As a National Historic Landmark, Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, LA, has beautifully preserved and kept their gardens for public enjoyment for many years. Not long after Hurricane Katrina, the Garden Conservancy sent a team of volunteers and funded a landscape renewal plan. We also placed a Marco Polo Stufano Fellow in residence in 2008 to implement initial phases of restoration and reclaim the original design brilliance of landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman. Today, visitors to Longue Vue enjoy tours of the home and gardens, community educational programs, and look to Longue Vue and its gardens as a venue for small business and social gatherings.

For more information, visit longuevue.com.

Timeline

2017

Longue Vue is announced as one of the Top Ten North American Gardens Worth Traveling For by the Canadian Garden Council and the American Public Gardens Association. The honor is given as part of the Garden Tourism Conference and recognizes those that contribute to and excel in creating partnerships between gardens and tourism.

2016

Longue Vue begins updating the plant collections digital mapping system to include the Louisiana Iris, Camellia, Japanese Azalea, and Native Plant Collections.

2015

Rizzoli publishes Longue Vue House and Gardens book in November.

2014

A gift shop is relocated back to its original space and the Whim House is restored to its original purpose as a guest house.

2012

The gardens move beyond restoration into refinement stage.

2009

The Vermont Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects presents an Excellence award to Heritage Landscapes for the Renewal Plan for Longue Vue House & Gardens.

2008

Paul Cady, a Garden Conservancy Marco Polo Stufano Fellow, researches, plans, and begins restoration of five garden areas, demonstrating that the garden is capable of attaining its former luster.

2007

We raise significant funds to support the initial landscape assessment, planning phase, and the final Historic Landscape Renewal (HLR) Manual in partnership with Heritage Landscapes, LLC. The HLR is a long-term, holistic, phased approach to restore Ellen Biddle Shipman's original landscape design intent.

2006

The Garden Conservancy sends a volunteer team of horticultural experts to assist with the garden clean-up and restoration. Work includes turning over a cover crop in the parterres, removing dead shrubs, preparing for replanting, work in the east lawn, Discovery Garden, entry court, and a shrub border along the oak allee. Longue Vue becomes a preservation garden partner.

2005

Designated a National Historic Landmark in April. Four months later, Hurricane Katrina causes extensive damage.

1990

Longue Vue embarks on 12 years of significant garden and infrastructure restoration to ensure its health and historic authenticity.

1935

Edgar and Edith Stern begin the construction of Longue Vue, one of the last great houses of the American Architectural Renaissance. Encompassing 8 acres, the house and gardens reflect the collaborative artistic and design vision of the Sterns, architects William and Geoffrey Platt, and landscape designer Ellen Biddle Shipman, who was called "the dean of American women in landscape architecture" by House & Garden magazine in 1934. The project is completed seven years later.