Julia Reed's House in New Orleans

As a child, I never cared a whit about Barbie. It was her dream home I was obsessed with. Now at last I had my own.

Written by Julie Reed in her book, The House on First Street

Writer Julia Reed bought her first house - a Greek Revival home in New Orleans - at the age of forty-four. She and her husband John Pearce moved in shortly before Hurricane Katrina ravaged their city, but a contractor inflicted more damage on the house than did the storm. Reed's 2008 book, The House on First Street, details the destruction created by both the broken levees and the man she had hired to restore her home, which was one of the first built in the Garden District of New Orleans. Photos of the house appeared in Elle Decor in September 2012, and I share them below, along with additional pictures I found on Zillow. After living on First Street for nearly a decade, Reed wrote in the October/November 2013 edition of Garden and Gun that she and Pearce are selling the house. "There are plenty of reasons," Reed pens in her article, "Stuff, Sweet Stuff." "There's the fact that I've accumulated at least four more boxes full of house mags in the last eight years, and I'm antsy for a new project. There's the murderous rage that's reignited almost every time I rip my hand open on the multiple flayed doorknob screws courtesy of my disastrous contractor . . . Mostly, though, there was the instinct to . . . shake things up . . . before the house itself became too much of its own thing."

Julia Reed and John Pearce may be moving on - although Zillow indicates that the real estate listing for the First Street house was removed on April 7, 2013 - but here are photos of the house Reed describes in her book as "my one true home" . . .  

“The Greek Revival house [home of writer Julia Reed and her husband, lawyer John Pearce] was built circa 1847 in New Orleans's Garden District.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

Anne Rice, author of Interview with the Vampire, once owned the house across the street from Julia Reed's First Street home. 

Note from House on First Street: "I'd read The Witching Hour just before I'd arrived in New Orleans that first summer, and had been completely hooked by its descriptions of the 'townhouse on the corner' with its 'white fluted columns' and 'tapering keyhole doorway.' . . . I never imagined that almost every description, from the 'plaster medallions fixed to the high ceilings' and the floor's 'heart pine boards' to the 'long silk draperies' and 'carved marble fireplaces,' could someday be used to describe a house I would actually live in, or that it would be across the street from the one I was reading about." 

Here is a picture of Anne Rice's former home on First Street:

Photo obtained from Zillow website.

 “In the front parlor of Julia Reed and John Pearce's home in New Orleans, a 19th-century lacquer cocktail table is flanked by a pair of English Regency faux-bamboo benches upholstered in a Claremont fabric; the Italian-marble mantel is original to the house, and the gilt mirror and painted chairs are antique. The chandelier is from New Orleans Auction Galleries, the side table belonged to Reed's great-grandmother, and the walls are painted in Farrow and Ball's Sutcliffe Green.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

Note from The House on First Street: "More than a year before we laid eyes on the house, I had bought (on the layaway plan at a local antique store) the parcel gilt bamboo Regency benches I now knew would go in the front parlor."

 “The pochoir prints in the front parlor are by Eugène Alain Séguy, and the olive-wood chest is Italian; the curtains are of a Claremont silk, and the heart-pine flooring is original.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

Photo obtained from Zillow website.

“Reed in the sunroom; the table is covered in a Rogers and Goffigon linen with Clarence House fringe.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

“The sunroom sofa is slipcovered in a cotton duck, and the armchairs are upholstered in Bennison's Crewelwork linen; the cocktail table is painted in Benjamin Moore's River Blue, and the lamp is by Roy Hamilton.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

Note from The House on First Street: "I'd been carrying around a swatch of Bennison 'Crewelwork' linen like a talisman for almost fifteen years."

Here is another view of the sunroom.
Photo obtained from Zillow website.

“The dining room's Federal table is surrounded by painted Louis XVI chairs; the chandelier is Rococo Revival, the mirror is late-18th-century French, the curtains are of a Claremont silk, and the walls are painted in Benjamin Moore's Fort Pierce Green.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

A different view of the dining room.
Photo obtained from Zillow website.

Note from The House on First Street: "[M]y good friend, the extraordinarily talented John Alexander had painted us an amazing oil - I call it a 'still-life on acid' - featuring: skittering shrimp, dozens of oysters, a redfish, a catfish, and a crab; a watchful turkey buzzard, one of my beloved crows, and an ibis; along with garlic bulbs, grape clusters, and even a few stalks of cotton in the background. We hung it over the dining room mantel where it reminded me of the Audubon crow and crab that I loved so much."

“The kitchen's vent hood and range are by Southbend.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

“The cabinetry in the butler's pantry is painted in Ball Green by Farrow and Ball, the countertop is pine, and the sink and fittings are by Waterworks.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

Another view of the kitchen.
Photo obtained from Zillow website.

“The library features faux-bois-painted cabinetry and shelving, an armchair covered in a Claremont velvet, and a pair of Queen Anne chairs that belonged to Reed's great-grandmother; artworks on left include, from top, a William Christenberry photograph, a 19th-century map of Mississippi, and an Audubon print.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

 “The couple's beagle, Henry, sits on an Aubusson rug atop a Beauvais sisal in a guest room; the suzani is from Afghanistan, and the walls are painted in Benjamin Moore's Elephant Tusk.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

Note from The House on First Street: "[W]hen John and I bought the house, part of the whole real-life plan had been to eventually adopt a beagle, the dog I had always wanted and never been allowed to have."

Another view of the bedroom.
Photo obtained from Zillow website.

“The guest bath tub and fittings are by Waterworks, the early-19th-century prints are of Napoléon and Pope Pius VII, and the stool is Chinese.”

Photography by William Waldron.

“Affair of the Heart” by Julia Reed.

Elle Décor (September 2012).

Note from The House on First Street: "I was armed with an especially dangerous piece of pornography known as the Waterworks catalog." 

Photo obtained from Zillow website.

Photo obtained from Zillow website.