523 St. Ann Street
Lower Pontalba Building
New Orleans, LA 70116
GET DIRECTIONS
Tuesdays–Sundays
9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Last ticket sale at 3:30 p.m.
Closed on Mondays and state holidays
504-524-9118
800-568-6968
$5 for Adults
$4 for Senior Citizens, Active Military, and Students
FREE for Children 6 and Under
Receive a 20% discount when purchasing tickets for two or more Louisiana State Museums. School groups are FREE with reservations. Groups of 15 or more with reservations receive a 20% discount. AAA Members receive a 10% discount.
The 1850 House is on the National Register of Historic Places, and as such, cannot fully adapt to be wheelchair accessible. However, the Museum Store, courtyard, and ground-floor exhibitions are wheelchair accessible. If you have any questions about planning your visit, please contact our office at 504-568-6968 or email [email protected].
Join Friends of the Cabildo for daily, two-hour walking tours of one of the oldest communities in the United States—the historic Vieux Carré of New Orleans. Tours are conducted seven days a week, and twice daily at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. with the exception of state holidays. Purchase tickets online at friendsofthecabildo.org or on-site at the 1850 House Museum Shop.
The 1850 House currently has these education resources available for students, teachers, and families:
- Field Trips
- Lesson Plans
Part of the Lower Pontalba Building on Jackson Square, this rowhouse represents mid-nineteenth-century life in New Orleans. Visitors encounter the stories of the Baroness de Pontalba—the remarkable woman who oversaw construction of the building—and the people who lived here in the 1850s, including enslaved workers and Irish immigrant servants. Highlights include furniture and decorative objects made in New Orleans and a kitchen with a cast-iron range.
The 1850 House doesn’t represent any single family’s house, rather, it reflects mid-19th century prosperity, taste, and daily life in New Orleans. The house is furnished with art and décor that speak to that era as well, including a set of John Slidell’s china, Old Paris porcelain, New Orleans silver, and dozens of notable paintings and furnishings that, taken as a whole, transport you back in time.
Located at the front of the museum, the 1850 House Museum Store helps support the Louisiana State Museums through sales of daily tours and merchandise. Many books with topics including history, food, hauntings, architecture, and children's stories are available as well as handmade art, jewelry, pottery, and crafts from local Louisiana artists. The online store is also available here!
The 1850 House Museum Store is operated by Friends of the Cabildo–a private, non-profit volunteer group providing financial and volunteer support for the Louisiana State Museums, its projects, and its properties since 1956.
1850 House History
Standing on opposite sides of Jackson Square, the Upper and Lower Pontalba buildings were designed and financed by the Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba. Her father, Don Andrés Almonester y Roxas, was a Spanish colonial landowner who helped finance The Cabildo, St. Louis Cathedral, and The Presbytère.
Inspired by the imposing Parisian architecture the Baroness favored, the distinctive rowhouses were intended to serve as both elegant residences and retail establishments. In 1921, the Pontalba family sold the Lower Pontalba Building to philanthropist William Ratcliffe Irby, who bequeathed it to the Louisiana State Museum in 1927.
