Audrey Fullerton-Samora of Sacramento, great niece of William and Grace McCarthy, donated the William M. McCarthy Photograph Collection to the California State Archives in 1996
Date Created and/or Issued
6/16/1934
Publication Information
California State Archives, a division of the California Secretary of State's Office
Caption: "First Apt. House in America -- New Orleans -- Jun 16, 34." One of the Pontalba Buildings occupies the right side of this photograph. These large, matching, red brick buildings, constructed in the late 1840s by Baroness Micaela Almonester Pontalba, form two sides of Jackson Square in New Orleans' French Quarter. Popular belief holds that these are the oldest continuously-rented apartment buildings in the U.S. However, that assertion has been challenged by historians who state that the buildings served as row houses for almost a century, not functioning as apartment buildings until the 1930s.
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