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(Photograph by Lake Douglas)
Integrating Creole and American forms, this house represents southern Louisiana’s unique and creative solution to the blending of local traditions and new fashions and influences. One-and-a-half stories in height, the stucco-covered house, of brick-between-posts construction, is shaded by an abat-vent on iron brackets, and a small single dormer with pilasters and arched top pierces the gable roof. However, the slightly recessed central entrance with fanlight and the Ionic pilasters marking the ends of the facade reveal the builder’s taste for stylistic innovation. The house was built for commission merchant Antoine Boutin, but financial problems forced him to sell it to W. C. C. Claiborne II in 1845. The house is also known as the Flettrich House for a later owner.
On the opposite side of the street (1436 Pauger Street) is a fine example of earlier traditions, a stucco-covered Creole cottage of brick-between-posts construction built by Jean-Louis Dolliole for his family in 1820. Its charm also lies in its unusual outline, which exactly fits the curved configuration of the wideangled corner site.