Historical French Quarter Building Converted into Apartments
The Building
The Monastery of St Joseph and St Teresa was occupied by a cloistered order of Carmelite nuns for over 100 years before the community left the property in the early 1970’s. The Community was by their nature closed to the outside world, so there is very little published history about their life on the site. In fact, official records as early as 1896 attempting to survey the site note “Admission refused. Taken from old map” suggesting that even City officials did not know exactly what was happening on the site.
An October 16, 1949 article in the New Orleans Item offers a glimpse into the life inside the 20 foot tall brick walls that surround the property. Of the 21 women who occupied the property only four members of the community were allowed any contact with the outside world. The article describes the strict rules of behavior that the nuns agreed to as part of their commitment to the Order.
These rules included silence, fasting, separation from the outside world, and devotional activities including prayer and attendance at daily services. Meals were conducted in silence and individuals were allowed only one hour per day for unstructured activity. The chapel was set up so that the Nuns attending services were invisible to the parishioners and the parishioners could not be seen by the nuns.
Grilled windows were set into the sidewalls of the Chapel so that members who were confined to the infirmary could witness the services without being seen.
As the French Quarter became more active in the mid-20th century as a commercial and touristic center, the nuns resorted to increasingly desperate measures to maintain their separation from the outside world.
Shutters on the windows were insufficient to prevent Community members from seeing the outside world or preventing prying eyes from catching glimpses of activity in the Convent. In their final years on the property the Nuns had large metal screens erected over outside facing windows to ensure visual separation.
The Order was industrious during their residence on the site. The first building occupied by the Order was the Mansion fronting Barracks Street. The street facing windows and door of this center hall cottage were removed and bricked over as a functional and very public expression of their separation from the outside world.
More land was acquired over time to allow construction of the Chapel and Convent building in 1891 designed by James Freret. An April 14, 1891 article in the New Orleans Item announced a procession from St Louis Cathedral to the Convent site to lay the corner stone for this new construction.
Additional construction included the early 20th century Annex and additional construction of service buildings like kitchens, a greenhouse, and storage buildings. The nuns erected many shrines and altars on site including a large stone grotto dedicated to St Jude located in the forecourt adjacent to the Mother Superior’s House.
The property was transferred to the Archdiocese of New Orleans after the nuns left the property. It was operated as a parish church and later as a Catholic Revival Center until those uses were discontinued. The property passed into private ownership with an eventual plan to adapt the use for residential purposes.
The adaptive re-use project completed in 2023 added modern amenities including air-conditioning, modern kitchens, and bathrooms while preserving the historic character of the buildings.
Each of the twenty-five residences has a unique layout with high ceilings, large windows that provide ample natural light and ventilation.
The site features open space to provide a pool courtyard, off-street parking for each unit as well as gardens for residential use. Many of the residential units have access to private or semi-private exterior space.
The project was completed to the strict standards of the Vieux Carré Commission and the National Park Service.