3811 St Charles Ave
New Orleans, LA 70115, USA

Simon Hernsheim House (Columns Hotel) - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

The Hernsheim House/Columns Hotel is significant on the state level in the area of architecture for two reasons:

(1) It is the work of Thomas Sully, who is considered to be the most important architect in New Orleans during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
(2) Its interiors are among the finest in the state for the period. For this reason, the property is being nominated for significance on the state level.

Thomas Sully's career as an architect had its start in the offices of the Austin, Texas firm of Lamour and Wheelock in the late 1870's. He spent the first two years of the 1880's in the office of J. Morgan Slade in New York City. Slade is perhaps best noted today for the cast-iron fronted structures he designed in the SoHo district. Sully returned to New Orleans in 1882, and first appears in the city directories as an architect in 1883. Evidently his career here began to rise rapidly, for the newspaper accounts of new construction for the 1880's are full of references to his name. By the end of the decade, he had firmly established himself as the predominant figure in New Orleans architecture, and had established a partnership in 1887 with Albert Toledano which lasted until 1893. Sully is perhaps best known for his large residential designs, many of which have since been lost to demolition. Of equal importance are the many important commercial buildings he designed, the majority of which were located in the central business district of the city. The most famous of these was the St. Charles Hotel, erected in 1894-95 and demolished in 1974. His most important surviving works include the Whitney National Bank at 619 Gravier Street, the Maritime Building at 201 Carondelet Street, and the former New Orleans National Bank at the comer of Camp and Camion Streets, for which he also designed the furniture. He was also responsible for a number of hotels located throughout the South, among them were the Great Southern Hotel in Gulfport and the Lookout Mountain Inn in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which still survives and is known as Covenant College. Sully effectively retired from active practice in 1905, and died in New Orleans in 1939.

While no original drawings survive for the Hernsheim House, the linkage of the structure with the career of Sully is substantiated by a report in the Daily Picayune of September 1, 1884 which read; "Mr. Simon Hernsheim's new residence on St. Charles Avenue between General Taylor and Peniston will be completed by January 1st. and will be one of the finest dwellings in the city. It is being built Mr. Sully. It is two stories with an attic."

Although the exterior of the house has been altered somewhat, the interiors, which are more significant, remain relatively unchanged. The most noteworthy features in this regard are as follows:

1. the east parlor with its elaborate oak and burl walnut mantel
2. the mantel, overmantel, built-in sideboard, and the elaborate mahogany woodwork in the dining room.
3. the grand columnar articulation of the west double parlor
4. the staircase with its dramatic Baraque spatial effect

It is important to note that these interiors, and the remaining exterior features, constitute the sole survivor of a large group of houses designed by Sully in 1883-85.
These houses, which were more or less in the late Italianate style, comprise the pre-sedeboard in the dining room is a special interest and significance because it is the only such piece still in place in ant surviving houses designed by Sully.


Photo by Jonathan Fricker