Lindsey and Joel Snodgrass struck the gold most renovators of historic properties fantasize about. When they showed up to tour a house on Algiers Point, their Realtor told them about another that had just hit the market. The graceful two-story Victorian home Louisiana State Senator Louis Mahoney built in 1905 had been entombed since his wife died in the 1970s. With no heirs, her estate landed in the hands of her attorney, who liquidated the estate but kept the house.
After the attorney’s death, his family maintained the house “just enough to keep it standing,” said Lindsey Snodgrass. “It sat vacant for 30 years.
“We know what an incredibly rare find this is. The house was completely untouched. Every door had a skeleton key,” she said. The home’s original plaster ceiling medallions, long-leaf pine floors, light fixtures, doors, mantles, stained glass, and intricately carved cypress millwork remained intact and untouched.
“It kills me to think of this wood being painted,” said Lindsey. “We wanted to preserve the architectural integrity of the house.”
The couple maintained the home for four years while living elsewhere before moving in and undertaking the thoughtful evolution of the stately home. They did little to alter the footprint. They tore off the lean-to kitchen at the back of the house, leaving only the outside wall on the eastern side of the property adjacent to a rear staircase. After enclosing the space, they had a generous open kitchen with a breakfast area and a coffee bar. The Floralight glass insets in the cabinetry are the same as those on the front of the house.
“We camped out in the house while figuring out what we wanted to do,” said Joel. “I wanted something classic with an antique vibe without being overwhelming,” said Lindsey. “I love it when Old World meets New.”
To outfit and furnish the 3,800-square-foot home, she combed Ricca’s, The Bank, DOP Antiques, Big Easy Estates, and Great Southern Estates sales.
The couple retained and reused all the kitchen’s original brass hardware, carefully matching it with new pieces when necessary.
“We spent a lot of time looking at hardware,” Lindsey said. They had custom-made replicas of the intricately paned Victorian windows in the front of the home, which are now situated behind the gooseneck kitchen faucet. All the counters are 30 inches deep for ease in cleaning behind fixtures. The counters, backsplash, and five-foot-by-eight-foot seated waterfall island are ivory Paonazzo marble with heavy black, violet, and caramel veining. The island is illuminated by a pair of brass Art Nouveau-era chandeliers that originated from the Gretna Mayor’s Mansion on Huey Long Avenue, also known as the Ignatius Strehle House, which was built in 1860.
“The floors were the issue,” said Lindsey. “To match everything was a nightmare; we wanted to keep the kitchen feeling like the rest of the house and the original floors to flow into the kitchen. We did not want a threshold. Joel did the specialty millwork himself.”
The kitchen opens onto a new back porch via French doors. The couple mirrored the Ionic columns at the front of the house in the supports for the rear porch. The demolition of a disintegrating kitchen fireplace provided the bricks used for the rear courtyard. A storage shed mimics the front of the house.
Lindsey and Joel are natives of Iowa; Lindsey’s mother is a native of New Orleans. They were drawn to Algiers Point 14 years ago by extended family in the area. The couple’s company, Golden Key Designs, was responsible for their home’s floor plan, fixtures, and finishes. Together, they have renovated 10 houses in Algiers over 10 years. They are restoring the historic US Border Patrol and Customs campus on Patterson Road to serve as an event venue with overnight accommodations.
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!
