During the fabulous 1850’s when splendid mansions were rising all through the Garden District, no structure was larger or finer than this important house. Although usually identified as the “house with the cornstalk fence”, this house has other features to recommend it.
The tremendous size, the asymmetrical design and the beautiful iron work galleries on front and sides make it an unusual structure. Designing during a period when romanticism was the ascendant trend in arts and letters, the architect Henry Howard turned to the Italian villa style, which he skillfully adapted to the hot and humid New Orleans climate. Built in 1859 for Colonel Robert Henry Short, a Kentucky colonel, the house cost the wealthy commission merchant $23,750. Cost of duplication today would be impossible to estimate.
The mansion presents an exterior which, except for the classical pilasters of the entrance doorway, is a radical departure from the then prevalent Greek Revival. Howard’s expertness in the latter form at this period had been demonstrated in the recently completed Belle Grove plantation at Bayou Goula, one of the most magnificent of all the plantation houses. Some of the features of the Belle Grove plan he used again for Colonel Short. Despite the Italian façade beautifully allied with New Orleans’ beloved iron lace, the interior of the house adhered strictly to the Greek Revival in woodwork and ornamentation. Marvels of workmanship are the handsomely carved door and window frames and the decorated plaster cornices and ceiling centerpieces.
The usual double parlors are found to the left of the entrance hall, but in this instance they are not identical rooms. The rear one extends farther into the side yard in a curved bay with an iron work gallery outside. Giving an idea of the magnificent scale of the house are the approximate dimensions of the parlors, which at their greatest points measure 43 by 26 feet. The ceilings are 16 feet high.
Across from the back parlor is a library which extends out in a similar manner on the Prytania Street side. The wide entrance hall is met at the rear of the parlors and library by a large cross hall which contains the stairway. This is of oak, evidently not the original since that kind of wood was not used for buildings in this locality at that period. This was one of many alterations made by one or both of the subsequent owners: Miss Mary Morgan, who bought it in 1892 from Short’s succession; or Abraham Brittin, cotton broker, who acquired it in 1906.
Around the turn of the century other changes had been made in a determined effort to wipe out every vestige of the neo-classic. Deep red brocade was applied to the walls, and in one room the ceiling was painted red. All woodwork was painted a gloomy brown with imitation wood grain, while simulated wall panelling was used to change the character of other rooms.
Some of the changes, however, were not as heavy and unattractive to present day tastes. The already commodious dining room was further enlarged with a delightful semicircular bay on the Prytania Street end, and with an extremely decorative arcaded conservatory with open terrace at the other end of the room.
Under the sympathetic restoration of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Jay Moran, oppressive dreary paint gave way to light cheerful colors and spurious panelling was torn down with a feeling of expansive grace regained. In 1971 the house was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Favrot, for whose large family it is a handsome and congenial setting.
Outside, the distinctive fence of morning glories intertwining cornstalks which was falling to pieces in 1950 when the Morans bought the house, has been restored. When the repairs were underway, an exposed base of a fence post revealed that the iron work was supplied by Wood and Perot, the famous Philadelphia foundry. Through the local agents, Wood and Miltenberger, this firm supplied a good percentage of the cast iron used in New Orleans. It is likely that the “iron lace” galleries on this house were also their work.
