Lower Pontalba Building

The Lower Pontalba Building was erected in 1850-1851 by Micaela Almonster Baroness De Pontalba, working first with architect James Gallier and then with architect Henry Howard, with Samuel Stewart as builder. William Ratcliffe Irby bequeathed it to the Louisiana State Museum in 1927. Its corner site had earlier been the French colonial Government House, residence of Governor Etienne De Perier from 1727 until 1731 and of Governor Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville from 1731 until the house was abandoned in 1738. On the rest of the block, barracks designed by Ignace Francois Broutin were begun in 1734, completed in 1738, and demolished by 1759. Don Andres Almonester y Roxas later acquired the site, and various buildings stood there until his daughter built the present structure.

New Orleans, Louisiana · United States