Old Ursuline Convent
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Ursuline Convent (french: Couvent des Ursulines) was a series of historic Ursuline
convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
s in
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
,
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. In 1727, at the request of Governor Étienne Perier, nuns from the Ursuline Convent of
Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
(Normandy) went to New Orleans to found a convent, run a hospital, and take care of educating young girls.


The first building

The first building for the Ursuline nuns in New Orleans was designed by
Ignace François Broutin Ignace François Broutin (La Bassée, 1690–1751) was a French Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis military officer, commander of Fort Rosalie among the Natchez people, and later an architect and Captain of Engineers of the King in the Pr ...
in 1727 when the nuns arrived in New Orleans, at the request of Governor Étienne Perier. Michael Zeringue (Johann Michael Zehringer), the King's Master Carpenter from Franconia, Bavaria and progenitor of all "Zeringue" families in Louisiana was the builder. Planning, collecting material, and construction took years. Existing drawings show the building in 1733, although it was not officially finished until the following year. ''Colombage'' (half-timbered) or ''briquette-entre-poteaux'' (brick-between-post) was the major form of
French Colonial French colonial architecture includes several styles of architecture used by the French during colonization. Many former French colonies, especially those in Southeast Asia, have previously been reluctant to promote their colonial architecture ...
construction in the colony during the 18th century (see also
Pitot House The Pitot House is a historic landmark in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Pitot House is an 18th-century Creole colonial country home located at 1440 Moss Street in New Orleans, Louis ...
). Usually the exterior walls were then given a protective covering of
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
or wooden boards; but the fact that the timbered walls of the Ursuline Convent were left exposed is confirmed by a drawing from 1737. Such construction proved to be inappropriate for the humid climate of New Orleans (with significant deterioration already apparent by 1745),Brantley, Edward. "NOLA History: The Old Ursuline Convent in the French Quarter", GoNOLA
/ref> in addition to being a fire hazard.


The historic second building

In 1745 plans for a new building of brick and protected ''colombage'' were prepared by Broutin. The contractor was Claude Joseph Villars Dubreuil, Contractor of Public Works for the King. His wife, Marie Payen de Noyan, was Bienville's niece. This new convent was completed by 1753. It is likely that Alexandre de Batz also took part in the design because several payments are listed to him for work on the new building. The second convent was laid out adjacent to the site of its predecessor, whose materials were partly recycled. In its original configuration, the building's front façade was that facing the Mississippi River; the Chartres Street entrance was located at the back of the building. Built of stucco-covered brick, the present-day Old Ursuline Convent is typical for the French
neoclassical architecture Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...
. It is a formal, symmetrical building, severely designed in its lack of ornamentation. No applied orders of
pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s or columns relieved the plain walls. Only the slightly arched window set in shallow moldings, the rusticated
quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
s at the corners and narrow central
pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...
ed pavilion break the even rhythm of the
fenestration Fenestration may refer to: * Fenestration (architecture), the design, construction, or presence of openings in a building * Used in relation to fenestra in anatomy, medicine and biology * Fenestration, holes in the rudder of a ship to reduce the w ...
. The broad plain
hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
, broken only by small low-set
dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
s contrasts well with the multi-windowed façade and completes the austere but not unpleasant, finely proportioned building. The ground floor was used largely for the
dormitory A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...
, classrooms,
refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the La ...
, and
infirmary Infirmary may refer to: *Historically, a hospital, especially a small hospital *A first aid room in a school, prison, or other institution *A dispensary (an office that dispenses medications) *A clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambu ...
of the orphanage, maintained by the nuns. The second floor contained cells for the nuns, a library, (another) infirmary, and storerooms. Believed to have been salvaged from the original 1730s convent, a winding cypress staircase with cast iron handrail occupies part of the ground floor entry hall.


Details

"This is the finest surviving example of French colonial public architecture in the country," states the National Park Service. It is by some accounts the oldest structure in New Orleans, built between 1748 and 1752. It was declared a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1960. and   The convent and its associated school, Ursuline Academy, moved downriver to a site on Dauphine Street in the
9th Ward The Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city. It is geographically the largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans. On the south, the Ninth Ward is bound ...
in 1824, turning over the original convent to the bishop of New Orleans,
Louis William Valentine DuBourg Louis William Valentine DuBourg (french: Louis-Guillaume-Valentin DuBourg; 10 January 1766 – 12 December 1833) was a French Catholic prelate and Sulpician missionary to the United States. He built up the church in the vast new Louisiana Terri ...
. It was referred to as the "Archbishop's Palace" following New Orleans's elevation to an archdiocese. In 1912 the convent moved uptown to State Street.


Later additions

The entrance portico was added after the bishop had taken residence. The construction of a gatehouse around 1825–1830 reoriented the building by repositioning the main entrance from the river side to Chartres Street. The Ursuline property covered two city squares, extending to Royal Street. An old ground plan shows a chapel at the corner of Ursulines and Decatur Streets, dedicated to
Our Lady of Victory Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a government utility regulato ...
. Near the entrance to the grounds, along the
levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...
, were also a reception house for visitors, the day school, and a residence for the chaplain. Between these buildings and the convent were gardens. To the right, moving up from the riverside entrance, were the hospital buildings, and beyond them military barracks. Despite great interior alterations and decay, the Convent is considered one of the most important historical and religious landmarks in the United States and is one of the few remaining physical links with the French colonial period in Louisiana.


The third building

In 1824 the nuns moved to a new larger convent in the city's 9th Ward, and the present structure was turned over to the Bishop of New Orleans as a residence, and for a while came to be called "the Archbishop's Palace". After 1899 it continued in use as offices for the Archdiocese and still later as a rectory for the adjacent St. Mary's Church.


See also

*
French Colonial architecture French colonial architecture includes several styles of architecture used by the French during colonization. Many former French colonies, especially those in Southeast Asia, have previously been reluctant to promote their colonial architecture ...
*
History of the Ursulines in New Orleans The Ursulines have a long history in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. As early as 1726, King Louis XV of France decided that three Ursuline nuns from Rouen should go to New Orleans to establish a hospital for poor sick people and to provide ed ...
*
Ursuline Academy (New Orleans) Ursuline Academy is a private, Catholic, all-girls high school and elementary school (Toddler 2 through 12th grade) in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It is located within the Archdiocese of New Orleans The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of ...
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Louisiana This is a complete list of National Historic Landmarks in Louisiana,. The United States National Historic Landmark program is a program of the National Park Service, and recognizes structures, districts, objects, and similar resources according to ...
*
List of the oldest buildings in Louisiana This article lists the oldest extant buildings in Louisiana, including extant buildings and structures constructed prior to and during the United States rule over Louisiana. Only buildings built prior to 1800 are suitable for inclusion on this list ...
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Orleans Parish, Louisiana __NOTOC__ The following properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Or ...


References


Bibliography

*CLARK Emily, ''Voices from an early American convent : Marie Madeleine Hachard and the New Orleans Ursulines'', 1727 1760, Baton Rouge Editions, Louisiana State University Press, 2007


External links

* {{Authority control 1751 establishments in the French colonial empire Buildings and structures in New Orleans French colonial architecture French Quarter Museums in New Orleans National Historic Landmarks in Louisiana National Register of Historic Places in New Orleans Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana Religious buildings and structures completed in 1751 Religious museums in Louisiana 18th century in New Orleans