500 Chartres St
New Orleans, LA 70130, USA

Nicholas Girod House ( Mayor Girod House;The Napoleon House) - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

One of the best examples of the continuing French architectural influence in New Orleans, the Mayor Girod House, is a structural consisted dating from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Mayor Nicolas Girod built the three-story section of the building in 1814 attaching it to a two-story section constructed by his brother in 1794. Little altered and unrestored, the mayor Girod house is an important and excellent example of a large French colonial townhouse in the United States.

HISTORY
In 1814, Nicolas Girod, then serving his first term as mayor of New Orleans, inherited from his brother. Clause Francois, a comer lot at Chartres and ^ St. Louis Streets. He built the large main house which is sometimes known as The Napoleon House because of local stories which tie Girod to a plan to rescue the former French leader and give him the house as his residence. Girod owned the house until his death in 1841. The Impastato family has owned the building for about seventy years. A bar and grill is now located in the first floor and the rest of the house has been converted into apartments, but great care is taken by the current owners to maintain the structure of the building.