The Pontalba Buildings
The Pontalba Buildings in New Orleans are two matching rows of sixteen three-story red-brick row houses flanking Jackson Square, commissioned by Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba after she survived being shot four times in 1834. Inspired by Paris's Palais Royal, these structures feature ornate iron balconies with an AP monogram designed by her son Gaston. Over the years, literary icons like William Faulkner and Sherwood Anderson resided here.
New Orleans · from the walk “Moon Walk: New Orleans Riverfront Revealed” · audio ~3 min · Generated
Lower Pontalba Building, 523 St Ann St, New Orleans
- On October 19, 1834, Baroness Micaela Almonester survived being shot four times at point-blank range by her father-in-law.
- The Pontalba Buildings consist of sixteen three-story red-brick row houses situated on each side of New Orleans' Jackson Square.
- Architects James Gallier and Henry Howard both resigned from the Pontalba Buildings project after clashing with the baroness.
- The iron balconies of the Pontalba Buildings showcase an AP monogram designed by the baroness's artist son Gaston.
Who commissioned the construction of the Pontalba Buildings in New Orleans?
Look up at these gorgeous red-brick row houses stretching the full length of Jackson Square. These are the Pontalba Buildings... and the woman who built them had one of the most extraordinary lives in all of American history.......... MicaEla Leonarda Antonia Almonester was born right here in New Orleans on November sixth, seventeen ninety-five. When she was just two and a half years old, her father Don Andres Almonester y Rojas died, leaving her the sole heir to a considerable fortune. And what a fortune it was. Her father had funded the reconstruction of Saint Louis Cathedral after the great fire of seventeen eighty-eight, as well as the construction of the Cabildo and the Presbytere... the very buildings you can see surrounding this square.......... At fifteen, MicaEla married her French cousin, Joseph-Xavier Célestin Delfau de Pontalba, and moved to France. The marriage was not successful. She became a virtual prisoner at the de Pontalba chateau in Mont-l'Évêque, near Senlis. And here's where the story turns dark. For Twenty years, her father-in-law attempted to drive her to abandon Célestin so he could seize her fortune. He tried dozens of strategies... including at one point instructing the entire Pontalba household to pretend she was invisible.......... When all else failed... on October nineteenth, eighteen thirty-four, he stormed into her bedroom and shot MicaEla Four times in the chest at point-blank range with a pair of dueling pistols. One bullet passed through the hand she had instinctively raised to cover the gun's muzzle. Her left breast was disfigured and two of her fingers were permanently mutilated. That evening, the baron committed suicide in his study by shooting himself in the head with the same dueling pistols.......... But MicaEla Survived. And what did she do? She fought back... in court! After several more lawsuits, a civil law judge ordered the restitution of her property, and she was granted a legal separation from her husband. Then she came home to New Orleans and built... All of this.......... Inspired by the Palais Royal in Paris, she added Greek Revival details and her own creole heritage to build sixteen classic three-story row houses on Each side of the cathedral. She hired architect James Gallier to make preliminary sketches, but they had a falling out. Another prominent architect, Henry Howard, was retained... and HE also left the job after clashing with the baroness. She monitored the work so vigilantly that she was even reported to have donned men's work clothes and scaled the ladders at the construction site!......... Now look closely at the iron balconies. See those elegant initials woven through the ironwork? That poetic A P monogram, standing for Almonester and Pontalba, was designed by MicaEla's own son Gaston, who was a gifted artist.......... And one final remarkable detail. With money from her mother's estate, she also commissioned architect Louis Visconti to build a mansion on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. That mansion... is known today as the Hôtel de Pontalba, and it serves as the official residence of the United States Ambassador to France. Over the years, these very apartments have housed literary giants including Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, and Katherine Anne Porter.......... A woman shot four times at point-blank range, left for dead in a French château... who rose to reshape the heart of two of the world's greatest cities. That is the story written in every brick and iron curl of the Pontalba Buildings.