My recent visit to Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans marked my third visit—as a mother of young children, a wife, and now a single retiree traveling with my best friend.
I’m sure you can guess that I appreciate the beauty of the house and its surrounding gardens.
The home is located in the Longview neighborhood, 12 miles northeast of the French Quarter.
The former home of philanthropists Edgar Stern and Edith Rosenwald Stern, heiress of the Sears-Roebuck magnate. The couple had three children, all successful in their own right: Edgar Bloom Stern Jr., Phillip M. Stern and Audrey Stern Hess.
The current house is the second on the property. The original house and gardens began in 1924. In 1934, landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman began to work on designs for the garden on the home’s 8 acres.
After touring Europe and Africa, the Sterns decided they wanted a home where they could see the gardens from inside the house. They moved the original house and began construction in 1939. It was completed in 1942. The four facades of the house have distinct appearances, and on each side, there is a different garden. It has 20 rooms on three stories, with original furnishings.
Our guide took us room to room, pointing out distinct decor and furnishings of the Sterns.
It took the better part of an hour to tour the house.
Longue Vue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2005. The national significance lies in its association with Shipman. This was the only major work of Shipman’s where she had complete creative control over the landscape.
The gardens are magnificent and creative.
Take a break from the French Quarter, call an Uber, and visit. I can highly recommend the historic attraction in the Big Easy. Make sure you have enough time, something I did not have, to tour the house and the gardens.
For more information, click here. For more information on visiting New Orleans, click here.
