Free previewStop 4 of Garden District Walking Tour: Mansions and Lafayette Cemetery
An Iron Cornfield on Fourth Street
You're in front of the big house locals call Colonel Short's Villa, in the Garden District. Before you look at the house, look at the fence. Get close to it. Those aren't plain iron bars. They're cornstalks, cast in metal, standing guard on a city sidewalk. Look for the leaves and the ears of corn, and see whether you can pick out any vines winding among them.
The house went up in 1859 for Colonel Robert Short, a man from Kentucky. To design it he hired Henry Howard, an architect behind nearly 300 buildings across Louisiana, including several on this tour.
The fence is what people remember, and they come with a story. Colonel Short's wife, the legend goes, was homesick for Iowa. She missed the fields she grew up with in this hot, unfamiliar city.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 4 of Garden District Walking Tour: Mansions and Lafayette Cemetery (2 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
