NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) — Designer and local literary figure Rosemary James’ Uptown home is as close as a modern person would likely get to experiencing Mount Olympus, the mythological home of the gods of the ancient world.
The Queen Anne-style, newly renovated house near Audubon Park displays images of many of the Greek and Roman gods found in Renaissance and Baroque artwork. Diana, the huntress and goddess of the moon, is the home’s patron deity, James said, but it’s the mischievous winged siblings of Cupid who steal the show. They stand poolside and inhabit almost every room of the lavishly decorated, 4,000-square-foot house.
There are so many images of putti — the Italian word for the winged, male infants that James adores — that her late husband, Joseph DeSalvo, nicknamed their home the Putti Palace.
Guests even dine looking at putti. When a set of china decorated with “frolicking” putti showed up at auction, James leapt into action.
“I was on that like butter on bread,” she recalled. “Joe and I both liked crystal and china.”
She did the same for the living room’s prized artwork: an 18th-century painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds of Cupid.
“I think I stole it,” James said. “I don’t think everybody is as obsessed with putti as I am.”
The manipulative expression of Reynolds’ Cupid says it all. A trickster relative of the sweet son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, his arrows alter lives, not necessarily in a happy-ever-after sort of way.
The two-story house was built in 1910. When James and DeSalvo purchased it in October 2019, it needed extensive renovation to meet their needs and aesthetic. When completed, it provided enough space for James’ vast collection of European antiques and objects d’art.
A bust of Apollo lords over the center hall staircase. A bronze statue of Fortuna, goddess of luck, sits upon her wheel above a manysided shower in the primary bathroom. Most rooms require passing under customdesigned transoms depicting Diana with her crescent moon. Paintings of Venice’s romantic canals cover a library wall. Images of swans embellish furniture, sculpted lions guard doorways and gold-leafed mirrors glitter in every room.
Neoclassical daybeds, chairs, tables and desks representing three centuries of master craftsmanship provide for lounging or holding smaller works of art. Crystal chandeliers, some 200 years old, dazzle overhead. Bronze sconces provide extra light, and velvety fabrics outline windows.
“I was like a bird all my life,” James said. “I had no children, so every time I went out, I’d bring a string back to my nest.”
James loves antiques and classicism, but practicality shares equal focus. Practicality drove the acquisition of this particular house when the couple began searching for a replacement for the French Quarter building that they called home for 30 years.
The founding owners of Faulkner House Books on Pirates Alley, and founders of the Pirates Alley Faulkner Society and its Word and Music Festival, James and DeSalvo decided to sell the business and move on when a severe spinal condition made living in a four-story building difficult for DeSalvo. He needed an elevator to reach their residence above the bookstore, and there was no practical way to install one, James said.
When house hunting, they searched for space to install an elevator. This one provided that. James disliked the Dutch Revival element of the front façade, but she liked the allee of tea olive trees and the extra tall wrought-iron fencing across the front. DeSalvo selected this house from six properties James proposed.
The house must have exuded a literary vibe to DeSalvo, much like the French Quarter building did because William Faulkner himself lived and wrote there. During the renovation, James learned that the family of Tom Lowenburg, co-owner of Octavia Books, another local independent bookstore, lived in it for 40 years.
“It was sort of serendipity,” she said, “that two bookstore owners would live in the same house.”
The renovation included rewiring, plumping updates, repainting inside and out, adding two bathrooms upstairs and Victorian embellishments such as corbels, ornate door casings and diamond-paned windows. The extensive installation of classic marble in all bathrooms and the kitchen drove much of the construction schedule because of the high demand for the installer.
“I didn’t want to lose my place in the marble line,” she said.
Period-appropriate mantels replaced big boxstore replicas. A decorative artist created the Diana transoms, stenciled the library ceiling and applied a Shagreen pattern to the library walls. He also copied an expensive Venetian painting onto a screen to hide the library’s television. James herself designed custom furniture, bookcases, pocket doors and a fountain wall for chubby-cheeked putti.
She chose Benjamin Moore’s Winds Breath to paint the exterior. The French blue shutters are Lulworth Blue No. 89, Farrow & Ball. Her go-to trim color is Chantilly Lace of the Moore line, a “really good, all-purpose white,” she said. Kitchen cabinets and some interior walls got variations of green, a compromise color for the couple.
James also returned the first floor to its original design.
Walls separating the center hall foyer from the living area and the dining area from the kitchen had been removed at some point in the house’s 110-year life. She replaced the wall space.
Now the foyer is again clearly a landing space that directs those entering from the front door in one of three directions: left to the public areas of living, dining and food preparation; up a staircase on the right to the second-floor bedrooms, or straight ahead to a hallway that separates the dining room and kitchen from a library and full bath on the right side of the house.
“This whole trend of everything being open is a stupid trend,” James said. “Everyone can see the mess in the kitchen, and it’s costly to heat and cool.”
Upstairs, six bedrooms became three: a primary and two for guests. Another room became a dressing room, which could double as an overflow bedroom if needed. One of the bedrooms became a primary bath, which includes a cabana-style shower. She added a rear exit and utility closet.
“Every house I have had, there was the question of where to put the mop,” James said.
She lived with her husband in the house until DeSalvo’s death in December 2020, seven months after moving in.
Since his death, James has continued to improve the property. She turned a former garage into a rentable guest house and spends hours a day maintaining the extensive gardens around the pool and driveway.
“It’s like farming back there,” she said.
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The New Orleans Advocate.
