In The Flow of Time – February 17, 2025
The question: what did Benjamin Latrobe’s bell tower look like? Built in 1819-1820 on the church in New Orleans.
The scene I’m working on is in July 1820. It’s a christening in the church. I have pics of the church before 1819, and after 1850. What did it look like in 1820? Because I know that in 1819 the city council gave architect Benjamin Latrobe a contract to build a clock and bell tower. And I know, from his journal, that in July of 1820 it’s under construction. But I have no idea what it looks like.
This is a piddling background detail, but I’m crazy. The hunt produces nothing. As I’m pondering how you would build this brick tower (I found out it was brick, because it was falling apart and replaced in 1850) I figured it MUST have heavy duty piers right inside the main door. Finding nothing I start imagining. There’s scaffolding outside, the main doors are blocked, the inside is a construction zone. It’s a thursday, there’s construction noise, masons, helpers mixing mortar… I can do this.
I’m about to give up the search, one more try, different search terms, different engine. And TADA! I find what I’m looking for. Both the facade and the floor plan!
Turns out I had the one in the middle already, I just didn’t know that was Latrobe’s tower. The floor plan is an awesome find, complete with the heavy duty piers (and I imagine arches) to hold up that big tower. So now I can see what it looks like, where passages are, have people walk in the door, find the baptistry, describe a construction site… all because that’s REALLY what was happening in July 1820. Oh, and I think I’ll have them cross paths with Latrobe.
The floor plan comes from a resource I’ve used extensively, it is an architectural survey of the Vieux Carré, with all the real estate transactions over the centuries. So, the fact that pirate and smuggler Lafon was neighbors to Charlotte Brion the former slave one owned by Zénon Trudeau? Yep, all from there. This floor plan was attached to a notarial record for a property transaction on the alley next to the church. WOOHOO!
I’m gonna go celebrate by NOT writing until tomorrow
