The Secrets of the Historical Garden District: A Walking Tour

New Orleans’ Garden District is a delightful neighborhood characterized by beautiful antebellum homes and lush gardens. It’s also been home to a few eccentrics, scandalous souls, and some of the city’s most rich and famous residents. On this walking tour, I’ll pull back the curtain to this unique neighborhood and show you why it should be on everyone’s New Orleans bucket list.

Starting outside the Rink Shopping Center, you’ll make your way down the neighborhood’s picturesque streets, before finishing your walk outside Lafayette Cemetery. Along with hearing about the city’s architecture, you’ll also hear about some of the area’s famous former residents. I’ll point out the Italianate mansion once owned by novelist Ann Rice and later by actor Nicolas Cage. But this tour isn’t all mansions and megastars. I’ll also tell you about the city’s role in slavery, share its place in the Civil War, and reveal the reason so many stunning buildings survived the destruction of the war.

On this New Orleans tour, you’ll have a chance to take in:

• Buckner Mansion, the largest house built before the Civil War, made famous by its appearance in the TV show American Horror Story
• New Orleans Opera Guild Home, a beautiful example of an 1850 Greek Revival Double Gallery which made an appearance in the Oscar-winning film Django Unchained
• The breathtaking Swiss Chalet style house owned by Sandra Bullock
• Pritchard-Pigot House, which resembles a frat house
• The Seven Sisters houses, which weren’t built by a father wanting his seven daughters to live side-by-side, as some might have you believe
• Montgomery-Hero House, constructed for the president of the Crescent City Railroad, Archibald Montgomery
• Walter Grinnan Robinson House, the first home to feature indoor plumbing, decades before New Orleans sewage system, where a rain collection tank was installed on the roof

Perhaps it’s your first time visiting New Orleans, or you’re a local looking to take a deeper dive into one of the city’s most famous neighborhoods. Either way, this Garden District tour will leave you with a deeper appreciation for the area and its history.