In 1994, Bobby and Kristin Gisleson Palmer, natives of Uptown New Orleans and young newlyweds of limited means, were drawn to Algiers Point — a neighborhood they knew nothing about. Still, they liked its affordability and wealth of historic properties.
“New Orleans is very provincial and patriarchal,” said Gisleson Palmer. “Back then, someone from Uptown may never have crossed the river, much less considered living on the other side.”
They purchased their first home on the Point’s Vallette Street for $35,000 that same year.
“The neighborhood felt like Uptown to us, “ said Gisleson Palmer. “We thought we would only be here until we had kids, and then we’d move back Uptown.”
After renovating their first house themselves, they started eyeing the derelict 1850 rental property across the street. ‘We kept fantasizing about how it would make an ideal family home. It was simple with good bones,” said Gisleson Palmer.
The home had a compelling outdoor side hall gallery, Greek key door surrounds, floor-to-ceiling windows, and two front roof dormers.
“Bobby would call the owner every 90 days asking if he would sell it to us,” said Gisleson Palmer. “In 1994, they finally gave in. Probably to get him to stop calling all the time.”
With an eye for quality construction gleaned from her years of work as the head of Rebuilding Together New Orleans at the PRC, one week after giving birth to the couple’s first child, Gisleson Palmer crawled under the house and declared the foundation solid. They bought the house without even seeing the inside. When they did, they discovered the uninhabited side of the double was a haven for fleas, and the ceiling medallions and plasterwork were gone throughout.
They spent nine months living in the house across the street while renovating the new one themselves.
“It was the worst house on the block,” said Gisleson Palmer. “We filled nine 30-yard dumpsters during the renovation.”
The couple transformed the five-bay Greek Revival double into a single-family home using salvaged or reclaimed materials whenever possible. They tore off the dinky rear kitchens from either side, which had been haphazardly added in a prior renovation, and built a deep porch across the back.Some attic space was converted into living space for their growing family, which ultimately blossomed to six. The Greek key-adorned frame for the long-gone Charleston, or “hospitality,” door at the front of the house, which led to the oh-so-desirable side porch, was occupied by a door once more.
Downstairs, the front living room was left to stretch across the entire width of the house with the fireplace at its center, where a wall that divided the sides of the original double was removed. On one side of the house, they created a dining room, a kitchen, and a family room: on the other, a guest bedroom, a bath, and an office for Bobby, an independent insurance agent. Adouble stairway left devoid of paint was crafted of cypress original to the house that was found when the couple removed the center wall of the house while converting it to a single. It leads to private living spaces.
The Palmers’ side gallery and kitchen door were oriented to face what, in 2002, became the kitchen door of the neighboring Greek Revival center hall cottage that the couple persuaded Kristin’s parents, Eric and Janet Gisleson, to buy. They too left Uptown — a house on State Street — for life in Algiers Point.
Later that year, the Palmers bought the Italianate double shotgun on the other side of their home. They renovated it so that Bobby’s mother could live there. They removed the fence between the homes’ yards, expanding the shared backyard toward the nearby Mississippi River.
After 22 happy years in the home, in 2016, the Palmers undertook another renovation, this one reclaiming what had been the kitchen for a spacious library. The kitchen moved to the rear of the house into a generous laundry area and craft space. A bathroom and a guest suite were added in anticipation of Gisleson Palmer’s mother moving in. A swimming pool and hot tub were added to the home’s northern side. A workspace and ‘juke joint” run across the width of the rear of the property, accessible to the back porch via a series of steppingstones. An outdoor living room is adjacent to the swimming pool.
Yet another renovation expanded the upstairs primary suite and bathroom and installed a rear dormer, bringing the home to 4,200 square feet.
Thirty-one years after their Algiers Point journey began, the Palmers remain there. In addition to renovations on their first and second homes, both of which they still own and one of which they still live in, they have also renovated five on their block, three of which they hope will one day be inhabited by their children and grandchildren.
Through Gisleson Palmer’s renovation business, Bargeboard NOLA, which she founded in 2014, the Palmers have renovated, built, or are building and renovating more than 80 properties in Old Algiers. Their work has put previously vacant and/or blighted properties back into commerce, providing homes, often for first-time homeowners.
“Housing should be affordable and accessible for all people with all income levels, “Gisleson Palmer said.
In 2024, she opened another aspect of Bargeboard, a fully functioning mill shop producing cabinetry and millwork, and a retail space featuring vintage and antique art, furniture, and lighting.
Take a tour of this home and six other private residences (and one bonus) at PRC’s Spring Home Tour, presented by Entablature Design + Build, April 5 and 6 in Algiers Point!
