Spanish Custom House on Bayou Saint John

Why is it significant?

Arrive before the romantic, shuttered veranda of the Spanish Custom House at 1300 Moss Street, positioned at a strategic bend along Bayou Saint John.

Key Facts

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Arrive before the romantic, shuttered veranda of the Spanish Custom House at 1300 Moss Street, positioned at a strategic bend along Bayou Saint John. Popularly reputed to have served in the late eighteenth century as the Spanish colonial customs station monitoring maritime commerce arriving from Lake Pontchartrain, this enchanting raised cottage was built around 1784 by French planter and builder Jean-Baptiste Lorreins, known as Tarascon, making it one of the oldest private residences in the Mississippi Valley.

Look at the steeply pitched double-break hipped roof: this distinct West Indian roofline features deep flared eaves extending twelve feet beyond the walls, designed to cast cooling shadows over the windows while rapidly shedding torrential subtropical summer downpours.

In the Spanish colonial era, all merchant schooners, pirogues, and fishing boats sailing into New Orleans via Lake Pontchartrain had to stop at this bayou outpost to pay tariffs on European wine, Spanish olive oil, Caribbean rum, and textiles before transporting goods down the bayou road into the city. Smugglers and privateers associated with the Lafitte brothers frequently attempted to evade custom officers by slipping through tributary swamps into Lake Borgne under cover of darkness. The residence features massive hand-hewn cypress timber beams, original brick fireplaces mortared with oyster-shell lime, and an expansive ground-level brick arcade. Surrounded by ancient live oaks and blooming azaleas, the property embodies the serene rural beauty that once defined the entire bayou landscape before modern streetcars and suburban avenues arrived.

Touching the ancient wooden picket fence as the moss sways in the afternoon breeze, you can envision eighteenth-century sailing sloops docking along the reeds to declare their colonial cargoes. It is an evocative window into Louisiana's Spanish maritime past.

Walk west along City Park Avenue to the grand oak entrance of New Orleans City Park.