Warehouse District's first condo project Federal Fibre Mills celebrates centennial Information provided by Evan Soule, inter alio From factory to warehouse, World's Fair pavilion to apart- ments to condos, Federal Fibre Mills is proof that investing in the past is New Orleans' best investment in the future. Downtown, including the Warehouse District, is now the fastest growing residential neighborhood in the city. T he National Manufacturing Company of New Jersey (later the National Enameling & Stamping Co. of Louisiana) commissioned archi- tects Favrot & Livaudais to design the handsome brick and timber structure, now known as the Federal Fibre Mills Condominiums, in 1904. In 1932 John U. Barr and partners organized the Federal Fibre Mills to manufacture rope and twine and leased the top floor of the building. By 1941 the Federal Fibre Mills covered all five floors, and the partnership purchased the entire structure and renamed it. Boxcars loaded right in the mills and then rumbled from South Peters Street across America. In 1947 The Federal Fibre Mills employed 100 people and produced over 7 million pounds. The partner- ship sold its business to the Plymouth Cordage Company but retained the building. From 1951, when Plymouth moved out of the Federal Fibre Mills, until its pur- chase and renovation by Edward Boettner and Pres Kabacoff for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, the build- ing was a warehouse and offices for var- ious businesses. Probably two million people came through the Federal Fibre Mills during the 1984 World's Fair to visit the folk life exhibit, nightclub and restaurants (including the famed German Beer Garden.) This gave the developers, who opened a show apartment on the third floor, the opportunity to present the building as a potential residential con- version—a new idea at the time in New Orleans. Getting the structure prepared for the World's Fair while keeping future construction in mind was a challenge. The New Orleans tan bricks and first growth heart of southern yellow pine, darkened by years of factory production and age, needed to be cleaned. The builders cut a five-story atrium to expose the building's rugged construc- tion and used the original (and irre- placeable) pine to patch other places. The real work, however, began after the Fair. Developer Gerald Derks, in partnership with Merrill Lynch Private Investment, acquired the property and completed the construction. The second story windows, removed to allow access for the Fair's monorail, were rebuilt. The upper stories were ingenu- ously raised to create multi-level homes. Local artists were commissioned to pro- vide art for the lobby, including Richard Johnson and then-fledgling artist Mario Villa who designed and constructed the iron furniture that still adorns the lobby. Upon completion, the partnership made the apartments available for rent. There are no two residents alike. Four years later the complex was entirely owned by the Federal Fibre Mills Condominium Association. In 1990 developer Judah Hertz took con- trol and began selling condos, thus cre- ating the Warehouse District's first condo project. Federal Fibre Mills celebrates 100 years. The PRC owns the building's facade easement. PRESERVATION IN PRINT SEPTEMBER 2003 17 third of the estate, valued in its entirety at over $227,000, including $100,000 for the sawmill and enslaved men attached to it. When the succession was recorded on January 12, 1830, the entire property went to his son-in-law, Joseph Meisson Kennedy—since Withers' only daughter of age, presumably married to Kennedy, renounced all her rights to act as heir. Six years later, the property again transferred. "By virtue of an order of the Court of Probates in and for the Parish and City of New Orleans, I will expose for sale on Tuesday the 12th of January next, at 12 o'clock, at Hewlett's Coffee House, corner of Chartres and St. Louis streets: All the real property belonging to the succession of the late William C. Withers...." By the end of January, Mr. John Hagan, Jr. was the official proprietor of the property, having paid $27,000 cash and signed six promissory notes for $10,416 each. Hagan defaulted the fol- lowing year, and on behalf of Kennedy, the First Judicial District Court ordered the property's seizure and sale. Palladio's Villa Badoer and outbuildings formed a unified architectural hierarchy. SQUARE 48 GOES TO THE MISER Cornelius Paulding was not a well- liked man. He almost died after a cha- tised slave bit him. He was described as a temperate, abstemious bachelor with no ties of affection. A native of Savannah, Paulding arrived in New Orleans in 1812 and prospered, financially and spiritually, as the owner of the Planters and Merchants Hotel on Canal Street and president of the Louisiana Bible Society. He died in 1852, and in his will he endowed the founding of the Coliseum Place Baptist Congregation. His obituary The Creole townhouse next to the Withers- Paulding House ressembled a smaller build- ing (seen partially on right) adjacent to Palladio's II Redentore. was not so generous: "His [bequest would send] joy and gladness into several families that have long been oppressed with poverty and want but which amid all their hardship and destitution have shared more of life's pleasures and enjoyments than the stern old miser ever found amid all his glittering heaps." INDIGENT & SICK REPLACE THE WEALTHY In 1852, on behalf of Judah Touro and using the wealthy shipowner's funds, Rezin D. Shepard paid $30,300 for Paulding's property. The square was immediately transferred to a corporate body responsible for Touro's philanthropic works, which included the Touro Infirmary and Hebrew Benevolent Association. At the age of 76, Touro intended to use the mansion and buildings as a hospital to care for traveling seamen and local free and enslaved people. Sailors on ships owned by Touro and his col- leagues were often afflicted with yellow fever and not accepted at Charity Hospital. This waterfront site was perfect- ly situated and Dr. Joseph Bensadon was eager to run the facility. Touro died in 1854, leaving the prop- erty but no funds for the hospital referred to as "The Touro Infirmary for the Indigent Sick." It was put up for public auction in 1860, but there were no bids. By October of 1861, the infirmary was vacated but the site still used to care for indigent "Israelites." The buildings escaped confiscation by Union forces due to their status as an "Almshouse Jewish Charity." The building was not well cared for, but in 1868 the hospital hired contrac- tors for "Building and repairs, including Garden." The staff had grown to include a surgeon, resident physician, two attending physicians, and an oculist, and the refur- bished Touro Infirmary was rededicated in 1868. The next few years were a time of growth for the hospital due to all the epi- demics, especially yellow fever, but the limits of the building were being strained. Also, the neighborhood was becoming more industrialized, and the infirmary was focusing more on the community rather than itinerant seamen. These factors, among others, caused the board to dispose of the Withers Paulding House through a lottery and move uptown. WINNING THE LOTTERY According to notarial records, 3,905 lottery tickets sold for $5 each. Mr. Adolph Meyer, a member of Congress and ex-Confederate general, held the winning number, 1030. He was also a business partner of Julius Weis, who held most of the tickets. The Withers-Paulding House was razed and in 1889, Meyer sold the property to International Cotton Press for $50,000, thus beginning Square 48's industrial era. Mr Heath is a doctoral candidate in architectural history at Tulane. He pre- pared the research on the Withers-Paulding House for a course taught by Ann Masson. www.prcno.org