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The front
The front is plain and symmetrical, in the French neoclassical style
The convent is a formal, symmetrical building, severely designed in its lack of ornamentation. The plain walls are broken only by slightly arched windows, rusticated quoins at the corners and a narrow central pedimented pavilion. The National Park Service states that it is the finest surviving example of French colonial public architecture in the country.
1727
In 1727 nuns from Rouen came to run a hospital and teach young girls
In 1727, at the request of Governor Étienne Perier, nuns from the Ursuline Convent of Rouen in Normandy went to New Orleans to found a convent, run a hospital, and take care of educating young girls. The first building was designed by Ignace François Broutin, and the builder was Michael Zeringue, the King's Master Carpenter from Franconia, Bavaria.
Timber walls
The first convent's timber walls were left bare, and it decayed by 1745
The first convent used half-timbered construction, the major form of French Colonial building in the colony in the 18th century. Usually the walls were covered with stucco or boards, but a drawing from 1737 confirms that the timbered walls here were left exposed. The method proved inappropriate for the humid climate of New Orleans, with significant deterioration already apparent by 1745, and it was a fire hazard.
Brick
A brick convent was finished by 1753 and keeps a cypress staircase
In 1745 Broutin prepared plans for a new building of brick and protected colombage. The contractor was Claude Joseph Villars Dubreuil, whose wife, Marie Payen de Noyan, was Bienville's niece. The new convent was completed by 1753. Inside, a winding cypress staircase with a wrought iron handrail is believed to have been salvaged from the original convent of the 1730s.
The move
The nuns moved downriver in 1824, and the bishop took the convent
The convent and its school, Ursuline Academy, moved downriver in 1824 to a site on Dauphine Street, turning the original convent over to the bishop of New Orleans, Louis William Valentine DuBourg. It was later called the Archbishop's Palace. A gatehouse built around 1825 to 1830 moved the main entrance from the river side to Chartres Street. In 1912 the convent moved uptown to State Street.
Day 6, midday
It comes after The Cabildo. Then Moon Walk.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Old Ursuline Convent, New Orleans, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.