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.
When Jeanne Nathan and Robert C. Tannen, co-founders of the Contemporary Arts Center and lifelong advocates for equality, the environment and the arts, bought their stately, circa-1880 Neoclassical home in 1974, they planted a single Chinese fan palm near a bay window in their dining room.
Fifty-two years later, the fan palm’s many progenies continue to re-seed repeatedly, filling the couple’s yard with what may be hundreds of plants. The towering tropical plants obscure the home from the street while shrouding the property in mystery, an effect heightened by Tannen’s many sculptural artworks that dot the landscape.
Affixed under the portico at the front of the home is “Marlina,” a work by Tannen in the likeness of the largest (13-foot-long) Blue Marlin caught by a woman, Linda Koerner, in the Gulf of Mexico. With a description of the work affixed to the fence at the front of the property, Tannen warns, “At the rate we are going, it may not be long before Marlina may swim where this house now stands.”
Amidst the dense foliage are works crafted of cement construction blocks, abstracts cast of sheet metal, and pieces from Tannen’s REDART collection, in which everyday objects — a water heater, a shopping cart, a metal garbage can and so much more — have been painted a vibrant crimson. Tannen, also a philosopher and regional planner, doused the workaday objects in red as a warning of consumerism’s contribution to climate change while underscoring the dominance of Chinese manufacturing.
These elements are juxtaposed with the home’s formal, if obscured, grandeur. Upper and lower galleries are supported by massive Ionic columns; their bases are clad in stone. The balustrade of the upper gallery curves gently over the home’s entryway. The gallery itself is topped by a central triangular pediment.
Upon entering the 4,000-square-foot home, the treasure hunt continues. As was customary for the period in which the home was built, stained-glass windows bathe the entry foyer in light — in this case shades of blue and green from its perch above the turn of the staircase as it ascends to the second floor. the second floor, said Nathan, executive director of the Creative Alliance of New Orleans and a host of WBOK radio’s Crosstown Conversations show, “features the only pristine room in the house. We have a tenant who lives there.”
The couple’s spacious home is replete with distinguished pieces of furniture by the likes of James Mont and important works of art by an international coterie of artists whose pieces they have collected over the course of their life together.
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
