I was speaking to a friend in the neighborhood who used to live in the Luling Mansion when it was apartments. Remember this is the big mansion I discovered on Leda Street for the first time (how could I not have seen this before?) just the other day.
Luling Mansion
Address: 1436–1438 Leda Street
The massive three-story Italianate Luling Mansion was designed by architect James Gallier Jr., and built in 1865 for Florence A. Luling. When the Louisiana Jockey Club took over the Creole Race Course (now the Fair Grounds) in 1871, it purchased this nearby mansion. For the next 20-odd years, it served as the racing organization’s clubhouse. It is not open to the public.
My friend told me that living in his apartment paying $120 a month was pure magic. The other apartments were populated by friends and they lived like they were in a commune. None of them made money and they paid ridiculously low rent and his apartment opened to a balcony that overlooked the Fairgrounds. His soon-to-be wife and he used to sit on the balcony in the morning and drink their coffee while the horses ran around the track. What a life!
I remember living uptown on General Pershing, Uptown, in 1988 and paying $250 for a half double with a camel back. I remember returning after six years in California to a half double on Napoleon Avenue in 1995 and paying what I thought was an exorbitant amount of rent, $800, and now living on the bayou and paying, well I won’t even say what my mortgage is because it is WAY too much, but the fact is you have to pay to live in paradise these days, that’s why there is a huge real estate correction going on because there was a time, two decades ago, when you could live like a queen in New Orleans on a waiter’s tips.
Those were the days my friend.
I too lived in the Luling Mansion even longer ago than you (rent $80). Are there still apartment rentals available in it? I’d like to move back.
I think it was bought by a single owner and is no longer for rent. Sadly.