanlon. Dr. Whyte G. Owen purchased the mansion in 1913. In 1949,

Nottoway was inherited by his son, Stanford Owen and his wife, Odessa. Arlen K. Dease purchased Nottoway in 1980 and restored the mansion and grounds. Paul Ramsay of Sydney, Australia, purchased the mansion in 1985.

The Charles Caffin Mansion

Royal Street, corner of Gov. Nicholls

The Henry Sullivan Buckner Mansion

Jackson Avenue – Garden District of New Orleans Henry Sullivan Buckner (1797-1883), a Kentucky born cotton factor, built his new mansion on Jackson Avenue in the fashionable Garden District of New Orleans in 1857. Buckner’s business partner, Frederick Stanton, just had Lewis E. Reynolds, architect, design his new home “Stanton Hall”, in Natchez in 1856.

Buckner also chose Reynolds to build a house to rival his business partner. Catherine Allen Buckner (Mrs. Henry Buckner) died in 1882 and Henry Buckner in 1883. Laura Buckner Eustis, daughter of Henry and Catherine, purchased the Estate in 1884. The Eustis Family sold the house in 1920 to Albert Lee Soule and Edward E. Soule for $552,500. Soule College, founded in 1856 as a business school, moved into the mansion in 1923. Soule College closed in 1983, and the mansion sat vacant. The Buckner

Mansion is once again a graceful home.

New Orleans Townhouse Floater

The New Orleans Townhouse is generally a three-bay side hall structure with a hallway to the left or right side of double parlors. The staircase in the hall takes one up to the second, and sometimes, a third floor containing bedrooms. To the rear of the residence is a service wing containing kitchens, service rooms, a second staircase and servant’s quarters. Some townhouses have an extra room between the main building and the service wing, usually used as a dining room. Historically, the interiors were decorated with the latest fashions in design and comfort, while the exteriors were mostly identical, except for the decorative features that adorned the facades. Like a Paper Doll, an owner had options to dress thetownhouse in any fashion they wished. The Floater paintings show options that could be placed upon a brick townhouse to create a unique façade.