Longue Vue House and Gardens was established by philanthropists Edgar and Edith Stern. It is a historic, multifaceted estate that features a world-class house museum in addition to its eight acres of beautiful gardens. These gardens include an interactive Discovery Garden designed for children of any age and a Louisiana iris collection unmatched in New Orleans.
Designed and constructed between 1939 and 1942, the Longue Vue House and Gardens was built for Edgar and Edith Stern and their children by architects Geoffrey and William Platt and landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman. These architects and the Sterns worked together to create a stunning masterpiece of beauty and utility, uniting the gardens and the house. The estate consists of the main house, eight dependencies, five structures, twenty-two fountains and ponds, and fourteen garden areas. Longue Vue is one of the last Country Place Era houses built in America.
During a tour of the Longue Vue House, visitors enter through a one-of-a-kind circular vestibule. The house contains several fashionably decorated and varied rooms, including the Art Gallery, the Flower Arranging Room, and the Blue Room, which accurately named with its blue walls, carpeting, and furniture. The home's most formal room, the Drawing Room, is the setting for entertaining notable guests such as John and Robert Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jack Benny, and Pablo Casals among others. There is even a room solely for opening mail and wrapping presents, known as the Wrapping Room.
Longue Vue House and Gardens is an unparalleled treasure in a city full of beautiful gardens. First started in 1935 by “the dean of American women landscape architects,” Ellen Biddle Shipman, the gardens at Longue Vue have a significant place in America's history of horticulture design. When Longue Vue was created, a bold garden movement was happening, setting the stage for stunning garden estates across the United States. This period is referred to as the Country Place Era, as Americans looked to Europe for inspiration for seamlessly integrating their own indoor and outdoor spaces.
7 Bamboo Road, New Orleans, Louisiana, Phone: 504-488-5488
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