TUWA TOUR OF THE PITOT HOUSE MUSEUM

Saturday March 15, fourteen TUWA members and friends were given a tour of the Pitot House by Susan McClamroch, Pitot House Director, and Mercedes Whitecloud, Chair of the Louisiana Landmarks Society Pitot House Committee.  The house, built about 1799, was owned and occupied by the first American mayor of New Orleans from 1810 to 1819.   The Louisiana Landmarks Society bought the house in 1964 in order to save it from demolition.  Because a new building was planned for its site the Society not only had to buy but to move it to a nearby site on Bayou St. John.  Throughout the purchase of the house, its move “next door” and its reconstruction, Samuel Wilson, an architect and a Tulane affiliate, as well as the first president of the Louisiana Landmarks Society, was a prime mover in the project.

The tour of the house included the ground floor, which was rebuilt after the move, and the second floor, which survived the move virtually intact.  The upstairs was the primary living space for the residents and is furnished with pieces appropriate to the period in which Mayor Pitot resided in the house.  The architecture was desribed as a melding of French and Carribean influences, determined largely by the craftsmen who constructed it.

As the group enjoyed a picnic lunch after the tour, they commented on the interesting history and architecture of this historic old house and how fortunate New Orleans is to have many historic buildings still standing.  A major mission of the Louisiana Landmarks Society is the preservation of historic structures and neighborhoods.  A tour of the Pitot House brings the value of historic architecture to life.

More information about the house and about Louisiana Landmarks can be obtained from its website:  www.louisianalandmarks.org  Tours may be requested from Susan McClamroch at smcclamroch@louisianalandmarks.org