The Montgomery-Hero House stands out like an alpine cottage that wandered into the wrong climate and decided to stay.

Built in 1868, this Swiss chalet-style mansion was commissioned by Archibald Montgomery, president of the Crescent City Railroad, who clearly had his own ideas about Garden District grandeur. While his neighbours built Greek Revival temples and Italianate palaces, Montgomery asked architect Henry Howard to design something that would be more at home in the mountains of Switzerland.

Howard's creation is a square, two-and-a-half-story cottage with gables on all four sides, elaborate woodwork, and deep eaves supported by ornamental brackets. The house sits uniquely surrounded by 360-degree gardens, a rarity in the Garden District where most mansions have had their lots subdivided over the decades.

VoiceMap's self-guided Garden District tour uses the Montgomery-Hero House to illustrate how New Orleans' railroad barons shaped the neighbourhood, revealing the connections between commerce, architecture, and the eclectic tastes that make the district so captivating.