Madame John's Legacy
New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Marker Inscription
Residence of Don Manuel Lanzos, Captain of the Spanish Army. Erected 1788 in the French colonial style, Robert Jones, an American, builder. Site of the birthplace of Renato Beluche (1781-1860), a lieutenant of Jean Lafitte's Baratarians, who participated in the Battle of New Orleans, later Admiral of the Venezuelan Navy. The house was referred to as "Madame John's Legacy" in Geo. W. Cable's story 'Tite Poulette' in 1879. An earlier house was erected on part of this site about 1725 by Jean Pascal., a sailor killed in the Natchez Massacre in 1729, and occupied by his widow until her death in 1777. The house was presented to the Louisiana State Museum by Mrs. Stella Hirsch Lemann on June 23,1947. Restored in 1974.
Erected by Orleans Parish Landmarks Commission
The Story
Known as 'Madame John's Legacy,' this French colonial home was built in 1788 for the Spanish army captain Don Manuel Lanzos, on a site occupied since about 1725. It was the birthplace of Renato Beluche (1781–1860), a Baratarian associate of Jean Lafitte who fought in the Battle of New Orleans and later became an admiral in the Venezuelan navy. The earlier house here belonged to Jean Pascal, a sailor killed in the 1729 Natchez uprising, and the property took its literary nickname from a George W. Cable story before passing to the Louisiana State Museum.
Why it matters
One of the oldest surviving buildings in the Mississippi Valley, it embeds New Orleans's tangled French, Spanish, and American story in a single roofline.
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Related people
- · Don Manuel Lanzos
- · Renato Beluche
- · Jean Pascal
Related events
- · Natchez uprising
- · Battle of New Orleans
Themes & tags
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