When contemplating a move to New Orleans from Washington, D.C., in 2021, Sarah Sunday and Dexter Blanchard envisioned themselves in a carefree pied-à-terre.
Instead, they landed in the Rountree House, a demanding 4,300-square-foot rare (for New Orleans) Gothic Revival knockout designed and built by James Freret in 1869 for Austen Woolfork Rountree. The home has the highest Historic District Landmarks Commission rating for architectural significance, and is one of the homes featured in the Preservation Resource Center’s logo.
In 2014, the house’s previous owner, Andrea St. Paul Bland, garnered accolades for her sensitive, meticulous restoration of the property, which features eight angled spandrels mounted on octagonal columns and forming lancet arches across the lower gallery, plaster moldings, and medallions, and an intricate cast iron fence.
“We were casually looking at properties,” Sunday said. “We walked into this house on a beautiful sunny day, and Dexter was taken by the great lengths of gleaming hardwood floors in the side hall. I was taken with the pocket doors. We looked at one another and said, ‘Uh-oh.’ We knew we were in for it.
“It was one of those things. We were captivated, enchanted. We walked in, and it felt like we were exactly where we needed to be. We made a radical life-altering decision on a whim,” she continued, adding that within 10 days the couple were under contract on the house in New Orleans and had sold their house in the DC-area.
Throughout its history, the stately, singular architectural treasure had been allowed to devolve into various states of disrepair before Bland, working with contractor Dragan Service, undertook its exhaustive restoration in 2014. The home was featured during a Preservation Resource Center Renovator’s Happy Hour that year.
According to The Times-Picayune: “At some point, possibly 1965, when a property investor acquired it, the front porch on the first floor was removed, leaving only the columns. Decorative strips of metal trim had rusted away, and many pieces were missing. Columns and railing details had rotted. Painted dusky hues, the home’s exotic railings and details were too dark to distinguish their Gothic Revival patterning. And the house had developed a dramatic list to one side, counteracted by a few pieces of inadequate bracing.”
Inside, the house had been divided into multiple apartments, each with purely serviceable baths and kitchens, which were often forged upon porches that were enclosed to accommodate them. The leaking roof had been ignored for who knows how long, leading to rotting floors and damaged plaster walls.
“Just about every indignity imaginable befell the grand dame on Josephine Street in the mid- to late 20th century,” The Times-Picayune reported.
Lifting the house from six to 10 inches in places to make it level required that the front gallery be removed and replaced. The core of the home is now reinforced with steel beams that penetrate the foundation.
“The house will stand tall for another 200 years,” Bland told The Times-Picayune.
During the restoration, the home’s exterior was painted pink, cream, and black in consultation with celebrated colorist Louis Aubert to match the original 1893 palette.
It was this beauty that lured Sunday and Blanchard from their dreams of simplicity and into the lives of devoted preservationists.
The two parlors on the right of the side hall entry serve as formal living and dining rooms, each with Maria Theresa chandeliers. The entry hall leads to a spacious, comfortable, informal living and dining area that flows into a kitchen, renovated and personalized by Sunday and Blanchard during an ongoing multi-year renovation.
They replaced the existing tile flooring with heart-pine to match the rest of the home, built an eight-foot-seated island and topped the counters and the island with Carerra marble, painted many of the rooms, and papered the dining room in an elegant tonal pattern featuring peacocks, foliage and branches, and built a 150-bottle wine storage closet. They scoured the country to find the salvaged Waterford chandelier now hanging in the foyer, the matching pairs of bronze and crystal scones in the living room and dining room, and the marble fireplace mantel in the living room.
“We learned,” said Blanchard, a native of Breaux Bridge and a real estate agent with Latter & Blum/Compass, “the reality was quite different than the romance. This is a real commitment.”
Outside, the home’s front door was restored in a striking gloss black that offsets its dramatic peaked Gothic details as well as its gleaming polished brass hardware. The couple also added an elegant swimming pool and lush tropical landscaping to the rear yard and loggia overlooking the side to the rear of the house.
“We have developed a deep relationship with this house and the neighborhood,” Sunday said. “We feel fortunate to be the stewards of this remarkable home.”
The Holiday Home Tour is a self-guided walking tour that explores the interiors and grounds of several stunning homes all dressed up for the holidays in the historic Garden District of New Orleans. Festivities also include live musical performances, a festive boutique, and more! This beloved event returns December 14th & 15th for its 49th year. Learn more and get tickets
