City Living, but Make It Country: Sprawling New Orleans Estate Is Listed for $4.8M

An architectural gem in New Orleans is making quite the entrance onto the real estate market.

Built in 1966 on a three-quarter-acre lot, the house is described in the listing as a “country estate in the middle of the city.”

“It’s one of the largest lots I have seen in Uptown or the Garden District,” says listing agent Meredith Strachan, of McEnery Residential. “This is really one of the most exceptional properties I’ve ever listed. It’s so private. A lot of people don’t even know it’s there. It’s behind a brick wall.”

The rare property has already gotten plenty of attention, with the listing receiving “more social-media press on it than I’ve ever had,” Strachan says.

She’s co-listing the property for $4,775,000 with Ansley Seaver Marshall. The notable home has had just one owner, local attorney and art collector, Thomas Lemann, who recently died at the age of 97.

The property, designed by former dean of Tulane School of Architecture, John W. Lawrence, has five bedrooms, six full baths and two half baths. Four of the bedrooms feature en suite baths. The primary suite is on the home’s ground level, and the other bedrooms are upstairs—a layout that provides a lot of flexibility.

There’s also a glass-enclosed atrium, many built-in bookcases, a den, study, and library. The wine cellar and two cigar humidors in the basement will likely impress connoisseurs.

A detached, one-bedroom, one-bath guesthouse above the garage is connected to the house via a breezeway.

For inspiration, Lawrence traveled twice to the South of France to study the region’s Mediterranean villas.

Estate for entertaining

The 57-year-old home has never changed hands and “is in much better condition than I anticipated it to be,” Strachan says. “Within the past eight years, [the sellers] fully upgraded the HVAC system. All of the electrical is in great shape. They just put in a generator.”

The kitchen was last updated with high-end, stainless steel appliances in the 1990s, but the next owners might want to modernize the space a bit.

The home has a three-car garage and enough parking for eight vehicles in the motor court. This sleek abode could be a good fit for a buyer who likes to entertain—or one with a large family.

Lush landscape

The landscape was designed by Northern California landscape architect Robert Royston, and the property includes two additional lots that could be built out. The outdoor space includes a pool with a deck and cabana.

When the house was built, it was designed around an oak tree at the center of the motor court, as well as the sprawling oak in the back garden. Both are still standing.

“They are really a showpiece of the property,” Strachan says.

Location is another selling point. This home is near Tulane University and Audubon Park, in an area of New Orleans that Strachan deems “one of the best places to live.”

The home’s roomy size has already proven to be a draw for potential buyers.

“A lot of the interest we’ve seen is from young families that have three or more children,” Strachan reveals. “They tend to want everything fully renovated. It depends how deep you want to go. My suggestion is [that] somebody just acquire the property, because it’s such a rare property. When people get in there, you can see the stars in their eyes, the ideas flowing. They can see themselves living there.”

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