818 St Louis St
New Orleans, LA 70112, USA

Hermann-Grima House (Christian Woman's Exchange) - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

Built in 1831, the Hermann - Grima House is one of the best examples of the American influence on New Orleans architecture after the Louisiana Purchase.

The principal rooms are being furnished through the efforts of a joint decorating committee of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Louisiana and the Board of Managers of the Christian Woman’s Exchange. The furnishings, which are being selected meticulously after thorough research, are of the early nineteenth century and reflect the era in which the house was built. In addition, the old open-hearth kitchen has been restored and furnished.

The replanting of the courtyard parterre by the New Orleans Town Gardeners recreates a garden of the period and includes the herbs used for culinary and medicinal purposes. All plant material has been carefully documented to have existed in New Orleans prior to 1860. Of ecological signific is the use of the old established hardy plant material to reduce the necessity for insecticides.

The restoration and development of the entire complex, i.e., mansion house, kitchen and other dependencies, and garden, enables the visitor, historian, and student to experience totally one notable segment of life in New Orleans during the glamour years between 1830 and 1860. Guided tours of the mansion house, dependencies and courtyard garden and open-hearth cooking demonstrations correlate the preservation of an historic complex designated by the Vieux Carre Historic Demonstration Study as Category Group A —’’buildings of irreplaceable architectural and historic value’ which should not be replaced or changed under any circumstances.