The house at Longue Vue
New Orleans

The house at Longue Vue and its eight acres of gardens were created for Mr. Edgar Bloom Stern, a New Orleans cotton broker and his wife, Edith Rosenwald Stern, an heir to the Sears Roebuck estate. Mr. and Mrs. Stern were prominent members of the New Orleans community, extremely active civically and philanthropically. Longue Vue House and Gardens strives to continue the philanthropic legacy of its founders, the mission of Longue Vue being, “to use the historical and artistic legacy of Longue Vue and its creators to educate and inspire people to pursue beauty and civic responsibility in their lives.”

Ellen Biddle Shipman, the designer of the gardens at Longue Vue, was often referred to as the “Dean of American women landscape architects”. Though her client list included such prominent names as Rockefeller, duPont and Ford, Mrs. Shipman had a philosophy regarding gardening that was very much in keeping with the democratic leanings of the Sterns, who believed in using their resources to help individuals learn to empower themselves. Mrs. Shipman was quoted as having said that: “Gardening opens a wider door than any other of the arts-all mankind can walk through, rich or poor, high or low, talented and untalented. It has no distinctions, all are welcome.” She was an outspoken advocate for women in the field of landscape architecture and ran an all-woman firm in New York in the 1920’s. She began her work on the gardens at Longue Vue in 1934 (at the age of 65) and was retained by the Sterns as an advisor until her death in 1950. Most of the gardens that Mrs. Shipman designed for the Sterns are still intact today or have been recently restored to the original Shipman plans.

William and Geoffrey Platt, sons of Charles Platt, the New Hampshire architect who was Mrs. Shipman’s mentor and associate, designed the house at Longue Vue, which is a variant of the Classical Revival style. Longue Vue, originally built in 1924, was rebuilt by the Platt brothers in 1939 because after five years of working with Mrs. Shipman the Sterns felt that the house no longer related to the beautiful gardens that she had created. The Platts were also instrumental in augmenting the Shipman designs after her death. The design work of the Platt’s was largely inspired by a trip taken with Mrs. Stern to Spain and Portugal in the early 1960’s. By this time Mrs. Stern had conceived of the idea of opening Longue Vue to the public.

The gardens at Longue Vue are: The Pan Garden (Shipman), featuring a statue of Pan, greek god of nature and ‘Margo Koster’ polyantha roses; The Portico Gardens (Shipman), formal boxwood parterres softened by a mixed border planting accented with standard roses and gardenias; The Yellow Garden (the only garden designed by Mrs. Stern herself), inspired by a trip to a “gold garden” in England, The Spanish Court (Platt), formal boxwood parterres and a great expanse of lawn, accented by fountains, inspired by Generalife Gardens of Grenada, Spain; The Canal Garden (Platt), inspired by the Quinto do Cabo near Lisbon, Portugal; The Goldfish or Johnson Pond, a shady pond garden; The Walled Garden (Shipman), a colonial style walled garden planted with herbs and vegetables, The Wild Garden (Shipman), one acre of species indigenous to Southeastern Louisiana featuring plant selections by famed Louisiana naturalist Caroline Dormon; and the Discovery Garden (added in 1998), a learning garden for children.