7 Bamboo Rd
New Orleans, LA 70124, USA

Longue Vue House and Gardens - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

Longue Vue is of state significance in the area of architecture as an outstanding exair5>le of a Louisiana residence built under the influence of the eclectic revival styles of the 1920s and '30s. Virtually all major residences constructed in the state during this period reflect this influence, with styles running the gamut from neo-Georgian, to Mission, to "Tudor," etc. But even the grandest examples tend to be limited to a single building, set on a large lot, and styled with applied manufactured ornament.

Three factors mark Longue Vue as one of the most distinguished examples from among this general body of architecture:

1) It is probably the only eclectic revival estate in Louisiana, possessing its own grounds, formal gardens, and substantial, styled flanking outbuildings connected to the main house by colonnades. In this, it is more like estates found in the northeastern states than the conventional Louisiana millionaire's residence of the period, which consisted of a "nice big house" set on a big suburban lot.
2) Longue Vue's design goes much farther in reviving a particular historic architectural epoch than virtually any other period residence in Louisiana. In contrast to the loose, evocative, and conventional designs seen in contemporaneous architectural practice. Longue Vue evidences the more sophisticated spirit of learned imitation of past glories. Its design is very specifically derived from British architecture of the period c. 1740 to c. 1780. One see features such as five-part neo-Palladian articulation with a second story portico set on a single story base, curving exterior stairs ascending to the garden portico, various circular and semicircular spaces on the interior, delicate Adamesque ceiling centerpieces and friezes, and a glass dome surmounting the capacious stair hall. Moreover, the house has a certain lightness and delicacy clearly redolent of the period of Robert Adam and Sir William Chambers.
3) Longue Vue's elegantly proportioned and thoroughly convincing design responds well both to functional needs and a difficult site. It should be regarded as a first-rate example of the eclectic architect's craft of adapting past styles to the needs of the present
Historical Note
Longue Vue takes its name from the inn on the Hudson River where Edgar B. Stern proposed to Edith Rosenwald. Stern, a New Orleans native, was a wealthy businessman, and Mrs. Stern, from Chicago originally, was the daughter of Sears tycoon Julius Rosenwald. Both were very well-known and honored in New Orleans for their numerous philanthropic and civic activities. Mr. Stern died in 1959, and Mrs. Stern continued to live at Longue Vue until 1978. She died in 1980, the same year the property was opened to the public as a historic house museum. Longue Vue was designed by the New York firm of William and Geoffrey Platt. The two brothers, like their architect father, Charles A. Platt, specialized in the classical tradition. William Platt, the chief designer at Longue Vue, has numerous major commissions to his credit, including the Chapel for the American Battle Monuments Commission in Paris, the First Corning Glass Building in New York, National Academy School of Fine Arts in New York, the General Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia, and buildings for various colleges and academies in the East. William Platt died in 1984, and his brother died in 1985.

Ellen Biddle Shipman, the landscape architect, was self-taught. It was Charles A. Platt who had encouraged her interest in landscape architecture, and she worked with him on several projects. She had offices in Cornish, New Hampshire and New York City. In her sixties at the time of the Longue Vue commission, she retired from active practice in 1948. She died in 1950. Shipman also served as the interior design consultant for Longue Vue. The room maquettes made by her office, showing how each room would look, are on display at Longue Vue.