I'm a volunteer for the Friends of the Cabildo and am currently entering data for their upcoming book in the N.O. Architecture Series on The French Quarter. After I read this discussion, I contacted architect Robby Cangelosi who, along with Ann Masson, is researching and writing the FQ book. Here is Robby's response (with his permission) regarding FQ addresses: The NOPL online conversion which is by block is for the number changes from after the civil war to current numbers. We have a better conversion which I prepared from Sanborn maps. It is building specific. The person saying that the 1805 address do not work for the conversion charts is correct. That is what we are trying to create with the data base. By putting pre 1860 resident address and pre 1860 property owner addresses which we have from the chains of title with the current addresses, we hope to match pre1860 residents addresses from the directories with pre 1860 property owners current addresses for a pre 1860 conversion chart. This will only work for owner occupied structures but with that as a base we hope to fill in the other address with the numbers left over. Robby I know we all eagerly await this book so we can have more accurate knowledge of FQ buildings. Jan >Message: 1 >Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:10:08 -0700 (PDT) >From: Norm Hellmers <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] Help with street location > >Susan and List, > >Susan received a response from the Historic New Orleans Collection >regarding the current locations of addresses in the 1805 city directory. > >I wrote to the person at the HNOC who responded to Susan expressing my >reservations about the address conversions that he suggested. The person >wrote to me: > >?You are correct that New Orleans Street numbers changed periodically >throughout the 19th c. making it very difficult to ascertain exactly what >a specific address would be today. Moreover, many of the buildings from >the early 19th c. are no longer standing. All told this makes address >conversions very difficult, and for the most part they are approximations. >I had hoped to convey this in my email to Susan, and in no way expected >the email to be used as a general guideline. My purpose was to give Susan >a starting point to work with. I apologize if I have caused you, or anyone >else for that matter, any confusion.? > >I believe that it is impossible to make a conversion from an 1805 address >to a modern address with any degree of reliability. With all due respect >to the HNOC, I don?t believe any of the information in the HNOC?s original >message can be accepted. For Susan, I think the best that can be said is >that these addresses were most likely in the French Quarter. > >Address conversions can be made (pre-1894 to today), but converting >addresses prior to approximately 1852 with any degree of certainty is >probably not possible. > >Norm > >--- On Sat, 8/7/10, Susan & Tom Berghan <[email protected]> wrote: >> I previously posted a question about >> the location of 2 properties listed in >> the 1805 city directory. Norm suggested I contact the New >> Orleans Historic >> Collection. I received a very prompt response from HNOC >> regarding the >> current addresses of these locations: >> >> >> Using a block by block conversion chart (available >> online through the New >> Orleans Public Library's website) I have been able to >> determine the hundred >> block on which your ancestors properties were >> located.? That is, 58 St. >> Peter is now within the 700 block, and 39 Dauphine is in >> the 200 block.? >> >> The exact address is difficult to ascertain with great >> certainty - >> especially as the buildings may no longer be standing 205 >> years later. >> Using Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from 1876 (before the >> change) and 1896 >> (after the change) I have been able to discover some >> additional pieces of >> information.? I believe the property at 58 St. Peter >> was located on the >> uptown/lakeside corner of St. Peter and Royal.? By >> 1876, there does not >> appear to be a property there facing St. Peter, but, by >> looking at the >> numbers, that is where one would logically have been.? >> >> >> By 1876 there was still a building standing at 39 Dauphine, >> however I cannot >> say for sure that this is the same building inhabited by >> your ancestor. >> Currently, this property is listed as 219 Dauphine between >> Iberville and Bienville.<< >> > > > > > > > >------------------------------ > >To contact the LAORLEAN list administrator, send an email to >[email protected] > >To post a message to the LAORLEAN mailing list, send an email to >[email protected] > >__________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >[email protected] >with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body >of the >email with no additional text. > > >End of LAORLEAN Digest, Vol 5, Issue 192 >**************************************** > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 9.0.851 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3063 - Release Date: 08/10/10 >13:34:00

Jan, Thanks for the excellent response. I’m pleased to have what I said agreed to by an expert, but more importantly, I’m delighted to learn that there will finally be a French Quarter volume in the N.O. Architecture Series. I am also pleased to learn that there will be a database of address conversions for the French Quarter. It seems to me that at least half of the requests that we get are for addresses in the Quarter. I would hope that we could somehow get that database online when it is ready, even before the FQ edition is published. Could you ask about this? Finally, thanks for volunteering on such a worthy project. Norm --- On Wed, 8/11/10, J Dean <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm a volunteer for the Friends of > the Cabildo and am currently entering > data for their upcoming book in the N.O. Architecture > Series on The French > Quarter. After I read this discussion, I contacted > architect Robby > Cangelosi who, along with Ann Masson, is researching and > writing the FQ > book. Here is Robby's response (with his permission) > regarding FQ > addresses: > > The NOPL online conversion which is by block is for the > number changes from > after the civil war to current numbers. We have a better > conversion which I > prepared from Sanborn maps. It is building specific. The > person saying that > the 1805 address do not work for the conversion charts is > correct. That is > what we are trying to create with the data base. By putting > pre 1860 > resident address and pre 1860 property owner addresses > which we have from > the chains of title with the current addresses, we hope to > match pre1860 > residents addresses from the directories with pre 1860 > property owners > current addresses for a pre 1860 conversion chart. This > will only work for > owner occupied structures but with that as a base we hope > to fill in the > other address with the numbers left over. > Robby > > I know we all eagerly await this book so we can have more > accurate knowledge of FQ buildings.   Jan . . .