The current owner of Hermann-Grima house is the Woman’s Exchange (TWE). It was acquired by the Christian Woman’s Exchange (the former name of the Woman’s Exchange) in 1924 from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who had acquired it from the Grima family. The Christian Woman’s Exchange was chartered in 1881, the first association organized and chartered in the City of New Orleans by women for women. Its purpose was to help impoverished women help themselves by providing a place for them to sell things made from their own hands. In addition to a shop, rooms were rented to women needing a place to live.
Around 1963, TWE began to think of the house itself as a possible purpose for the organization. The open hearth kitchen was restored in 1967 and in 1971 the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Finally, in 1972, TWE voted to change its purpose “to develop and maintain the historic Hermann-Grima House by collecting, preserving and interpreting aspects of life and history in New Orleans during the period 1830-1860” and began admitting visitors to the house.
Although the interpretation of the house is primarily based on the period 1830-1860, recognizing that its own ownership of the house contributes to the history of the house, TWE reinterpreted one if the upstairs bedrooms to reflect the boarding house years of the early to mid twentieth century.