New Orleans Architecture Scavenger Hunt

LIEP student Andy Uscilowski

LIEP Instructor Christina Indovina

Houses in New Orleans are different from houses in other cities in the United States. Christina Indovina, an instructor in the Loyola Intensive English Program (LIEP), recently took her Culture Class on a scavenger hunt to discover various types of typical New Orleans houses in the Marigny, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city.

Christina's class chose the Marigny because it is filled with brightly-colored typical New Orleans houses and because it was populated by Creoles and free people of color in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The students found Creole cottages, shotgun houses (with rooms directly behind one another so that you could shoot a bullet straight through the front door and out the back door), camelbacks (shotguns with an additional story toward the rear of the house), and houses that did not fit into any specific category.

Below is an account by LIEP student Andy Uscilowski of Poland about his architectural findings on the scavenger hunt.

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ARCHITECTURAL SCAVENGER HUNT by Andy Uscilowski

I chose this house because it is original and because it reminds me of a Polish house. Also, I like huge houses, so this building caught my attention. This building doesn't fit into any classification: it's not a shotgun or a camelback. It's just a huge unique house. Houses on the other side of the street are small. Most are just single shotgun houses, so this house "stands out from the crowd."

This house is big and unique as well. I like it, not only because of the size, but also because of the bright blue color. Once again, this house doesn't fit into any classification. The surrounding houses are pretty big, like this one, but none are so colorful.

The last building I photographed is a typical shotgun double. These colors remind me of a house from a fairy tale. I think that  the colors -- blue, white, and red -- are harmoniously arranged. Almost all of the houses on this street are single or double shotguns.

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Our thanks to LIEP student Andy Uscilowski for sharing his architectural scavenger hunt findings with us and to LIEP instructor Christina Indovina for initiating this project.

Our next post will reflect on the Culture Class's visit to the U.S. Mint in the French Quarter, where they explored an exhibit titled "RACE: Are we really so different?"