Old French Court-yard, New Orleans, LA, 1908

About this postcard

A brick-paved courtyard is enclosed by two-story wooden galleries with shutters, a large palm rising from a circular bed at the center. A woman in a long skirt stands near a doorway, giving scale to the shaded space. The galleries and shutters reflect the Creole building traditions of New Orleans, where interior courtyards brought light and air into dense blocks of the old city. The scene reads as a private residential courtyard rather than a public square, with the palm and surrounding galleries creating a sheltered, domestic setting.