Visit this historic home and other fine examples of New Orleans’ historic houses at the 2026 Spring Home Tour in Esplanade Ridge and Bayou Road on May 9 and 10.
BILL EDWARDS’ home embodies the moonlight-and-magnolias vision of New Orleans. Built in 1883 for Pierre Lanoux, a French merchant, and situated on a corner lot, the stately two-story, three-bay Italianate manse has deep, upper and lower galleries that beckon with the promise of gentility.
The feminine mystique stops at the pair of double black iron gates Edwards secured for the home from a French Quarter antiquities dealer. Forged in Argentina, the gates are embellished with spear tips similar to the ones on the home’s iron fence, only rendered in polished brass. Gold fleurs de lis also adorn the gates, which open outward to reveal a mahogany-lined entry vestibule, leading to a pair of carved mahogany doors inset with glass under a transom.
In the foyer, Edwards installed a marble floor under a ceiling with a recessed medallion lined in mahogany. A 19th-century French Empire chandelier is suspended from the medallion. It illuminates a 20th-century Louis XVI-style mahogany sideboard topped with a beveled French mirror.
The first impression here is powerful.
A world traveler and commercial contractor, Edwards bought his home in 1983. He is its longest-standing owner.
Once a triathlete, now a mountain climber, the New Orleans area native has travelled from Harbin, China, to Punta Arenas, Chile, for pleasure, business and sport, collecting a wide range of works, from an original Salvador Dali painting to pieces by tribal craftsmen who produced his anatomically correct fertility gods, all of which are displayed throughout the 7,700-square-foot home. The house has been lovingly cared for and restored throughout its history; its original millwork has never endured the insulting flick of a paintbrush, only the loving administration of Scott’s Liquid Gold wood polish cleaner to preserve its luster.
The first of the home’s two parlors is dominated by a Kirkman walnut burl piano from the 1800s, illuminated by a crystal chandelier, featuring draped crystal beads over a tiered structure.
Edwards eschewed the services of an interior designer in decorating the home he inhabits alone, save for a quiet tenant of many years who inhabits the dependency within the octagonal bump-out at the north side of the house.
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
