In 1853 the Reverend William Duncan, later a professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Louisiana, opened the Young Ladies’ Seminary on the corner of Jackson and Prytania Streets. The seminary offered what was for that time quite an impressive curriculum in languages, arts and physical sciences.
Little is known today about the Carnatz Institute, a “fashionable academy for young ladies”, which in the 1860’s occupied a substantial brick cottage on the present site of McGehee School. This corner of First and Prytania streets had been one of the first settled in this part of Lafayette. Here Charles Conrad, one of a prominent family of lawyers, had his cottage. Nearby were the houses of Alfred T. and Frank Conrad, also barristers. Sometime later General W. R. Miles was said to have owned the Conrad house which subsequently became the Carnatz Institute. In addition to day students this school attracted boarding students from Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. The Institute was advertised as having a “healthy and secluded location with spacious rooms and shaded grounds.” It is not known whether the academy moved or was disbanded when Bradish Johnson bought the property and removed the old house to make way for his new mansion.
Of more recent vintage was the school of Mrs. Francis D. Blake which was located in a large gray house, now demolished, on the downtown lake corner of Prytania and Philip Streets. Mrs. Blake, a daughter of the famous Bishop Leonidas Polk, was assisted in running the school by her sister, Mrs. Lucia Chapman. This school of Sally Polk Blake is of more than passing interest because in the last years of the school the English teacher was the youthful Miss Louise Schaumburg McGehee. When the doors of Mrs. Blake’s were closed, parents of undergraduates asked Miss McGehee if she would undertake to run a school for their daughters.
In 1912 Miss McGehee began her school in a small cottage on Louisiana Avenue near St. Charles. The following year the school moved to more commodious quarters at 1439 Louisiana Avenue. Assuming corporate status in 1929, the school purchased the Johnson-Denègre house and moved to its present location. The carriage house of this mansion was converted into a gymnasium and the stable into a cafeteria.
A program of growth and expansion was undertaken in 1953-54 with the construction of a new building containing elementary classrooms and an assembly room. By 1960 McGehee School had acquired adjoining properties which complete the school’s ownership of the entire Prytania Street frontage on the lake side of the 2300 block. Plans begun in that year call for the construction of a lower elementary building, new cafeteria and gymnasium and a studio-laboratory wing to the upper school building. This project will be financed by a drive for capital funds, launched in 1961.
During its history, McGehee’s has seen changes not only in its physical plant but also in its organizational structure. In 1937 the school was re-incorporated as a non-profit institution, which status it has today.
HARRY MERRITT LANE HOUSE
1238 Philip Street
The classic Greek Revival Style and all that typifies antebellum life in the South are to be found in the stately Lane home. The handsome two-story-and-attic brick building with its front and side verandas was built in 1853-54 for John H. Rodenberg, a dealer in feeds. In addition to the stunning front portico, the view from the corner reveals the charm of the Chestnut Street elevation with the gently undulating effect achieved by the juxtaposition of a pair of shallow bays.
In the years after it was built, the mansion was the residence of the Hardie and Brooks families and for more than 50 years was known to New Orleans society as the Pipes house. For many years it was the home of the late Federal Judge Wayne G. Borah and his family, Mrs. Borah being the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. David W. Pipes. In 1969 the house was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Merritt Lane, Jr., who have preserved all the notable traditional features of the house while adapting the rear section to accommodate the needs of their active young family of four.