523 St. Anne Street, New Orleans, LA 70116
Website, tickets here
- A portal into the world of mid-19th-century real estate developer Micaela Almonester de Pontalba and the urban community she created, the 1850 House is a must-see for students of material culture and New Orleans Antebellum society.
- Situated on Jackson Square and a museum since 1948, the former No. 8 St. Ann is surrounded by apartments occupied by contemporary city-dwellers, merchants, and restaurants.
The history
Built between 1849 and 1851, the Pontalba apartment buildings that bracket Jackson Square retain the name of their builder, Micaela Almonester de Pontalba. Her father, real estate tycoon and Spanish Colonial official Andres Amonester y Roxas, financed the construction of the Cabildo, Presbytere (both now Louisiana State Museums, as is the 1850 House), and the square’s centerpiece, St. Louis Cathedral. (Almonaster Avenue in New Orleans is named for him. Most references spell his and his daughter’s name with the e and not the a. More about that here.)
The 1850 House tour is an introduction to the enduring urban community that Baroness Pontalba created with her mirror-image townhouses, as well as a portal into her remarkable story. Born in New Orleans in 1795, she married in 1811 to Joseph Xavier Célestin Delfau de Pontalba, a cousin. She lived with him in France, unhappily, for two decades. After her father-in-law tried to kill her – she took four bullets in the assault, which ended in his suicide by the same gun – she returned to New Orleans in 1849 and personally supervised the construction of the Pontalba buildings. The iron-lace galleries that surround the upper floors of the buildings carry her monogram, “AP.” (The deepest possible dive into French Quarter ironwork is here.) She died in France in 1874, at age 78. (A not wildly flattering portrait of her is here.)
With commercial spaces at the ground level and apartments above, the buildings have had many lives. (Early photos and drawings here.) Declining after the Civil War, they became tenement apartments occupied by Italian immigrants. In the early 1920s, ownership of the Lower Pontalba (to your right, or downriver, as you face the cathedral) transferred to the Louisiana State Museum. It has been a house museum since 1948.
Overview
The names of early tenants, and some details of their lives, are recounted in wall text in the house. Early on, prosperous merchants and their families and their enslaved and free servants were the occupants. During the time period preserved in the museum, the first floor (now the museum shop) was occupied by a hardware store. The families that lived upstairs were the Sorias, the Cammacks, and the Hewes. Though the residential rooms are set with period furniture and artwork, they’re not meant to represent any individual family.
The self-guided tour winds up and down through all of the levels of the townhouse (No. 8 St. Ann in the old days) and concludes in the courtyard in what would’ve been the household kitchen. The tour visits the parlor, dining room, bedrooms, service wing, courtyard, and kitchen before concluding in the store.
The tour is looking (a lot if you’re into 19th-century material culture), reading, stair-climbing, and listening – if the “1850s soundscape” feature is operating. It wasn’t on during my most recent visit in May 2026. About a year earlier, it was working, and I found it effective in setting the Urban Antebellum mood. Piano music and singing (presumably re-creating a performance by one of the Cammack children), played in the parlor. The conversation between a mother and daughter played in one of the bedrooms.
Lighting throughout approximates the dim illumination provided by gas flames. The house features contemporary HVAC infrastructure, but it’s not hard to imagine the misery of a late-spring-to-early-fall New Orleans heat in the rooms.
This experience should fill less than an hour, even if you’re a museum “diver” (defined here). The low admission price ($8 for adults) makes it a good value if you’re looking for an enriching way to escape the heat and cacophony of Jackson Square at midday. The museum is correct to acknowledge the involuntary contributions by the enslaved to the comfort of the comparative swells whose genteel heydays are depicted in the tour narrative. As noted above, it’s also a portal into the world of the Pontalba buildings (contemporary updates below) and their maker. More here.
Must-see objects
- Even though it requires a brief return to the swelter of the courtyard, don’t overlook the kitchen. The cast-iron demonstration stove there, ca. 1850, includes sniffable pots of some of the smells that would’ve filled the space then.
- The portrait of Jenny Lind in the bedroom fitted to resemble where young Thomas Cammack would’ve lived (before enlisting as a Confederate soldier) is a reference to the Swedish vocalist’s monthlong residence in New Orleans in 1851. She stayed in the Upper Pontalba during her celebrated stay. The Baroness auctioned off that apartment’s furnishings after Lind’s departure. Much more on Lind here.
Public programs
The 1850 House store is the setting for a few public programs each year, but it is year-round an important pin-drop because that’s where Friends of the Cabildo history tours of the French Quarter gather. There are so many walking tours of the Quarter, and you are welcome to indulge your special interests (ghosts, voodoo, etc.), but a Friends of the Cabildo tour will lock in on history.
Museum store
There are good books to be had here (history, food, etc.), as well as keepsakes by local artisans.
Parking
There are big pay lots on either side of the Jax Brewery building across Jackson Square.
Lunch
Stanley and Fives are 1850 House neighbors. Muriel’s is fancier and has some winky ghost references happening.
Drinks
The Will & the Way is a couple of blocks up Toulouse. The indoor bar can be too loud for conversation or contemplation. The courtyard behind it, however, is great.
Website
There are a couple, here and here. The second has links to the store’s online outlet and a downloadable PDF that offers room-by-room details for preview or follow-up study.
Extra thing
The 1850 House offers a look into New Orleans history, and a glimpse of what some of the floor plans might be like in its building and the twin across the square. The lower Pontalba is owned by the state. The Upper is owned by the City of New Orleans. Both still operate as apartments. Navigation to available units in the Lower is here. The city’s version, rentability status unclear, has rich recent history (a mayor’s alleged misdeeds, repairs following Hurricane Ida damage here and here).