Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans

Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans by Starr, Frederick. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781568981475.

The Garden District epitomizes the beauty and mystery of New Orleans; the stately residences and gardens of this historic area are known worldwide for their graciousness and ease. The financial prosperity of nineteenth-century New Orleans, a center of commerce and culture, enabled wealthy newcomers with similar values and tastes to construct a neighborhood of opulent homes, creating a suburb with a unified style. This neighborhood-the Garden District-was situated along one of the first street railway lines in the country, and became one of the earliest commuter suburbs. It remains an enduring achievement of architectural and residential planning. Southern Comfort details the magnificent architecture and planning of the Garden District. Through the histories of the developers, owners, architects, laborers, and craftspeople who shaped this district, the book creates a picture of a uniquely cosmopolitan city in the American South. This title, first published in 1989 and long unavailable, has been carefully updated by the author. It includes 90 new color photographs, showing the brightly painted facades for which this neighborhood is famous, domestic interiors that have never been published, and restoration efforts that have occurred in the past decade.