A last walking tour of downtown. Beaureguard-Keyes House. Kathy heads home.

Monday marked the end of Kathy's visit. She had wanted to visit some of the museums downtown. The Cabildo, where the Louisiana Purchase was signed and the Old New Orleans Mint, though thru a lack of planning on our part, were both closed on Monday.

So we headed downtown on the St. Charles trolley to the Beauregard-Keyes house. But first we stopped for a nice breakfast at the Monteleone Hotel on Royal Street.

Our server was a wonderful lady, Lucille, who asked politely "May I address you by your first name?" "Thank you Ms. Kathleen" "Thank you Mr. AJ". She was really very sweet.

The Beauregard-Keyes (known from here on out as B-K) was built for a French-American auctioneer named LeCarpentier in the 1820's on land purchased from the Ursuline Convent which still occupies most of the city block just across the street. Mr. LeCarpentier lived in the house for just 7 years before "moving on", as our guide said. One of the houses unique traits is that it is a "raised cottage", meaning that the living area is on the second floor and it has a "basement", much like the one I've been living in for the last three weeks.

The parlor with it's square piano. Most of the furnishing in this house are originals, but not all.

One of the bedrooms.

The formal dinner room.

The folks sitting in front of the picture are trying to get a good angle for a pic of it. It's a night scene in Venice and very dark due to the fact that the artist mixed gunpowder into his paint to make it as dark as possible. He succeeded.

After a series of sales and purchases, General. P.G.T. Beauregard rented the house for just one and a half years starting in 1865 when he returned to New Orleans after the Civil War. An civil engineer by trade he worked on building the levee system in Louisiana amongst other things.

The contents of Gen. Beauregard's trunk. It's real, not sure about the mess kit, flag and mugs.

In the 1920's, yet another buyer wanted to raze the house to build a "macaroni" factory because of all the Italian immigrants living in the quarter. A group of Southern women on hearing of the plan protested that the home of a son of the South should not be torn down for a "macaroni" factory. They succeeded and in 1944 the house was purchased by Frances Parkinson Keyes (rhymes with "skies" not "keys"), a novelist of some reknown and she lived there until her death in 1970.

The house is divided into two separate living areas. The main house is the original and the back house, where the slave quarters were was remodeled by Ms. Keyes and turned into her residence.

Looking from the main house towards the back residence where Ms. Keyes lived.

Towards the main house.

Here's a shot of Ms. Keyes lounge and working area.

Her work desk which includes a handwritten portion of one of her novels

Ms. Keyes wrote some 60 novels in her lifetime including the best selling "Dinner at Antone's" and a novel of life on a River Road plantation "The River Road".

It has a very large garden area outside the house (most houses in the Quarter have interior gardens).
Since it's just now spring the garden isn't in it's full glory yet.

A trolley ride back to the apartment then off to deliver Kathy at the airport for her flight back to Denver. She has to work the next five days in a row, poor girl.

After a week of company, I've finally managed to catch something so I'm taking a sick day today. Probably will just go for a walk at some point and then catch up on some reading. I've got to get well since Susan and Carol arrive Thursday night and I'm sure they will torture me relentlessly for four days.

Laissez les bons temps rouler. Sniffle. Cough.