Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses
Nothing tells a story like a home!
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Hermann-Grima House

Image of front of Hermann Grima House

This restored French Quarter home built in 1831, includes a Federalist architectural façade, original operating open-hearth kitchen, urban slave quarters, and expansive courtyard. The Urban Enslavement Tour at Hermann-Grima House, looks at the experiences of those who were enslaved in an urban setting, how that differed from those enslaved in rural settings, and how the contributions of people of African descent have shaped New Orleans. Condé Nast Traveler voted it one of the best tours in New Orleans and the only tour listed from a museum. We believe that nothing tells a story like a home. In addition, the property’s 19th-century carriage house is home to the The Exchange Shop, originally founded in the 1881 by The Woman’s Exchange and one of the oldest women-led non-profits in the South.

HOURS

Open 6 Days a Week: 10am to 4pm

*CHECK OUR SOCIAL MEDIA FOR LAST MINUTE CLOSURES

Tour Times:
Wednesday through Monday; closed Tuesdays
10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm (*no 12pm tours)
*Reservations encouraged

Gallier House

Image of front of Gallier House

Built in 1860, by local architect James Gallier, Jr. as his private family residence, this Victorian French Quarter townhouse exemplifies architectural features that are not only unique to New Orleans, but also innovative and advanced for the period. Marked by an iconic Paris Green gate, the Royal street home includes an ornate interior décor, running hot and cold water, experimental skylight, intact attached slave quarters, and classic courtyard.

HOURS

Open 6 Days a Week: 9:30am to 3:30pm

*CHECK OUR SOCIAL MEDIA FOR LAST MINUTE CLOSURES

Tour Times:
Wednesday through Monday; closed Tuesdays
Tour Times: 9:30am, 10:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm, 2:30pm (*no 11:30am tours)
*Reservations encouraged

 
Black and white image of a woman in a shop with dishes

The Exchange Shop

Located in one of the few remaining 19th-century French Quarter stable buildings, The Exchange Shop follows the long tradition of Woman’s Exchanges across the country and offers local artisanal goods. The Woman’s Exchange of New Orleans, established in 1881, remains one of the oldest women’s nonprofits in the South and operates both historic houses and The Exchange Shop. Visit The Exchange Shop at 818 St. Louis Street, the shop’s extension at Gallier House, or online.

Museum Blog

Blog
Thanksgiving in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: Preaching the Case For and Against Abolition
Thanksgiving in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: Preaching the Case For and Against Abolition

Thanksgiving is a festive occasion in New Orleans today, but in the nineteenth century, Southern states resisted the holiday. Thanksgiving was a “Yankee” holiday in the minds of Southerners, partially because its story originated in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, marking it as a regional celebration. But even more so, the South saw Thanksgiving as a challenge to the institution of slavery.

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Mardi Gras for Enslaved and Free People of Color in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans
Mardi Gras for Enslaved and Free People of Color in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans

Pre-Lenten festivals, such as the famous carnavale of Venice, Italy, the carnivals throughout Brazil, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and of course, New Orleans’ Mardi Gras, are often described—and idealized—as “festivals of inversion.” Historically, as moments in which the populace were invited to indulge themselves in the earthly pleasures they would soon give up for the forty-day period of Lent preceding Easter, Pre-Lenten carnivals also quickly became moments for “permissible” social transgression—men could dress as women, women as men, the rich masquerade as poor, and the poor crowned as kings and queens for a day. While this kind of role reversal—what scholars have termed “social inversion”—undoubtedly has been a central part of Pre-Lenten festivities throughout their long history, many historians recently have sought to bring more nuance to the discussion of Carnival. Particularly when so many of the most famous Pre-Lenten festivals take place in former slave-holding colonies of the Americas, it is likely that the participation of enslaved people and free people of color in these carnival celebrations differed considerably from the dominant narrative throughout the celebration’s centuries-long history.

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Urban Enslavement in New Orleans Tour: The Development Process
Urban Enslavement in New Orleans Tour: The Development Process

Learn about the development process for the latest offering from HGGHH. Voted one of the best tours in New Orleans by Condé Nast Traveler!

A century after the first enslaved Africans landed on the shores of Virginia, enslaved persons arrived to a newly founded French colony, La Nouvelle Orleans, in 1719. By 1830, the population of enslaved persons made up one third of New Orleans’ total population. Urban enslavement in New Orleans greatly influenced the Crescent City’s status as one of the most African cities in the western hemisphere, and these contributions are ever-present through the city’s celebrated culture.

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The Books and Cooks of Nineteenth-Century Creole Cuisine
The Books and Cooks of Nineteenth-Century Creole Cuisine

Over the course of the nineteenth century, cookbooks, often authored by women, became increasingly popular throughout the United States, including in the South. An 1839 article from the Daily Picayune commented on the trend: “Once, our smart damsels and grave madams gave us sentimental confectionary in the form of novels; but now they give us the science of gastronomy, that comes home to our bosoms three times a day.”

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The Nineteenth-Century Bathing Environment
The Nineteenth-Century Bathing Environment

Imagine living through a New Orleans summer without being able to take a refreshing shower?

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Keeping Cool in the Big Easy
Keeping Cool in the Big Easy

Though year to year the date may change, as soon as the end of spring nears, you can hear the constant whirling sound of external air conditioning units in neighborhoods throughout New Orleans. In nineteenth-century New Orleans, however, citizens were not so fortunate.

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A Creole Christmas in the Nineteenth Century
A Creole Christmas in the Nineteenth Century

There’s no question that the residents of the Hermann-Grima and Gallier Historic Houses lived through times of staggering change: industrialization, immigration, industrialization, and a Civil War that resulted in the death of 620,000 soldiers and the liberation of four million enslaved Americans. What does this have to do with Christmas?

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#SaveYourStuff
#SaveYourStuff

This week The American Library Association, along with institutions around the country, are celebrating preservation! We join them in advocating for the care of artifacts like books, letters, photographs, furniture, and other objects that shed light on the past.

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Summer in the City
Summer in the City

Summer in New Orleans means a hot, humid, almost oppressive environment settles in over the city for a long four months. Today residents can shut the doors and windows, turn on their air conditioning unit, and relax away from the unbearable heat.

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