3643 Camp St
New Orleans, LA 70115, USA

Rice House (Delachaise House) - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

The Rice House is a fine example of an Italianate raised villa. This can be seen in its basic design, in its handsome bracketed front gallery, and in its marble fireplaces and other interior detailing. There are approximately 12 surviving houses of this type in the city. Although the Rice House is not the grandest of these, it is certainly not the least. Moreover, because the Rice House is encompassed by a generous landscaped lot, its setting (and therefore its exterior aesthetic effect) is better preserved than most. As a result, it conveys the sense of an urban raised villa far better than most other examples.

The Rice House, together with the asylum buildings to the rear, served for 98 years as the Fink Asylum for protestant widows and orphans. It was one of the first such charitable homes in the city.

In Gardner's New Orleans Directory of 1866, page 373, the name of Henry Rice is listed together with an advertisement showing the prominence of his firm. Rice Brothers and Company," importers ‘of hardware, cutlery and stoves and manufacturers of tinware, and whose place of business was at 242 Tchoupitoulas St., New Orleans. Research further shows that on June 5, 1866, Annie-Dell ‘and Henry David Rice purchased the block of ground bounded by Camp, Chestnut, Antonine and Amelia Streets in what was then known as the City of Jefferson, a suburb-of New Orleans.

The Rice’s subsequently built the house and lived in it for 9 years. In 1875, the house was bought by the City of New Orleans for use as the Fink Asylum.

The institution of the Fink Asylum dates back to the 1850's. John David Fink was a wealthy realtor who had immigrated from Germany in 1816. Upon his death, he willed the bulk of his fortune to the City of New Orleans for the purpose of establishing an "asylum" for protestant widows and orphans. These people could not be cared for by the normal charitable institutions of the city, which had their roots in the Roman Catholic Church. The city operated the Fink Home and paid the upkeep. By the 1890's, space was becoming inadequate and two large brick dormitory wings were erected at the rear of the building.

The Fink Home continued to operate until 1973, when it was closed because it could not meet the newly enacted requirements stipulated by the U.S. Department of Health. It was then that the house was bought by its present owners who are undertaking a complete restoration, not only of the house, but also of the landscaping.